Just bought my van (2010 high top Trafic) to convert to a camper over the winter 🙂

First problem, the back of the van has corrugated plastic on the sides and some kind of plastic ‘plywood’ on the floor. Both of these are riveted to the to the wall / floor. I’m getting windows fitted tomorrow so I’ve started to drill the heads off the rivets on the walls to allow access. This seems to have gone well except that I’ve got the body of the rivets stuck in the holes. These seem fairly firmly in there but I suspect if I hit them with a hammer / punch they’ll come out.

The problem is that quite a few of them go into metal ‘ribs’ that I can’t access the back of, so if I punch them out they’ll presumably rattle around in there making an annoying noise for ever.

Any suggestions? My two thoughts are I could:

– Grind them off square with a dremel thing + maybe a bit of glue to make sure they never fall off. And a bit of red oxide to avoid rust.
– Knock them through and assume I won’t hear them rattle once I’ve insulated the back. Probably a bit of red oxide on the rivet holes.
– Knock them through and squirt some expanding foam in the hole to stop them rattling around.

Pictures below:

they’ve been rivetted from t’other side.

can you not drill them through from that side at all?

is that what you dais you’d done?

if so, then often just be yanked through with some molgrips. Theyre soft aluminium once the steel shank has gone.

I don’t think they can have been riveted fromt he other side – that would be inside of the rib. The pictures above are where i’ve drilled off the head of the rivet to remove the sheeting. I’m now left with the protruding bit.

Oh no they haven’t! Those are the drilled ends remaining after he’s removed the panels.
Your only option is to push them through with a punch. You may be able to manoeuvre the bits out using a big magnet since the other side should contain a steel bobble.
If they have to stay in, then I wouldn’t use foam which will hold water. I’d squirt some Waxoyl or similar in there to hold them still and prevent corrosion.

Ah waxoil – good idea. Screwfix here i come!

aha.
well Id still yank them through with some molgrips then.

They won’t pull through – the head holds them there. And can’t get grips round the back.

the head holds them there

which bit have you drilled, the heads or he backs?

I wondered about using a plug bit to drill around the rivets but you’ve got no real guarantee the ‘plugs’ would fall the way that you wanted them to when you finished.

which bit have you drilled, the heads or he backs?

Explaining it badly! I’ve drilled the bit that faces you when you push the rivet into the hold. i.e. the bit that isn’t squashed when you pull the trigger of the pop rivet gun.

Can you use a bigger drill bit 10mm or the like and drill until the aluminium has gone around the edge and then push through to other side