Rivet Help

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CatfishJay1119

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Hello everyone I'm in the bit of a rivet predicament I'm having trouble removing them and any advice on what tools to use and proper technique would be a great help. I have a drill and bits, punches and hammer they are just not budging any advice would be appreciated :D. Also these look like solid rivets to me I'm including some pictures to illustrate.

Thanks
 

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Everyone's got a different way of doing it, here's what I did for mine -

1) Use a press punch (spring loaded punch) to dead center the rivet head.
2) Using a small drill bit, make a shallow pilot hole.
3) Using a LARGE - eg bigger than the rivet head - stepped drill bit (I use the Dewalt bits that are stepped with a smaller tip, then flared to full size), drill into the pilot hole until you drill off the rivet head, leaving the shaft and the punched material.
4) Use an appropriately sized punch, drive the rivet out the opposite side with a few good whacks if necessary. You may need to support the backside of the panel as you drive the rivet through and out.
 
A grinding wheel in your drill or an angle grinder will take the heads off quickly so they can be punched out the other side.

Some of those look like closed end blind rivets, if the rivet head on the other side has a small hole in it then it's a blind rivet.

I guess you're removing a bench seat?
 
Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm going to try again this evening got to get more drill bits since I broke a few yesterday. To answer your question I'm removing all the bench seats out for cleaning and prep before painting. The first bench will be removed completely and decking will go back all the way to the middle bench.
 
I'm starting to get the rivets out. The way I'm doing is starting at the end of the rivet (opposite the head) and drilling straight through them with a bit one size larger that the rivet and they are coming right out. In my case using a Dewault 5/16 titanium but. I've gotten 35 out today got at least 60 or so more.
 

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