A Riveting Discussion

There are a lot of rivets holding the Avion together, and every single one of them is an opportunity for leaks.  With panels to be replaced, lights installed, rock guard attached, solar panels mounted and more, there are also a lot of new rivets to put in.

There are a few different kinds of rivets. 


David started by using Olympic rivets.  But now we are using buck rivets exclusively.

PROS of Olympic rivets: can be installed by one person. That person just has to have access to one side of the thing being riveted

CONS of Olympic rivets: most of these leaked immediate after installation. So it is hard to have any confidence in them.  They also don't look as nice.

We are now all about the buck rivets. David is even going back and removing most of the Olympic rivets that he installed in recent weeks, but it is really much better to safe than sorry.

Buck rivets take two people, one on either side of the thing being riveted.

It's just better to do it this way. So.many rivets. Weeks of replacing them. I think we are caught up now. 

Cleaning exterior rust stains

There's a fair amount of grime on the camper, and I was really worried about how to clean it without scratching or otherwise ruining the anodized aluminum skin.  Several people on Facebook (the Avion Restoration group page) recommended Bon Ami Orignal and a blue scrubby (no metal!)

  I had to order the special Bon Ami from Amazon, but when it came David instantly tried it out and VOILA!  Worked like a charm.  Thank you Facebook community.

And that's all there is to it.  

BEFORE

AFTER

It's exciting that it took off even the "subtle" rust stains.  I was afraid that it was some kind of irreversible chemical reaction; the stain seemed to part of the skin, not sitting on top of the skin.

SUCCESS!!

In some spots, there is old  caulk plus dirt. For those, David used a heat gun, Goo Gone, and a wooden scraper, followed by Bon Ami.  You can see the results here (this is the street side exterior where the heater vent came out).

Beautiful.