15-12-2022, 09:06 AM
I totally agree with the use of body mastic unless you are a purist and making the car just as they did”in the day” with no protection apart from a bit of chassis black paint! I have to admit when rebuilding Chitti that I used my experience from the fastener industry and used what are known as “structural blind closed end rivets”. They are put in from one side and are sealed on the other side. Ok there is witness of the central pin(which breaks flush) but even that can be hidden with a spot of filler so if smoothed looks like a solid rivet head, the other (blind)side is clenched and sealed and does not look unlike a solid rivet, the only downside is that you need to use a proper riveting tool to do it, and the hand operated ones are quite cumbersome. The rivets are even available in stainless steel (very hard work and expensive unless you have friends in the trade!)
David
David