1967 M38A1 Rear Frame Cross Member Removal

[boucher]

Hello

I'm attempting to remove the rear cross member off my donor A1 frame .

I've used the grinder to remove the heads of the rivets and have attempted to drift the remaining rivets out. I don't want to use excessive force as I do not want to bend/break anything. So far no luck, any ideas?????

Thanks

Peter (Ottawa)

[wesk]

You can try heating the surrounding metal then hammer. Or you can get a hard hitting pneaumatic impact tool and have a friend use a heavy steel bar against the back side of the crossmember skin adjacent to the rivet to back it up better.

[TomM]

It sounds like you are on the right track with the grinding of the heads and banging out the remainder. I had one or two stubborn rivets that also required a little drilling to soften them up. I doubt you will break anything and if you do you can weld and redrill. The rear cross memember is a reasonably forgiving repair.
To assist in replacing it on the other frame, bolt it in place first to line everything up. Then remove one bolt at a time and replace the rivets. Some prople have the tooling to actually secure the rivets but I ended up cutting mine, clamping and welding from the back.
Tom

[wesk]

http://www.bigflatsrivet.com/catalog.html