willysmjeeps.com

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)

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.

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