Attach fiberglass body to steel chassis

[RedStar]

Gents,
At some point I'm going to have to reattach the rear fiberglass body of my Star to the steel chassis (once the whole thing has been cleaned and repainted).

What would be the best method of this attachment? Rivet? or maybe I was thinking flush steel rivnut? Maybe something else?

The rivets were a pain to remove (drill out) - and especially in some of the confined areas tucked away in the rear and I cant see a way of getting a rivet gun in there to replace them.

Steel rivnuts would allow me to use button head screws (which look nice in my opnion) and make taking things apart again much easier.

Ideas/comments welcome!

Regards,
Karl

[RedStar]

any ideas?

[Edd]

Rivnuts def good idea, if you ever need to remove them again...

[kdempsie]

Karl,

I am having a similar deliberation with fitting my body work at the moment. The downside really only appears to be the larger holes required for a rivnut, which in my case (J15) will not weaken any of the structural members. All things considered if you think removing it will be required, and the main load bearing chassis members are OK, then I would bolt it on with some nice stainless button head screws.

If you decide to rivet it back on, you can usually get into the hard to reach areas by bending the rivet shank a little to give access. Provided the angle is not too severe they still usually pull up OK.

Keith.