It's now time for me to fit my bonnet catches. I'd planned to use nuts and bolts with large load spreading washers but there are a couple of problems.
One of the catches has to go where I've already glued in the inner pannel in the foot well and so I can't get to the inside surface of the GRP.
Four of the fastenings have to go where the GRP is close to the chassis tubes - not close enough to get a rivnut in properly but not far enough away to get a nut and washer in. Where I can I will use washers but my question is:

Is it OK to rivet to GRP or will it pull through?

You can rivet to GRP but you need special rivets, std pop rivets will pull through.

One of the aircraft types on here will know the name of the rivet that you need, it's on of those that split into 4 segments as you clinch them up.

I've rivetted an ally number plate bracket to my nose cone. I made up another ally plate to go on the inside of the nose cone, so the rivets are actually clamping the aly plates with the GRP sandwiched in between. This seems pretty solid and doesn't stress the GRP by trying to pop the rivet against it.

As it's got to hold your bonnet down make sure it's robust - a couple of people on here have had their bonnets part company with their cars

Cheers

Nick

as nick says, just put a bit of ally on the back and drill through that and get a sandwich with the fibrglass in the middle, this spreads the load onto the fibreglass nicely.

Ned.

Or even easier, use rivet burrs. These are thin washers with the same size hole as the rivet shank placed over the back of the rivet prior to setting. Make your own from washers.

Mick

quote:

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Originally posted by Mix
Or even easier, use rivet burrs. These are thin washers with the same size hole as the rivet shank placed over the back of the rivet prior to setting. Make your own from washers.

Mick

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Belt & braces precaution - use PU adhesive along with the alloy strip. It is suprising how much extra strength this gives to the bond.

Hello...

The correct type of rivet to use is the peel rivet. As you pull the mandrel through, the tail splits into 3 or 4 sections and opens out (like a flower) giving a large bearing surface on the blind side. Should be able to pick em up from your local fastening supplier.

Liam

They're the beauties......thanks Liam!

i have some peel pop rivets here if you only need a few.

Ahhhh, hadn't spotted you on here before, Nuneaton eh! Have you been to the pub meet?

I've found a solution. There are fastenings for each bonnet catch, one of which will go right through the square chassis tube and the other just underneath the tube. These will go through an aluminium plate 30mm by 35mm and will be tightened by nylocks. the lower bolt will pull against the plate and so I don't need to fasten to the GRP any more. In the footwell, they will go through the inner panel as well but as they are so high up, they cannot be seen.
It's a bit of a bodge, but what can't be seen ...

yes back in december.work has stop any recent visits