Panther Sport Aircraft Forums

Ron, yes that is what a few of my rivets looked like, some were worse. Fortunately they were on the “thin” part of the spar so I was able to successfully drill them out and replace them. Don’t try to drill out rivets on the “thicker” sections, it doesn’t work. There is actually a Mil spec guide on rivets that includes fractured rivets. Brad

Brad,
After reading your post it prompted me to re-examine the rivets on my spar. I noticed some very minor cracks on only a few rivets but nothing I felt that was of concern. I have heard of age hardening with rivets but I have no idea how old a rivet can be before it's unusable or exactly what conditions such a rivet would exhibit that would indicate a problem.
I've attached a close-up image of a rivet in my spar that has a very small crack on it's edge.
I hope this helps.

Brad,

If you are using the factory squeezer from Panther, be sure that the shop head is perfectly centered in the squeezer before squeezing. I had the same issue on a few and that was my problem. Don’t stress over it, they won’t fall out!

Barry

Spar riveting is mostly going well...however. I am noticing a few fractured shop heads, the rivet shop heads have a rough surface and there are visible cracks and splitting after setting. I am using the same squeezing technique for all the rivets, most turn out fine. Any thoughts on this, bad rivets, bad technique, bad luck? Brad Carter