[daveshilling]

As all projects do, plans for mine have grown. I decided to go with the Flatout Engineering C4 IFS, and I've gathered the necessary Corvette parts.

I got stalled with the crossmember rivets and planned to burn them out, but I figured out a safer way to deal with these...

Removing Frame Rivets:

1. Cut a + in the rivet head with cutoff wheel on a grinder
2. stick a freshly sharpened cold chisel into some vise grips to keep your hand clear.
3. Beat the hell out of those rivet heads with a 3 pound hammer until they shear off.

Now many people were able to just punch out the remaining half of the rivet..but not me. Lucky wants me to earn everything.

4. Drill a small hole until you pass the depth of the riveted on material.
- Some of the rivets were not easy to reach directly with a drill. I still drilled these out. I drilled a hole at an angle, and started the small pilt hole closer to the edge of the rivet.

5. Using progressively larger drill bits, I drilled out most or all of the rivet from the crossmember/leaf perch. You can tell you have reach the bottom of the hole left from the smaller drill bit because the bit spins faster suddenly.

6. Using a punch clamped in vise grips, beat out the remaining section with the 3 pound hammer.

I got all rivets out this way! Super stoked that I didnt have to cut any out with a torch.