VL rivets

[Grumpa]

Good morning!
Any idea what would be the correct rivet to attach a 3807-30 front chain guard rear bracket to the 3801-34 front chain guard?

Sadly, my 1939 Spare parts book is less than clear at this point.

[Grumpa]

Okay, I'm going to go on the assumption that the rear bracket rivets are the same as the front. IMG_1170.jpg, if so then the rivets have similar characteristics to the ones used as dowel pin (41485-30) for the rear wheel sprocket on Pans & Shovels. IMG_1172.jpg They're both 1/4" diameter round head with a 3/16" diameter shank. I knew there was a reason I saved those.

[Steve Slocombe]

Yes, that looks like an 0306 or 0307 Harley part number. 0307 would be safer as you could take them down if a shade too long.

[Grumpa]

Speaking of old rivets, I just had a paradigm shift in my understanding of how the installation process has changed over time. Modern installation has the rivet set designed for the "as manufactured by the vendor" head, while you form the tail with a bucking bar.

It never made sense to me that the designations on the antique rivet sets didn't come close to the rivets.

That's because they used the sets on the "shop" or "formed" head, opposite of today. So for the above application for example, the set designation would be something like 3/16" or a 6R (for 6/32 round head) waaaaay larger than anything on a 3/16" rivet installation now.

[jim d]

That is correct. The old rivet sets were always used by the person doing the riveting to finish off the shop formed head. On a properly hand formed head of the proper size for the rivet a rivet set will pull the sides of the formed head down to make it even tighter. I have a couple dozen of those sets and it is important to chose the correct sized one to finish off the formed head. I have put in thousands of rivets by hand in my field and the appearance of the finished product was very important so the hand formed head needed to look very good.