Panther Sport Aircraft Forums

Posted: **Sat May 03, 2025 1:15 pm**

Posted: **Wed May 15, 2019 10:11 pm**

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

Posted: **Wed May 15, 2019 11:08 am**

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.

IMG_1393-002.JPG

Posted: **Fri Mar 08, 2019 1:18 am**

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

Posted: **Thu Mar 07, 2019 10:03 pm**

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

Panther Sport Aircraft Forums

Spar rivets-fractured shop heads.

Re: Spar rivets-fractured shop heads.

Re: Spar rivets-fractured shop heads.

Re: Spar rivets-fractured shop heads.

Re: Spar rivets-fractured shop heads.

Spar rivets-fractured shop heads.