Spent a couple hours grinding last night, and grinding and grinding and grinding. Not the end of the world by any means. Ground enough off to pry the shock hangars off. Then did some more grinding, to get the rivets hot...yet apparantly not hot enough. Yes, they did budge, but 4-5 hours later it was nearing midnight and I'd only managed to bang out 5 of the 8 rivets.

Knowing that my neighbors probably did not want to hear the echo of my sledge hammer past midnight, with my truck half in and half out of the garage I knew that the rivets had one the battle, but I WILL WIN THE WAR! Today is a new day.

Removing hanger rivets sucks. When it is all said and done, I may laugh at this...and then I may not. Spent the night in the BED of my truck, to make sure no pesky neighborhhod kids thought it might be fun to pilfer through my garage which had to remain open all night.

Sacto

 

Such is the dedication of the gearhead. I've slept in the shop a few times when the circumstances called for it. One good thing is that you'll probably get an early start.

Good luck & hang in there.

 

Sacto,

On both trucks, I grinded until the stock hangers FELL OFF.

THEN, I grinded the rivets until they were FLUSH with the frame. I already had my very short center punch (rachet socket held with visegrips) and short handled sledehammer ready to go. As I grinded the rivet flush, I IMMEDIATELY began hitting it. Remember, the key to doing this is, the rivet must be FLUSH with the frame (if not, you can "mushroom" the rivet) and extemely hot (more heat and the easier it will come out) when hitting it. If both criteria are not met, you could hit on it for hours and never get it to pop out.

 

I won the war. Removed the last three this morning, after more grinding (flush), more heat and more hammering. I ended up drilling out the last one. After all that, I was paying no attention to my drive shaft, and noticed as I was trying to position the hangers that it had slipped out up front. DARN good thing I noticed this early! Then, with different jacks here and there, moving stands as necessary and a few good grunts and groans...it is finished!

Need to determine which shocks I want out back, have a set of used Belltechs on there now, front feels good...rear could feel better. Looks good, need to do some washing and polishing, take some pix and show everyone the results.

Thanks for all the advice. I would not have done it otherwise!

BTW Iron Horse, I did mushroom one of them, that's the one I ended up drilling out.

Mission Accomplished, back to the honey-do list.
Sacto150

 

Congratulations!

 

Guys I know alot of people grind the rivets off but as one of the guys who has built over a thousand of these frames the correct or approved method set by the manufacturer of the frame (dana spicer) is to drill the rivet through with a slightly smaller size drill bit (make sure its sharp and you use cutting oil) and the take a cold chisel or air hammer and smash the sides in until you can just knock the rivet through. dont remember the whole process sheet for the job but it does go faster this way. trust me I have done my share both ways.

 

Yes, the instruction sheet from Western Chassis does concur that they believe and prefer the chiseling method. Yet there was not much of any specific instruction about how to do that. During the process I thought that a chisel seemed very crazy. Now that I have done this once, and after having drilled out the final rivet, this is what I'd do next time...(but believe me, THERE WILL BE NO NEXT TIME for me doing this).

As I did this time, I'd grind the rivets down to the hanger an then bang or pry the hanger off.

I'd then get a series of drill bits, smaller to larger, and drill out most of the rivet, but not drilling all the way through them.

Finally I'd use a chisel and hammer(s), including a small sledge, with a fabrocated or makeshift driver, to remove them.

I am sure that I could accomplish this again without spending a night in the garage, truck half in and half out!

DRAGGIN' FRAME, where were you two weeks ago when I needed ya? HA! J/K!

Sacto

 

Sorry sacto , I just joined this board last night if you need any help in the future just drop me a line........ I can honestly say I have taken an entire truck aprt COMPLETELY and put it back together more than once. I will post some pics of my baby as soon as i get it presentable its in a state of reconstruction right now

 

Good to have you. I am looking forward to reading your posts. Thanks. Also looking forward to seeing those pictures.

Sacto

 

Got any pics sacto150 yet? If so, show us pweaaaazzzeee...
I am looking to do this to my truck next summer.

 

I shot some pictures, but they came out rather poor. I could send a few individually to anyone wants them, until I get some that look better for use in my yet-to-be-created gallery. Just give me a yell at praaayz@hotmail.com if you want to see them in a hurry. If not...wait for the gallery. It won't be long.

By the way, I am thinking about going with lowering control arms in the front, just thinking...

HA!
Sacto

 

I thought an air chisel was the tool of choice for these rivets.

 

Maybe so, but the Western instructions say hammer and chisel.

 

I always cut a cross in the head and hit it with an air hammer/air chisel. Knocked out like 15 or 20 in about 15 minutes then went back and had a punch attachment for the air hammer and pushed them all out.
Ricky

 

But there are a few of us out here who do not have air tools!