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Vintage Spartan and some other aircraft style riveted trailers were built with smaller head buck rivets than Airstreams. These "universal head" solid rivets have 0.125" (1/8") diameter bodies and 0.244" heads.
We are offering the Spartan style rivets in 3/8" length and 1/2" length. All our solid rivets are soft 1100F aluminum alloy used on most vintage trailers. The soft alloy is the easiest to buck using the recommended 3x rivet gun.
Preparing round properly sized work holes is essential to prevent leaks. The correct drill bit for preparing the work hole for 1/8" diameter rivets is a #30. We sell many of these special "number size" bits for proper hole sizing.
You may also want to pick up a few dozen 1/8" (copper) clecos for your project.
1/4" rivet lengths are typically enough for clinching up to two sheets of aluminum. 3/8" or 1/2" can clinch more sheets and can be cut to length using our rivet cutter.
It's important to have the proper length so you get enough of a "shop head" on the back side. But if it is too long it bends over rather than creating a nice symmetrical bulge on the back.
Proper Rivet Length = total thickness of all layers being clinched + clinch allowance.
1/8" Rivet Working Specs
