loose rivets

[wondering]

I have found a few leaky rivets, and a couple of them are loose.
I put silicone over it yesterday, but if that doesn't work, what type of rivets do I use to fix, do I just grind and drill and rivet?

[REW]

Rivets, need to completely fill the hole between all layers of material. Most boat manufacturers have a rivet available that they consider "oversize". It is one size larger than their "standard" rivet and nicely fills the holes which get larger after being worked a bit by the hull etc.
So the best solution is to locate all of the loose rivets.
Remove what is required so that you can get to both sides of the rivet. Then grind off or drill out the original rivet - being very careful NOT to enlarge the hole. Now, put in the new rivet from the outside. Use an indented (round head) riveting tool on an air hammer or equivalent from the outside of the boat. Use a bucking hammer or plate on the inside of the boat to "rivet" the rivet in place. You want to do the pounding from the outside, to better seat the rivet in the same direction as the stresses will occur on the rivet.
Leak test the boat. Redo any rivets that aren't sealing or new ones found.
Drain the boat and let everything dry out - while you are doing this insure that all drain channels in the floor of the boat are open and can drain the water.
Reinstall everthing back into the boat.

Enjoy.

REW

[Fish mojo]

try these guys. I ended up using 3M 5200.
http://pagebiz.com/bds/aluminum/repair.htm

[LuvFishN2]

If you do end up drilling, use an auotmatic center punch on the cener of the rivet head. This will prevent your drill bit from dancing and scratching the area around or drilling off center on the rivet head. Drill down to the shank. You will probably need a decent size bit, but I wouldn't go much bigger than the hole diameter if possible. The ehad should drill right off or you may need to use a punch to remove it. Then use a punch and pound out the shop head. I can't give you much advice on replacing a rivet, I mostly work with Cherry-Maxes. Bucking a big rivet can be hard if you don't do it much. You may end up drilling them out after you buck them because of a mess up shop head or most likely it's loose. A sheet metal man or an aircraft mechanic if you know of one would be a big help.