A Letter

[Intrepidation]

A letter to the engineer who thought to use pop rivets to secure window regulators instead of bolts.

Dear engineer,

If I ever meet you, I will put a rivet through your balls.

Sincerely,

Anyone who has ever had to drill those f@#kers out.

[Intrepidation]

It took nearly 4 hours to remove 4 window regulators using 2 drills and 4 batteries. And many bits. Hate them so much.

[balthazar]

What type; solid, blind, drive...?

I had to replace the original factory ball joints on the B-59, and they were riveted in. Not too bad a procedure, but I had clear access.

Regardless, modern iron is not made for the driveway mechanic to work on, period.

You're lucky yours still has a dipstick.

[Lamar]

DF: was it your Intrepid? If so, given the vintage, don't go near the engineers. Find the nearest bean counter and let 'em have it.

[G. David Felt]

That is what I love about airtools, they have one that pops out those rivets mighty fast. I agree, the bean counters are too blame for this shortcut.

[Intrepidation]

The vehicle in question is a `94 Crown Victoria, same applies for our `93 Grand Marquis, probably all Panther cars.

IIRC the Intrepid's are bolted in, and the Prizm's are. Changing the Prizm's regulator only took me 15 minutes the first time.

[Lamar]

Mid '90s Ford? Yeah, still probably bean counting, unfortunately.

[FAPTurbo]

[daves87rs]

Ouchie...

[SAmadei]

Worst problem I have with drilling rivets is if they spin... if so, I'll either snap a vice grip on the outside ring or put a nick in the ring that I can stop the spinning with a flathead.

OTOH, putting these parts back in with nuts and bolts is a disaster. So I either use clip-on nuts on the part or weld nuts to the part.

Also, I wouldn't use a battery-powered drill... they don't last long enough. Since I assume this is on the parts car Panther, I would use a sharp chisel and BF Hammer. I've taken out rivets in the junkyard in 3-4 hits.

[A Horse With No Name]

Titanium bits are helpful, and yeah, I use a corded drill for stuff like this.....