Thread: Questions: Exmoor Trim seat sets and monel metal rivets.

Are you sure they are monel? This seems a very unlikely material to have been used.
To quote Wikipedia "It is a very expensive alloy, with cost ranging from 5 to 10 times the cost of copper and nickel, hence its use is limited to those applications where it cannot be replaced with cheaper alternatives."

It seems to me very unlikely that it would have been used by Rover. I suggest that they are almost certainly aluminium alloy rivets that originated in the aviation industry. It is even possible that I have some - I have a box of disposals rivets of a variety of types that I picked up at a clearing sale years ago, all still in sealed packages.

Monel would have been a very unsuitable material as well because it would result in electrolytic corrosion of all the other metals it was in contact with - birmabright, steel, and galvanising.

John

Hello from Brisbane.

I would go straight to the source for advice on the seats - email to Exmoor or whoever you propose to buy them through. That way you are more likely to get a more up to date and reliable answer than from someone else's past experience or opinion.

Could save a lot of future grief.

I bought a set from Exmoor for my Series 3 and had to specify that I wanted the pins for the back rests. Otherwise, supposedly they don't fit them. I suspect the early Series 1 seats would typically come without the brackets unless they were specifically asked for. Even then they might not be able to supply them. Hence best to ask direct.

Cheers,

Neil

Thanks Neil

Unfortunately have already waited 5 days for that reply from Exmoor and BMI (the Au agent) cant tell me. BMI tell me to wait till they arrive before getting rid of the originals the problem is that the new seats won't arrive before the 13th when I'm heading north with the original squabs for another enthusiast.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Are you sure they are monel?

<snip>

Hi John, no I'm not 100% sure but they are definitely not aluminium.

G'day Diana,

If they turn out to be Monel they are available from Whitworths Marine as Monel pop rivets. They have imperial sizes however ring and check stock before you go.
Just had a look at Ebay and Monel solid rivets are listed from US.

Aircraft supply companies maybe can help with expired stock at a good price.


Chris

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Hi John, no I'm not 100% sure but they are definitely not aluminium.

Why are you sure they are not aluminium alloy? (They won't be pure aluminium - nobody uses that for fasteners)

I would guess they are some sort of high strength aluminium alloy, but could possibly be some other alloy, perhaps some form of stainless. Rover had been making aircraft parts, and one thing that was then used for this in vast quantities was a wide variety of different aluminium alloy rivets. Some of these would have been alloys such as duralumin, which are far less malleable than typical aluminium alloys or even monel. In fact, some of the rivets I have are so poorly malleable that you can break them with no more plastic deformation than you would see if you broke moderately hard steel.

John

With respect to rivets - solids. Duralamin rivets need to be annealed before use. Apart from anything else they age harden. Once annealed they can be kept in a thermos with dry ice for a day or two until (when driving/hitting) they feel as if they are going off. Then they need to be re-annealed. Annealing is taking them up to the appropriate (accurate) solid solution temperature and then quenching......................and immediately putting them back on dry ice.

Am pretty sure Rover would not have gone to this trouble when producing a car :0)

Modern equivalents are either 2024_T3 or 2017-T3 As I recall 2024 Alclad is joined with 2117 rivets. 2024 and 2017 rivers need heat treatment before use. (Alclad 2024 is duralamin with pure aluminium layer rolled onto each side)

For Birmabrite, and somewhere I have seen the composition, (it is not L76) and I recall, you cannot go to far wrong if you use 2117-T0 rivets.......and I would suggest that just plain ol' 1100 "pures" would do the job. They will harden up and gain strength as they are hit.

Just ensure that when doing the riveting, it is wet assembled using and appropriate jointing compound such as "Duralac", known in the trade as cocky sh.. :0)

cheers

Rick F

as for using "pures" sure do :0)