The Final Tank Tool
[Update 5/30/2016…Don’t paint the head. It didn’t stick as well as I thought when using it on the “Z” brackets]
One of the tools that one requires to properly finish the fuel tanks is a close quarter pop rivet tool (which are becoming harder to find these days) or even using a close quarter wedge like Cleaveland Tool sells to set the fuel tank rear baffle “Z” bracket pop rivets in place. If neither of these are desirable, you can always grind down the nose of a regular pop rivet tool. That’s exactly what I decided to do. Interestingly enough, I had a spare Stanley MR77C due to me thinking I ruined it once, so I bought another only to discover later the original was OK. So, having two, I committed to converting the “old” one to a close quarter version today.
All I did was grind away at the nose, little by little, until I felt I had the clearance needed to get right on the head of the rivets and adequate clearance from the “Z” bracket side. I made sure to do this while the handles were in the “open” position so that the pulling mandrel was seated in the start or bottomed out part of the nose. Once ground down to my satisfaction, I disassembled the head and cleaned up all the grinder marks to a smooth finish on both the head and the pulling mandrel. Most would call it good at this point…but not me. I decided to spray paint the now paint free surfaces of the head to protect them, which quickly turned into painting the entire head. I actually chose a contrasting color, so as it hangs in the shop next to the unmodified version, I can quickly know which is which. A little overkill to some. Oh well.
As you can see by the bracket above, it’s just right and will set all these dang pop rivets nicely, and I was able to make an ignored tool from the past, a nice useful tool for the near future need. A little bonus is now being able to show the kids and friends how a pop rivet gun works with a cool cutaway version. Was nice to get out to the shop again and do something RV related. No “tool” excuses now getting in the way of finally closing up the tanks for good and moving on. Hopefully soon as the weather is warming and the air is drying here in Utah.