VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Rear Axle Bumpers

Replacing all of the suspension bumpers on my '41 Special Deluxe. Front ones went OK after having to use a hand clamp to get the bottom A-frame bumpers in - so much for "snap in."

A quick glance at the rear ones led me to believe they are held in place with screws. Now that I have the new bumpers and am getting ready to replace them, it looks like they're actually held in place by rivets. So, what? Am I just going to have to drill the rivets out and use nuts/bolts to put the new ones in?

Hoping for a better solution but I doubt I'm going to get one. Hate drilling out steel while lying on my back.

I just bought new ones for my 38 and was looking at these yesterday.

If they are like mine, the bumper is a roundish rubber disk bonded to a 4" or so long plate with a hole on each end? It appears that the rivets will need to have the heads ground off and and then punched out. My body is off so easy for me. You could drill but the heads have a pretty thick head so my immediate thought was a 4" grinder would have them both off in about 5min but same issue for you working upside down - either shavings from drill or sparks from grinder unfortunately.

"Rivet head bolts" are available so they can look almost the same when you get it back together if that is a concern. I just haven't looked at where to buy but but some of the regular vendors or McMaster may have as I know I've tripped over them in catalogs more than once.

Thanks! That's what I thought. The grinder method sounds quicker and I've already had to use it once under the car (goggles/spark protection, etc. but still end up with a singed beard).

I'm not restoring the car to 100% original - just enough to be fun to cruise around town in, so new rivets or rivet head bolts are out. I'll just use four random but matching nuts and bolts from my slush bucket.

BTW, I hate when manufacturers use rivets and other "permanent" fixtures as if the dang things will never need to be replaced. Makes me want to go back in time to when they're designing it and smack them in the back of the head.

The rivets do look very good and easier during manufacturing but no one expected them to last 80 years lol...

Face shield works well for grinding like this. I also learned years ago to never lock the trigger on a grinder while laying under a car. Had a disk jam, pull the grinder from my hand and then proceed to play "chicken" with a grinder erratically flying around under the car somewhere beside me while trapped under the car. Only opened up a knuckle but won't forget it.

Yeah, may eventually have to invest in a face shield as I plan on doing some welding in the future to repair a couple of rust holes. First, I'll have to remember my welding lessons from back in metal shop in high school (a good 40 years or so ago).

Never lock the trigger on a grinder - figured that out a while ago. Just too damn dangerous. But I did have a grinder wheel break on me once. That's where a face shield would have come in handy. Got a nasty gash on my cheekbone when the wheel shattered. Now, even without a face shield, I'm always conscious of the angle the blade is spinning and make sure I'm not on the same plane.