Rivet Removal

[Pounder]

Customer brought me a Mustang seat his dog got hold of while he was in the hospital. Anyway this is my first attempt at repairing a seat but I have been doing leather for 30 years. This is an area I really want to get into as there seems to be a large market for it. Question is, how do you remove the rivets from the seat? I am guessing you drill them out so they can be removed and replaced but is there a better way? Last thing I want to do is cause anymore damamge than has already been done. Thanks for the help, I look forward to several replies.

[Tree Reaper]

If you drill a rivet it's bound to enlarge the hole, I find it better to grasp the edge with diagonal pliers and break the flange off by twisting it back and forth.

[Pounder]

Thanks Tree Reaper, I will give that a try. Shouldn't have any problems after that but just wanted to check before I started drilling or ripping a seat apart, those things are not cheap.

Thanks again for the advice.

[Tree Reaper]

You might find a small pin punch helpful, once you get flange off you can punch the rivet through the hole.

Good luck.

[Pounder]

Thanks again, I've got several small pin punches of various size, I'll try that as well. Tree Reaper you have been a big help.

[Spartan]

This may be a little late, but I recently did the same project only on a corbin seat. I used a drill just slightly larger than the hole on the inside of the rivet, this way it did not enlarge the hole. Hope this helps...

[Pounder]

Thanks Spartan, actually ended up using both methods, drill to drill out the center then a small punch to knock them out. Both worked real well with no enlargment of the original hole. Thanks for the infor though.