Not on a Ex-mil but my Series 1, but the same principals apply, the vehicle in question atm rides like a dray, very stiff in the rear end
it is fitted with 'gas' shocks and radial tyres, but it's still hard on my lower back, so I removed the rear springs and I'm trying to soften
the ride.
The springs were grit blasted about 13 years ago, I was under the impression that they were dismantled prior to grit blast, not so
the individual leaves were quite rusty with some loose scale, and rusted solid to the center bolts
some of the leaves wrap/straps and rivets were very ordinary so after cleaning the leaves with a cup wire brush and flap sander
I took to the rivets and removed all 4 from the two leaves with the straps on them, using a flap sander the heads of the rivets came off
quickly, and the remaining stub was punched out.
I took myself off to the local steel supplier to get the materials I needed, 5/8" round
bar, and a length of 25 x 5mm flat bar
I only bought the minimum length 600mm, taking some measurements I started making the rivets
they are 3/4" in length the head is 1/2" dia, the shaft is 13/32", next job was to measure the straps and bend the steel, drill hole
@ 13/32", the head also has a 20deg taper on it
take another measurement mark the steel, using the Oxy/acetylene heat n bend, quench it out and offer it up to the job
then with the assistance of my T/A aka 'wife' she held the spring and applied the heat to the end of the rivet, when it was glowing
red hot, I had 2 hammers a reasonable sized ball pein and a brass faced hammer, I quickly place the ball hammer on the red hot
rivet, and hit the hammer with the brass faced one, 3 hits then re-heat, repeat until it looks like this, flush with the spring surface
the rivet was very hot I could feel the heat coming off when I took these images and it is resting on my home made anvil heavy wall pipe and a
6" x 4" lump of hard steel welded onto the pipe, anyway this might give you an idea on how to fix this sort of repair, and if 'I can do it, you can too' cheers Dennis
ps don't be put off if you don't have a lathe to turn down rivets, you could get away using a 'mild steel' bolt i.e 3/8"dia cut down to length, apply heat and
hit it hard,,cheers
