In my quest to put things right, I want to have the upper ball joints rivited in. Can you hammer these in or is there some special way they have to be installed? Who does this type of work?

Thanks It's a 72SS

I helped do a frame off on a '66 Vette, and we riveted the ball joints in. There is a special tool that fits aroud the head of the rivet. We heated the rivets with a torch (not too much) and with one guy holding the special tool on the head, the other hit the rivet shank with a hammer until we got the desired "squash." We got the rivets at a farm implement store. They looked good when the job was done. We borrowed the tool from a local Vette resto shop.

[This message has been edited by Wooderson (edited 07-27-2002).]

I made a tool on the lathe that was contoured like the original head and a flat one for the other side and do all mine in a press. They look real factory and you can get em tighter that way than you'll ever do heating and pounding them. One of my friends is convinced that they should be heated anyway so the contraction as they cool will cause em to be even tighter, but the press worked real well with em cold.