Paint Cutter?

[JoeLofton]

Any ideas on how to make a clean cut of the paint around flush rivet heads prior to removing the rivets? I'm replacing one of the upper cowling-to-firewall piano hinges on my RV-3, which requires drilling out the -4 flush rivets.

Avery sells a paint cutter for #10 screws, but nothing for rivets.

Thanks...Joe

[Mel]

Not sure that the "Avery" style paint cutter would work on rivets. The cutter needs a hole for centering. However, on the other hand, a rivet should not turn during removal as a screw does, so drilling out rivets should not be a paint problem.

[mark manda]

I can understand why you're concerned.

I was at a Airshow RV flyin at Chino the last two days.

I was checking out the differnet airplanes and whether they had painted fuel tank screws or SS unpainted.

On a project of mine; they are all primered and I was wondering what to do pior to sending it into the paint shop. I assume primer is real soft and won't crack...

I saw a nice plane with cracked paint around several tank screws, not good.

It sounds like worst case-- you might have to do a repaint on the area and color sand.