[acke61]

I'm not sure how to go about doing this...everything looks riveted in. Any suggestions would be very helpful.

its a 14 foot 1978 landau

[kbomb]

Nice. I think you are really lucky here. In my opinion that transom will be a lot easier to get at than most boats.

1. Rivet removal: I would use a drill with a bit that is the exact dimensions of the outer diameter of center of the rivet (In other words, not the the size of the flared out part of the rivet). Carefully drill straight through the rivets. They are aluminum which is a relatively soft metal, so it should not be too challenging to drill through.

2. You'll have to remove those corner braces which appear to be welded in place. I would use a cutting wheel (Roto Zip or an angle grinder with a cutting wheel attached, or if you have air tools, an air powered cutoff tool). Just cut at the weld seams there but try not to cut into the aluminum transom cap or the alumimum rail on the other corner.

3. The last thing I see here is that you may have to bend up that aluminum transom cap. You can use a metal bending tool which is basically a really wide set of pliers made just for bending metal. I think you can get a set for under $20 at the big chain hardware store.

4. If the wood is not glued in then I would imagine you could slide that transom right out.

Anyway, surely there will be additional advise from folks with more experience and wisdom. I just thought I'd throw out how I would approach this project based on what I see in the pictures.

Good luck! That's a great looking boat!

[beerfilter]

It appears to me that you can just drill the rivets , and , remove the bottom angle piece and any other rivets that hold the wood .
After this you can slide the old piece down and out , use it as a template , and , slide the new piece up and in .
Once the new wood is in , simply rivet everything back in place .
No grinding or re-welding required .

You can get the rivets through many sources , Grainger sells them in boxes of 100 .
Search Ebay for solid rivets , you want the aluminum ones , aircraft type , Brazierheads , an470 , or Universal head .
Avoid the 100/110 degree flush heads , unless you have to rivet some fairly thick stock ( .100 or thicker..) .

You can pick up a single rivet set new for ~$5 + shipping , or , search Ebay again for " rivet sets " , and you can pick up a nice assortment of sets , and , bucking bars , for reasonable .
They will probably outlive your grandchildren .

That Landau looks eerily similiar to my Appleby , BTW .

[i386]

Dimple the rivets with a center punch before drilling. It'll keep the drill bit from walking off the head. I used the spring loaded center punch for my rivets and it worked pretty well. It may even help to start with a small bit and then work your way up.

You may need to use something to hold the rivet from the back side if possible if the drill starts to spin it.