I was shocked when I looked under my 23 Defender HD10 UNL trying to find a bolt that fell through the drain slots in the center tunnel. The entire underside is inclosed and pop riveted. How is a person supposed to clean out the dirt and gunk that will accumulate? I can see that being a problem down the road.
POP Rivets galore!
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305 Posts
lol...pretty much sucks doesn't it? They are all made like that now. My first SxS was 2008 Rhino and it was the same so you just deal with it and do the best you can. All you can do is push sand and dirt toward the through holes when cleaning. I'm sure it's necessary to maintain the rigidity of the vehicle.
Interesting video, and after having done this myself I can relate to their opinion.
My defender came with just the center line skid plate and I decided to add the side plates (fab'd my own out of some UHMW material) and riveted them on with large alum rivets, and when I inspected them after a couple rides there were a couple rivets missing and a couple that were loose. I took them off and drilled the frame holes out for nut-certs and then reinstalled them, then I decided to do the same with the OEM plates. After drilling the OEM rivets out, the holes in the plate were rather large (way larger then what they should have been for a rivet) and I had to add a 1" fender washer to adequately cover them. Anyway I drilled out all the frame holes and added the nut-certs and re-installed the plates with flanged button head socket screws.
I have no regrets about adding the nut-certs to the side plates as those rivets weren't holding up too well, I think it was the good solution, but in hind site I should have left the OEM skid plate with it's pop-rivets alone, as there was no issues with them and I really have no intention of taking the skid plates off although it's probably nice to have that ability.
My defender came with just the center line skid plate and I decided to add the side plates (fab'd my own out of some UHMW material) and riveted them on with large alum rivets, and when I inspected them after a couple rides there were a couple rivets missing and a couple that were loose. I took them off and drilled the frame holes out for nut-certs and then reinstalled them, then I decided to do the same with the OEM plates. After drilling the OEM rivets out, the holes in the plate were rather large (way larger then what they should have been for a rivet) and I had to add a 1" fender washer to adequately cover them. Anyway I drilled out all the frame holes and added the nut-certs and re-installed the plates with flanged button head socket screws.
I have no regrets about adding the nut-certs to the side plates as those rivets weren't holding up too well, I think it was the good solution, but in hind site I should have left the OEM skid plate with it's pop-rivets alone, as there was no issues with them and I really have no intention of taking the skid plates off although it's probably nice to have that ability.
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272 Posts
One concern I have with drilling out the rivets is any leftover metal that doesn't fall out stuck rattling around in the frame?
Yeah, I had concerns about that also, and most of the rivets DO NOT fall out, so they are as you say "rattling round in the frame", but you can't hear them, so not really an issue.
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272 Posts
My DPS Max only came with the center panels. I added all the side panels to match what came standard on the XT's. I riveted them on, but I'm kind of kicking myself now for not doing the nutserts/rivnuts then. It would have been a lot easier with only having to drill out and remove the center panels. But now with all panels riveted on I'm not anxious to tackle that project anytime soon. If I ever get the nerve to do it I may just do one panel at a time over a period of time so it doesn't seem so overwhelming a task.
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