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side shims and rivets


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2 questions

 

Do the shims for the ab and kidney side connection attach to the ab plate or the kidney plate or does it not really matter?

 

What am I looking for when I go to look for the specific rivets used for the sides and the knee sections? I have the basic aluminum rivets that are attached using that rivet gun that looks like big pliers. 

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Best result is usually gotten by having two slimmer shims on either side instead of one "bridging the gap". In that case, they would be sttached to both the ab and kidney respectively.

 

The rivet gun "pop rivets" are not what you want if you're going for the higher tiers of accuracy. Instead,  look for bifurcated rivets, aka split rivets.

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Not everybody does it the same. I personally attached my shim to the "kidney" only. This way there is less abs goop to make up and sand smooth. Fill two seams instead of four.

As for the rivets I used "split rivets" with washers for the kidney/ab and I used "double cap" rivets for the thigh. Got all my rivets through Echo here on FISD.

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Not everybody does it the same. I personally attached my shim to the "kidney" only. This way there is less abs goop to make up and sand smooth. Fill two seams instead of four.

As for the rivets I used "split rivets" with washers for the kidney/ab and I used "double cap" rivets for the thigh. Got all my rivets through Echo here on FISD.

 

I am not too worried about reaching centurion status due to my size (300 lbs of trooping glory lol). Things like the size of my cover plates and helmet are pretty big compared to other troopers... I think I can hit EIB status though and EIB allows for seams so I am not too worried about making the shims seamless. 

Edited by JDC
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  • 6 months later...

Not everybody does it the same. I personally attached my shim to the "kidney" only. This way there is less abs goop to make up and sand smooth. Fill two seams instead of four.

As for the rivets I used "split rivets" with washers for the kidney/ab and I used "double cap" rivets for the thigh. Got all my rivets through Echo here on FISD.

Where do you get the ABS to complete this task? Is there a tutorial somewhere on how to do this? I need to make up about 6" on each side currently (hopefully less in the future, lol), and I want to make sure I do it right so I can get approved and move on to the higher approval levels.

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I got my ABS shim material from Terrell at ataworks@yahoo.com as for the paste I mixed tiny pieces of ABS trimmings with Acetone. When it resembles "toothpaste" use a Popsicle stick to fill the seam. Let dry 24 hours and sand away. I went from 60grit to 180 to 320 to 1000. Follow up with Novus 1 2 and 3 and you are done. 3d0fe19b5547677f4a26ed2624ebb9bf.jpg8dc9bfe01f13f5a6af588e0751d42af1.jpg8a7a6d68791ef442b73f939cf0c8b7bd.jpg

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I got my ABS shim material from Terrell at ataworks@yahoo.com as for the paste I mixed tiny pieces of ABS trimmings with Acetone. When it resembles "toothpaste" use a Popsicle stick to fill the seam. Let dry 24 hours and sand away. I went from 60grit to 180 to 320 to 1000. Follow up with Novus 1 2 and 3 and you are done. 3d0fe19b5547677f4a26ed2624ebb9bf.jpg8dc9bfe01f13f5a6af588e0751d42af1.jpg8a7a6d68791ef442b73f939cf0c8b7bd.jpg

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Possibly a silly question, did you have to cut the kidney plate, or did you just create the notch in the shim?
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