aluminum rivets and galvanic corrosion on disco body panels.

Is it OK to use standard aluminum/alloy rivets on my disco?
heard about certain metals not behaving well when together in the presence of an electrolyte(salty water), i have cheqrplate riveted to mine and would like to rivet a temp repair plate on a hole under my seat, i don't know what the body shell of a disco is composed of, but as i understand alluminum rivets and stainless steel is NOT OK but aluminum and aluminum/zinc plated steel is,
Anybody know the right way to do this?

You would want to use zinc chromate ali rivets, when they flatten down the zinc makes a seal so the two metal types are not in contact. Or stainless steel rivets.

However to put it in perspective plain steel rivets would rust out before the aluminium rivets, so yes they will be destoryed but it will take some time!

what are the disco body panels?,
i noticed i couldn't get a vista print magnetic sign to fix to it, recently.

Some of them are ali - the rest of the shell/body is steel.

gotoneatlast said:

what are the disco body panels?,
i noticed i couldn't get a vista print magnetic sign to fix to it, recently.

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Wings doors and rear side panels are ally body shell roof mainfloor, boot floor A/B/C posts etc is steel

redhand said:

Wings doors and rear side panels are ally body shell roof mainfloor, boot floor A/B/C posts etc is steel

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except for the rust .

yep,
plenty of that anall

sooo...
the patch i want to rivet is onto the floor, therefore steel rivets and it won't get worse....or could i use the ally rivets and treat the drilled holes in floor with some Kurust first??..save me going out to buy steel rivets before i do it.

which bit are yu intending to rivet?

patch up and waterproof a hole under drivers seat in floor,
just temporary till i can get a plate welded underneath.

yu mite have probs - coz there are structural bits under there. It might also be within 10" of the seat belt mounting.

the steel bits are the bits that are rusty

the rest is ali which is prone to corrode HAHA

good old discos

The Mad Hat Man said:

yu mite have probs - coz there are structural bits under there. It might also be within 10" of the seat belt mounting.

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fair point will check,
reckon its clear of the chassis rail under neath by about 3 inches,
is the distance from seat belt 10 inches squared?

I think its 10" radius.

The Mad Hat Man said:

I think its 10" radius.

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300mm = 12"

its gonna be tight then.

If you've got plenty of MOT left, it will be ok as a temporary fix, but you'll need to get it welded before it'll pass an MOT - unless of course it was covered in Mud/waxoyl/shultz etc...

nice...
cheers chaps.

If you put different metals together you will always get some sort of electrolytic corrosion.
Stainless steel and ali can be pretty bad. You can get a paste called Duralac which stops the corrosion.

duralac was used on spitfires and lancs etc the modern interfaying paste is called jc5a it does not go hard