Belly tank bolts

Guys,
This maybe of use to those who have not yet removed their bolts.

I had painted the hornplates up to undercoat stage. I used a 9mm 1/4 drive socket on the loctited nuts. This was a very tight fit, so the socket gripped the nuts really snuggly.

I did have some spinning of the rivets, but found because of the tight fit I could use this as an advantage to "lever" the last few turns off the rivet thread with the socket wrench - hey presto they came off easily.
I centre punched the rivets out, fafter first supporting the hornplates to avoid distorting anything.

I was surprised how easy a job it was considering I had also loctited the rivet heads to stop them spinning when I put it together. This confirmed to me anyway, the right thing to do is change the bolts.

cheers

Rick