Just finished up repairing a few loose rivets on my Wenonah Spirit II. I'm not an expert on canoe repair, and I've only installed one pop rivet before this, but here's how I did it.

The old rivets looked like this:



According to Wenonah, they use 3/8" rivets. The ones one the gunwales are 1/4" long, the ones for the yoke are 1/2" long. I borrowed a rivet gun, and bought the correct size of rivets.



1. I put the canoe up on some sawhorses to put it at a good working height. Obvious caveats apply - don't put weight in the canoe, etc. I didn't leave it unattended either, in case of wind or rain.



2. I didn't know if the gunwales would shift of otherwise move, so I clamped them down near the yoke.

3. Remove the yoke screws. I took the time to examine each one in case they were bent.



4. The backside of the old rivets fit in drilled holes in the yoke. Once the screws are removed, carefully spread the sides of the canoe away from each other and remove one end of the yoke. Then pull the yoke out.

5. I clamped a vice grip on the back side of each rivet as I drilled it out to prevent it from turning. I just drilled enough to detach the head of the rivet from the body, then pulled the body of the rivet out the back. I did one rivet at a time.



6. When I checked the yoke ends, there were pieces of the old rivets still embedded in each hole. I managed to grab one with a pair of tweezers, but I couldn't remove the rest. I checked the depth of each hole, and it was more than enough to accept the new rivets. So instead of messing with the holes to try to get the pieces out, I just left them as is.



7. Putting it back together was a bit trickier. I spread the gunwales again and put the yoke back into place. But the rivets were a tight fit into the holes to receive them. I could have drilled out the holes to be bigger, and I don't think that would have sacrificed strength, but instead I used a clamp to push everything back into place. The clamp had a scrap bit of wood on each side and rested on the rivets I had just replaced. I tightened it slowly, checking both sides frequently, and tightened it just enough to get everything lined up. I didn't want to crush the kevlar or do any permanent damage.

And before I clamped it, I checked that the yoke was facing the right direction. Didn't want to do this twice!



8. With the clamp still in place, I inserted the screws (don't forget the washer) and tightened them down at about the same torque it took to remove them. Then I removed the clamps and inspected my work.



Hope this helps someone.

I still have some loose thwarts in the canoe, but I haven't decided if I want to tackle those just yet...

Nice Job - great description/photos.

Reminded me, a few years ago I called Wenonah to ask for the exact rivets they use to replace where I removed the seat hangers. The person I spoke with said "How many you need?" I told him and he said "I'll put them in the mail!" Impressed me!