Bloody hell, pray that you never have to do this job. I had mine re-plated recently, and am installing it after drilling out the rivets. The air grille cowl prevents even E.T. from getting his lanky fingers in there, so not even a hand can access the underside of the receiver without pulling the entire front bumper cover!!

My solution (pic could follow) is to instal nuts and adhere them to the receiver, and then bolts from the top.

While I'm in there I'm also replacing the hood release cable (since I have a spare new one here ) and it was a bit on the old side. From past experience (yes, did one before) be very careful, once that thing is latched, if the tension isn't right, you aren't getting back in there to open your hood

HOLY ****!! I just thought of something ... this time maybe I will pull the latch off the hood and test that it will actually release from the receiver, before installing it into the hood

 

why do you want to get underneath with the pop riveter.... its done from the top isn't it??

 

Now that you mention it .... I've never used my riveter. LOL. I think you're right. Problem still exists, how to hold it up under the body sheet metal to get it attached. Bolts would solve this. The other problem is, once it is riveted in, there is no going back in to adjust, except to drill it all out again.

 

Try using small nuts and bolts to set the position, get it all adjusted, then replace 1 at a time with rivets. I will use SS rivets, but need to use a Heavy Duty rivet puller to install them - the hand powered one I have would not budge!

 

im doing the same thing but ive got all the front end off so ill look tommorrow... cant you hold it up with a peice of welding wire ???

 

ya its a bear...... i just used a normal hand held rivet gun... worked fine for me.

 

I think you guys are right, one could probably hold it with bolts. The big deal is to align it and the cable before pulling the trigger. Wire won't do it Meybach ... have to get it seated and dialed in

 

you can loosen and adjust the hood pin after the reciever is riveted in

 

When I put mine back last summer, I used the pop riveter from the top and ajusted the top section (hood pin) after et voilà!
I don't think you need to ajust anything on the receiver.

 

When I replaced latch (broken release cable) I remember it was pretty easy riveting in with pop-riveter, but I can't remember how it was held in place! Think I had a helper...

Yes if you loosen the pin on hood you can get it aligned just right buy lowering into receiver which moves the pin into correct position, then just snug down the bolts for the pin.