Beginner's Luck - The BEST way to remove all those goddam rivets.
Maybe it's because I've never done this before, maybe it's because I'm a woman, maybe it's because I have weak little chicken arms, but I've realized that I have to rely heavily on finesse.
I had a man friend come over and help me remove the last of the rivets, because I physically couldn't swing a hammer after removing 900 rivets myself. After a couple of hundred, I had a pretty good technique - use a cutting blade on the angle grinder, slice the rivet down the middle straight on (90 degrees), and then chisel the two pieces off wham bam thank you MAM. I was on a roll, until I couldn't move my arm. Strength is not my forte. Anyway, I relied on finesse to get those rivets off. I found that if I cut the rivets very precisely, the halves chiselled off quickly. Furthermore if I angle the chisel just right, the piece would pop off instantly. Mmmm, satisfaction.
Anyway, when my friend came over, he grabbed the angle grinder and put the grinding disc on, and ground down the rivet heads despite my tried recommendation. Yes, power tools are meant to make things easier, but I sincerely think my way was faster, cleaner (the grinder pumps out a lot more flying sparks than the cutter, so he pitted the windows quite badly by doing it his way), and more precise. I am all for putting in the least amount of effort possible, so maybe I was just not strong enough to grind all the rivets down to nubs, but I was almost strong enough to chisel them all off ;)
So the side panels have some smaller rivets, and the single score down the middle worked well with those. Something I would chisel off the bottom half before the top half just so the top could come off more easily. However! Some rivets on the side panels and all of the roof rivets are a lot heftier, hence they need a little more TLC. I did a double score on those ones, and that seemed to work the best (see below). Again, it's all about the angle you hold the chisel at; a bigger angle to start and then shortening the angle as the rivet head moves until it pops off!
