83 359 pete good idea/bad idea-good bad idea

Make good friends with someone that has clout at a trailer repair facility for borrowing a huck gun.

 

What is it that you are wanting to put huck bolts in. If I am not mistaken some of the places that sell them also rent them and you just send them back when finished.
I don't think it will be huck bolts in your cab though, and I forget what they are called, but the tools for putting those rivets in are not expensive. The ones I have used went on an air hammer and worked best with 2 people, one to hold the back up tool. For installing your cab roof, they make some temp rivets, that you put is some of the holes to get it all mounted up and they come back out after you get the rest riveted solid. I want to say cleckos or something like that, but the best place I have found them is at shops at airports.

 

If you just need them on the roof cap, my neighbor had to replace some of the braces in his hood, and a mechanic from pete came to his shop and put them, it cost him a service call and an hours labor, but much cheaper than buying the gun.

 

You can't use carriage bolts in place of Huck bolts/rivets. They don't have the strength and will allow the panel to move and eventually you'll have issues. Huck bolts and Huck rivets are the same, just different terminology.

Byler rivet in Texas rents Huck guns. Or try eBay, the current latest model is a Huck 2025. If your pulling stainless Huck's you will need a stainless nozzle. Byler rents nozzles as well.

This isn't my project, but there is a lot of old trucks out there hacked up from people cutting corners. Not to be that guy, but if you can't do it right, please sell it to someone who can. I'm extremely well versed on the peterbilt structure and repairs and have seen just about anything. The only other rivet you will encounter is a mono-bolt rivet. That's what is holding the front section of the cab door exterior panels on the door frame. On the inside you will encounter a few pop rivets, but they aren't structural. The mono-bolt pulls like a pop rivet, but offers almost matched strength to the Huck rivet.

 

I am that guy, I can appreciate someone doing their own work, I can't appreciate a hack job. Just saying.

 

Good luck with either plan. Hope you get some good time behind the wheel of the Pete.