If it its barely pitted, as you suggest.......why touch it at all?

To answer your question, yes, you would drill out the rivets. Do you
have some other reason for wanting to get into the mast?

Jonathan


ahoy wrote:
Ahoy, the aluminum mast is down and on two saw horses. There are small
deposits of white flakey powder at each of the stainless rivets that
fasten the stainless masthead (very stout looking) on. I can't see
that it's pitted much after scraping it off. What is the procedure
here? The boat, new to me, is 25 yrs old now and I'm sure it's never
been re-riveted. How would you get the masthead off? Drill the rivets
and knock it off with a mallet? Thanks as always.


--
I am building my daughter an Argie 10 sailing dinghy, check it out:
http://home.comcast.net/~jonsailr