Big Twin/ Rd tiller handle restoration

[trex014]

All of the long RD/ Bigtwin tiller handles I have and have seen all have the throttle band riveted in with steel rivets.

What would be a suitable replacement for those steel rivets? As I am pretty sure those are an uncommon OEM part

And how would one repaint that metal band such that the raised letters are still shiny aluminum?

I’d rather not leave the faded bands on a repainted tiller handle if at all possible

[need2fish]

I’m pretty sure you can find some small stanless screws to replace the rivets.

Most times where you need to preserve letters , etc in relief, you can paint over them and take the paint off the letters with very fine silicon carbide; obviously that wont work in your case.

If you are practiced with a fine-tipped paintbrush you can paint the raised letters with a coat of Vaseline. When your sprayed-on paint dries, the paint will wipe off the letters.

[trex014]

Need2fish, those are some very helpful pointers on redoing the band’s, I think the vaseline trick may actually work well.

Upon a little digging, my favorite online hardware store McMaster-Carr actually sells “screw nails” in lots of sizes so that will be my solution. A box of 100 should last my lifetime for sure.

I’m pretty sure stainless would bet preferred over the zinc plated ones.

Link for screw nails: https://www.mcmaster.com/rivets/screw-nails-for-metal-plastic-and-plywood/

[Monte NZ]

Regarding the stainless steel rivets, I would suggest that they be carefully drilled out and see if you could get someone with a lathe
to make replacements and epoxy the new ones into the old holes.
They would never fall out and would look original.

Monte NZ

[trex014]

Monte, I think I’m understanding what you’re talking about with the lathe. Do you mean that the new rivets would simply be epoxied in place and not actually driven in?

It would make sense since those rivets are not exactly a high tension place. I actually located some original OEM rivets and might buy a couple to measure since $2 a pop isn’t quite as cheap as a box of 100 for $6

[frankr]

I have replaced a few of those screw nails (I always thought they were called drive screws). But they were usually in model/serial number plates and I can’t say I’ve done any in tiller handles. It is an easy piece of cake if the holes go all thee way through. Just punch them out from the backside and you can reuse them. It gets a little tougher if you cannot access the backside. I’ve sawed a slot in the head and simply unscrewed them like a screw. Don’t know if that is practical in the tiller situation,, or what the size is. Use your imagination and try to figure an easy way to get them out. The rest is easy.

Yeah, I have the remains of a box of 100 from McMaster. I’ll give you a couple for postage if they are the correct size.

[Monte NZ]

I would just epoxy them in rather than drive them in. Just put something heavy enough to hold the throttle band in place while the epoxy cured.

[Mumbles]

I don’t think there’s any need to remove the band at all if you first spray primer on the whole tiller including the band. Then the band gets masked off and the tiller gets painted your choice of color. Once the color has cured, the tiller gets masked so the band can be painted with a contrasting color, usually white or cream. Once that paint has cured, the proper decal from nymarine.ca can be applied and the bands color will appear thru the clear parts of the decal.

I paint bands for the smaller horsepower motors white after slipping them over a piece of wood dowel so they can be rotated while painting. The big Twin and RD tillers can be hung up with a piece of wire or coat hanger for painting.

http://nymarine.ca/throttle%20control%20plate.html

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