Does anyone know if there is a specific tool for installing the factory type rivets on a 67 Malibu grille? A friend is restoring one and wants to use the factory style rivets. I know they sell the rivets and also a domed head bolt that looks like a rivet which I will be using on my 66 Wagon. I did find one instruction that said to use vise grips. You have to put tape over the rivet, place a small ball bearing under the rivet and squeeze. Sounds like it would work but I expected that there may have been some specialized tool designed for this since GM used this method on several models in the 60's. Any help or ideas would be appreciated. First image is what the factory rivet looks like. Second image is actually a nut and bolt setup.
There is, I've only seen one pic of it, I think in a late '60s Fisher body manual, but I couldn't tell you if you could get one now.
Your friend might have to resort to what the OG's did back in the day, Make The Tool!!!! My grandfather had drawers full of one-off home made tools in his garage.
They would have used a rivet squeezer, but what style I do not know. I don't know what the access around the grill is like. But I would look into using a hand tool that you tap with a hammer while holding a heavy bucking bar on the round head of the rivet. I would try it out on something you don't mind damaging until you get the technique right. the squeezer would be something like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-Rivet-Squeezer-3-Reach-w-6-Rivet-Sets-New-/280750358896
That's pretty close to the Kent-Moore tool, but the Kent-Moore one didn't have multiple swapable anvils.