Seat release

I went to show my dad how to put gas in it today and a rivet had broke holding the gas ram in place under the seat. Anybody have this happen to them? I've only had the seat up maybe four times since I got the spyder a week ago and have the mileage on it now for the first service. He was going to gas up and ride to the dealer this morning which he still can except the seat won't stay up by itself now. He is closing in on 89 yrs old and is loving riding the spyder. He crashed a couple of years ago on his bmw k75s and has not ridden since except around the block on my 1967 triumph tr6 that is totally restored to better than new.