The automotive industry is continuously developing and finding new ways to respond to the incremental demands of higher safety standards and lower environmental impact. As an answer to weight reduction of vehicles, the combination of boron steel and composite material is being developed along with their joining process, self-pierce riveting. Boron steel is an ultra-high strength material that needs to be locally softened before the joining process. However, the joining process deforms the part. This paper investigates factors affecting the geometrical deformation during the tempering process and lists important phenomena that need to be included when simulating the tempering process. © 2016 The Authors.