General Question

TaoSan's avatar

How do you remove rivets?

Asked by TaoSan (7106points) April 7th, 2009

I’m putting running boards on my SUV, and this involves replacing the side skirts. They are attached with plastic rivets. I have found the tool to place rivets, but when I tried to remove one pulling on the rivet’s head only tore it off without removing the pin inside.

Any suggestions?

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9 Answers

buster's avatar

Find a drill bit a little smaller than the rivets. Drill the rivet out. It should come right out as soon as it gets through the middle of the rivet. The original hole is left as it was. This is how I take gutters off houses and put them back together. You can put the same sized rivets back in the holes if you have a rivet gun and rivets

TaoSan's avatar

Awesome, thanks buster. i was a bit worried about taking a drill to it, but that seems the way to go.

forestGeek's avatar

Any suggestions for removing a small rivet on the head badge of a bicycle? I’d like to remove it without damaging the badge at all.

TaoSan's avatar

@forrestGeek

based on what I just learned from buster I’d say find one of them hair drillbits and use a Dremel if you have access…

forestGeek's avatar

@TaoSan – Good idea. It’s a bit too small for a drill bit, but I do think a Dremel would work. Thanks!

SeventhSense's avatar

Put the frogs outside?

Cardinal's avatar

A wet bird never flys at night!

IchtheosaurusRex's avatar

The plastic ones that are used to attach bumpers sometimes have a small slot that can be used to release the prongs.

TaoSan's avatar

@IchtheosaurusRex

Awesome! Mine seem to have that, I just didn’t know what it was! That’ll help!!!

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