Replacing a baggage door catch

You have to drill out the center of the two rivets

Buy a drift or pin punch whatever it is called in your area and tap out the remaining part of the rivet shank and head and then drill the rivet out. Currently I have about six pop rivets with different size shanks so buy one that looks just a little small and try it. If it is too small, buy larger one until you find the correct diameter.

Of course you could just cut it off with a drennel tool or grind the head down with a cisk grinder.

Thanks, doods. Had no idea those were rivets.

Punched out the shafts and ground down the heads and discovered mounting holes that are way too big for any screws I have around here. So I used double-sided adhesive foam for the replacement latch. Let's see how long that lasts.

You will definitely want to re-do the rivets. I recommend using the kind of rivet that has a three pronged head that expands really wide.

Jose

I've never used rivets before. I noticed an external light fixture I need to replace is also held on with rivets. What kind of rivets do I need for these jobs and what kind of tool?

The rivets you need are tri grip rivets. They are a "Blind Rivet" and you will also need a tool called a gun to install. Here is an example of the tri grip and other blind rivets;

Blind Rivets

Another option is a Jacknut or threaded insert. Both of these are threaded on the inside. Both can be installed with a screw and nut or cap screw and nut but for the threaded insert there is a tool.

The tri grip rivet is very common in RVs, at least they were in the era of my RV. Try googling Jack nuts or threaded inserts, actually the home page of the link I gave you has examples of threaded inserts.

Good luck, there are twenty million of what you can use but stick with the simple ones.

Harbor freight has some tools and so does Grangers ,Lowes and Home Depot.

The HF rivet tool works great.

Jose