Removing Splash Guards w/ Pop Rivets

[Rocky-X]

Howdy - trying to remove the splash guards front and rear and it looks like the rear wheel splash guards are attached with a mix of Torx bolts (blue in photo) & what I think are pop rivets (red in photo). From what I'm finding, I'm probably going to have to use a drill or something to remove the pop rivets. 

 

Is this the correct way to remove these pop rivets? Just kinda confused that I have to destroy the rivets to get the splash guard off versus just everything being Torx so I can take them on & off easily in the future. Sorry for such a goofy question - thanks. 

[Rob Mugs]

Pop rivets need to be drilled out.  That said, why are you pulling em?  It's my understanding they protect the vehicle quite a bit

[Rocky-X]

1 hour ago, Rob Mugs said:

Pop rivets need to be drilled out.  That said, why are you pulling em?  It's my understanding they protect the vehicle quite a bit

@Rob Mugs Partly for looks & mostly for taking the truck off road and getting into situations where these will get torn off. Thanks for your input. Just kinda weird (to me at least) that they were riveted on to begin with. 

[Rob Mugs]

So, I just went out to my 2020 to take a look and there are no rivets.  Perhaps something done differently on the WT without wheel well liners?  Mine are body pins and screws

[Rob Mugs]

Either way though... just take a small drill bit (about the size of the hole in the rivet) and drill it out.  It'll all pop off in a few seconds

[redwngr]

Take the screws out and see if it comes off without drilling the rivet.

 

Perhaps the rivet is to fasten a 'spacer' on the back of the splashguard when there are no wheelwell liners, and isn't fastened to fender.

 

Just a guess, but costs nothing to try just the screws first.

[Trza]

I had to replace one of my splash guards. Its been said already, best way to get the rivet off is to drill out the rivet head, and the rest will slide out. New splash guards from the dealer come with new rivets which you would need a rivet gun to install. 

 

I'm thinking about replacing my splash guards with the regular mud guards. I have a little bit of rub, even with the mud flap brackets removed. The regular mud guards seem to have a bit more room.

[Rocky-X]

@Trza & @redwngr & @Rob Mugs

 

Thanks for your help. Turns out @redwngr was correct in that the riveted portion was just wrapping around the metal of the wheelwell & there are no holes in the metal that the rivets go through. Basically the metal is sandwhiched between the splash guard and another small piece of plastic on the inside of the wheelwell.  I was able to remove the Torx screws and then slide the splash guard off with the rivets still attached. However, most people probably want to drill those rivets out because it's a very tight fit and I had to slide grit-covered plastic over the painted metal which most people are NOT going to be cool with doing as there's a potential to scratch some clear coat - not too much of a concern for me though. Thanks for your help & entertaining my goofy entry-level question.

 

[redwngr]

Thanks for posting back what you found!

 

It may help the next person out.

[Robert Hackett]

Did you ever find out the size of those pop rivets? I may need a whole new right front splashguard as the mounting hole is cracked open. Even if put I new rivet on it may slide back off.