Replacing Lid Hinge Rivets?

This is probably a question for Doug/OneMoreCast, but anyone with experience feel free to chime in:

Had the rivets that hold the hinge to my rod locker on my 14 year old Ranger break recently (not pull out...simply break off leaving the barrel of the rivet inside the flange of the locker door). Seemed simple enough to drill out the leftover rivet and replace...not so much for me anyway.

The cavity inside the flange as I call it, is approximately 7/8" deep, with an outer wall thickness of about half or less that, I would guess.

Had several people (boat repair guys) tell me to use a 3/16" (diameter) by 1/2" (grip size) rivet, which looks like what was in ther before as best I can tell.

Trouble is, when drilling out the old rivet, I cannot get it all gone so that I can seat the new rivet flush to the outside of the carpet/hinge on the edge of flange. Seems as if about 1/4" or so is left in there that stops the new rivet from pushing all the way in (if I use a shorter grip size, say 1/4", it doesn't get enough bite to hold the hinge in place). The remaining piece just spins and the bit won't bite (you can actually feel that from the backside of the flange where the fiberglass underside of the door is. I've tried using a punch, etc. to displace it to no avail.

Any thoughts or advice?

Thanks in advance

There's an authorized Ranger Boat repair place in Frankfort. I took mine there several years ago. Sorry I can't even remember the name of the place. I believe they were also a sponsor for the KBF. Someone here could probably give you a number.

And I had them repair some serious gouges in my hull. Quite satisfied.

Is there enough room to allow a Dremel with a small grinder bit in so you could grind the remaining top flange of the rivet off, and therefore allow it to drop thru?