Replacing Rod Locker 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

Man go to a hardware store get some 1/4inx1in SS nut`s and bolts drill out the rivets whats left and put the nuts and bolts in there place,,,i do that to all the rangers I do,,rivets will wallow out again..

Thanks Doug...decided to that yesterday after talking to a buddy who did the same. It would have worked well except one problem. Where the holes are set is right at or just below the level of the underside of the fiberglass deck lid. It puts the bolts either resting on or just below the deck lid and you can't get a nut on it (well on most of them anyway. Out of the 12, I was able to us the nut on only 3. Went ahead and drilled all the holes all the way thru so I could at least get a 1/2" rivet all the way back in there and used rivets on the rest.

I thought about moving the hinge down lower on the edge of the door, but that would mean drilling 12 new hols in the gunnel as well and not wild about that.

We'll see how the rivets hold up for now I guess

Hey Doug...sent you a PM on some other stuff. Might have some work for you...cover and seats. Thanks