Those look good. Is that the only color?

thx

Sadly, yes. Spray paint would be the only choice for those of you with alternative colors.

I have found a plastic rivet gun kit ( I've had it for years so I cant remember where I got it.) The plastic rivets look perfect after installed. I think you can by them from the traveling tool guys, Mac, Snap on, Matco

I ended up using s 1/8 inch wood dowel for the pins. I checked it first by pushing the dowel though an old rivet, and needed to sand it just a touch, but it fit perfectly! just cut some to length- about 15mm. Push them in and paint with a cotton swab. You should get a few dozen pins from a 36" dowel.

I thought I found a good source of rivets on ebay, Florida Auto Fasteners--20rivets for $8.99. They arrived today and I found out why they were (relatively) cheap. Besides a dull and very rough finish to the rivet head, the center pin is actually molded onto the head of the rivet! What a unique way to prevent the pin from being lost.

If the pin is part of the rivet head, how do you push it out, or back in? What's holding the rivet in tight?

fwiw- here's the eBay link: Florida Auto Fasteners

That pin is barely held to the head by a skin thin bond. It is broken off and then pushed into the rivet head. It is a viable means of producing the rivet and pin in one step. I suspect that Nissan rivet are produced this way and then separated for packing.

Here's a link to the fasteners themselves:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2F220016099148_W0QQfromZR40QQfviZ1&rd=1&item=220016099148

I got a call from them this morning. Apparently you're supposed to put the rivet into the panel hole and hit the pin with a hammer to release it from the head. Not quite what I want to do to 29 year old plastic panels. But even if that worked the finish on the head is pretty bad, dull and very uneven. You get what you pay for.

That said, the seller definitely wanted to keep me happy. There were no problems getting a refund.

You're much better off breaking the pin away and seating it in the rivet head prior to installation. Once in place you can gently tap the pin flush with the head.

*subscribed*

anyone got the oem part number?

Edited September 17, 200816 yr by ToXIc