Front bumper removal and replacement - expanding rivet?

E

eyup

Member
 East Riding of Yorkshire
Hi guys,

As you will see from my washer jet thread, having followed the instructions for the bumper removal and being succesful etc I dont like the rivets that attach the trim in the wheel arches. Despite the threads on here suggestings I could pop the rivet back in, the ones on my car dont appear to allow this. There is no way to "pull" the central column of the rivet back into the rivet head nearest the wheel and therefore expanding the rivet to get a tight join. There is also no way I can push the rivet column from the inside of the bumper due to lack of access

Am I missing something? I pushed the rivets back in the car so cant photo to make things clearer. I dont think they will hold long. How do these things work? If I get new ones from BMW how would I pull the rivet back such that it expands?

Can anyone who had succesfully refitted the front bumper shed some light on it? Are there any alternatives?

Cheers
 
There are 2 types of rivet in general use.

The ones people often reference on the site have a protruding head that is pulled back with pliers and easily pushed back in.

The type you reference you push the pin right through. When you take the bumper off you collect the pins up and push them back on through the rivet head into locking position when the rivet is back in place.

Simples
 
Cheers Jeeper,

Thats exactly what I thought. However, the central column of the rivet appeats to have the protruding head that stops it being "pushed" back. I have done a very poor diagram:

untitled-2.jpg

This suggests the first rivet you mention has been used which I presume isnt the norm. There is no way the pin can be pushed back through from the outside. Does that make sense or am I totally not getting it :?
 
Aha, hate answering own question but I guess its the same as this I've now found:

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302441

Maybe of help for others who come across the same. Amasing how a change of search string gets differing results.
 
Glad you're sorted.

Thread you linked to is interesting. I was referencing 2 of the types of rivet shown, but never seen the pop rivets mentioned before.
 
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