New Carpet replacement on 87 Champion

[Albert Rivera]

Hey guys,
I have read several posts where some folks have replaced the carpeting on their boats and they were good posts. I am going to replace mine, but I have a question....it appears that there is trim strip that hold the carpet on the casting platform that is held on to the boat with rivets. Do I need to remove that trim strip (and grind the old rivets off??) or cut the carpet under the trim and glue it up to that point? If I grind the old rivets down, I don't think I can replace them with trim screws, unless I make the trim holes larger to accomodate larger diameter screws, since the rivet holes are usually quite large........any ideas???

[Tx Champ]

Drill the heads off the rivets being careful not to damage the trim, so that you can reinstall it with pop rivets when you are done with gluing the carpet in.

[ChampioNman]

While you have them off polish them up with some aluminum cleaner.

[Albert Rivera]

Thanks, guys...have a good evening

[Tx Champ]

Albert, I want to say I used a 3/8 or 1/2" bit to drill the heads off. Doesn't take but a bump or two of the trigger. They're pretty soft.