Man what a day....
 

So today I went to install my new bumper grilles,I had no clue what I was in for. I started at noon,got the car up on removed all screws that I could until the rivets needed to be removed from the wheel well liner. At that point I looked in the Bentley manual on how to remove then,it said to get a rivet insert to remove them. Headed to Home Depot,they don't sell them. Called Sears,they didn't either. Then I called James(Trigem2k) and he told me how to remove then. Headed home and got them off,then came off the bumper. The I decided what the heck,the bumper is off now let's just clean the radiators. Man I would have never have thought soo much dirt/leaves/cigarette butts/foreign objects were in there. Now that I took care of that I swapped out the bumper grilles,no problem. IT WAS SUCH A PAIN IN THE A55 TO ALIGN THE BUMPER ON MY OWN! It took me almost a hour to remove the bumper,clean the radiators and put on the new grilles. It took me 2 hours just to realign the bumper back on. Then add that I can't seem to get a single rivet to fit back in wholes.....

How in the world do I install the old rivets? I can get the part that the rivet inserts into in,but that's it,it doesn't want to go back in how it was. With just the 3 10mm nuts connecting the wheel well liner it's tight enough for me to drive,but I want to reinstall all the rivet connections. How in the world is this done? Hopefully someone knows what I'm talking about,I attached a picture.

My car never got close to overheating or even past the 0 on the 180 mark on the engine temp gauge,I wonder if removing a full dust pan of dirt will be noticable?

It looks like you need to first take the entire rivet out first, and put in new ones. In your picture, you pulled the pins out, but the rivet base is still inserted in the wheel liner. when you insert the new rivets (I always buy new ones whenever I take the wheel liners out because you always ruin a few when removing), assemble them correctly first before putting in (ie. put the two pieces together with the pin halfway in the base), then push the rivet in place. Once the rivet is in place, secure the rivet by kust pushing down until the pin is in the rivet.

didn't get a chance to read the thread have to go. maybe this will help.
http://www.realtime.net/~rentner/Porsche/Radiator/Radiator.html

I did remove the whole entire rivet assembly. I wasn't able to get then back in like they came out,in one piece. I just inserted the pieces like that for now because it's a tighter fit then nothing in those spots at all.

They should go back in rather easily from what I remember. I would buy a few new ones and try again, as you may have slightly damaged the old rivets when you pulled them out.

.....I can't place an order with Sunset Imports for 8 rivets,that's not soo cool. I need something spiffy to add to the order,any recommendations?

If anyone reads this read and needs part # info;
Wheel well liner rivets-999.507.497.40

You could get those rivets from the dealer parts dept. They usually keep them in stock, and you wouldn't need to then pay shipping.

I refuse to go to Niello Porsche to buy anything. They treat me like crud due to my age. The only time I ever go is late at night to look so that way I don't have to deal with any idiots.

those come apart as i remember....u put the bottom part in, and then the cap after it. correct me if im wrong

Yes, you're right.

Blink, put the base in first, then slide the cap right into it. They're made so that you can't put them in as an assembly. The stem on the cap expands the base so that they can't pull out. Try it again dude, you're almost there.

Congrats! Im glad you did it the right way and didnt let your bumper be crooked. Did you take the wheels off? I will be doing all this when I swap to my GT3 bumper :) BTW does anyone have experience with how much it costs to ship a bumper. (sorry for the thread jack, BTW)

Just shipped one FedEx Home Delivery for $86.00. UPS is a lot more expensive.

Thanks griz.

fedex home delivery as they come to your house and take it away, or did u have one delivered to your house?
thx

Ok now back to the point of this thread. I got the rivets in,its all good now.

Both. Fed Ex delivered a new 996 bumper to my house. Then I took an old Boxster bumper I had and shipped it to a guy in Texas. I had to drop the Boxster bumper off at a Fed Ex location, but it only cost $86.00 to Texas. It's the size of the package that makes it expensive. The bumper only weighed 26 pounds.

Glad it worked out Blink.