Great advice guys, thanks

Remember, I am one of the weird ones who does NOT take the VX off road. Mine is more of a show vehicle (a pretty boy), but your ideas made me realize something else I can do. I purchased boxes of all of the Clips, Fasteners, Grommets, etc. that you need for both interior and exterior, including the tire well areas.

For my particular purpose I think I'm going with, NOT replacing the rivets, and instead drilling the hole a bit larger (8mm) and use the black fasteners that are used in the tire well area. This will keep the cladding up and keep the look I'm going for.

I really didn't know if the rivets were overkill or not, but apparently after seeing what you guys are saying, it definitely is....

So now I have 15 Blind Rivets I ordered from Merlin that I don't need lol :/

but
THANK YOU guys, I really appreciate you all