Rivet fell out.

It's always something. I was using a wire brush on the inside on the rivets getting ready to paint all of them with Gluvit. When I looked down I could see the rivet had fallen out!!

I read a bunch of posts here and I think I understand the sizing. A couple of questions though.

The hole mic'ed out at .162 so I assume they were using 5/32 rivets. Should I drill it out and go to the next size up? (3/16)
The hull is listed as .064 and the longitudinal rib (I'm not sure what its called but its the rib that runs front to back on either side of the boat) measured .072 so I'm looking at a minimum of .136 combined thickness.

If I use a solid 3/16 rivet that works out to .417 long (1 1/2 x .187= .281 + .136= .417), so I guess I'd use a 7/16

If I use a closed end blind rivet the gripping range is .126-.250. I see several people have recommended aluminum mandrels. Are the steel mandrels just hard to work in a hand tool or impossible? I only have to set a couple.

I'd like to keep working, is any place locally likely to have these? The kid at Home Depot just looks at me like I'm speaking gibberish when I ask. Would a boat yard have them? The blind rivets sound like they would be handy to keep on hand.

Otherwise I'll order them from jay-cee.

Thanks

Stay away from HD, Lowes, etc if you want speciality fasteners. I would check out Fastenal, Grainger, or Ace Hardware.

Lowes and HD only carry the blind rivets with the open end. You would have to shop elsewhere for the closed end bind rivets. The aluminum mandrel is recommended due to the possibility of the steel mandrel corroding. If you have the 5/32 rivets, just drill the hole to the next larger size so you will be sure to have a perfectly round hole, and use the bigger rivet.

McMaster-Carr has blind rivets of various sizes.