What is holding my garage door handle assembly onto the door?

[MillCreek]

I need to replace my garage door twist handle/latch.  The escutcheon on the outside of the door, that holds the handle in the center, has broken.  This allows the handle to wiggle freely in the opening in the door.  I need to remove the fasteners holding the escutcheon in place so I can replace the handle and escutcheon.  For the life of me, I cannot figure out the fasteners holding this in place.  On each side of the door, the fasteners look like a short fat little cylinder with a central depression.  How the heck do I remove these fasteners?  Are these pop rivets?  If so, how do I remove them?

The replacement latch that I bought at Home Depot has an escutcheon with two screw holes, so that will be easy to install once I get the old one off. 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

pic?  they might well be rivets

[birdman]

Sounds like rivets.  Drill out, replace with new rivets.

[Hawkmoon]

Detcord

[birdman]

Detcord

Ah, my mistake.

Looks like rivets, wrap loop of detcord around rivets, tie in with loop running down for seams and up ascending rails.  Tie that in with several 4x48" cuts of detasheet positioned every 8' around perimeter of home, and around all load bearing walls.  Using explosive delay line, tie off 20ms delay connected to 26.35lbs (NOT 26.0) of C-4 placed around a 150 liter dewar of liquid cryogenic fluorine.  To properly tamp main detonation, cover dewar with ziploc bags filled with a mixture of  atomized fine powder Cobalt-60 and strontium-90 hydroxide.
Lay approximately 150 miles of fuse to where you have a long range helicopter waiting, trigger fuse.

I guarantee door handle will be able to be easily pulled from wreckage door.

Some collateral damage may occur, seek professional advice to double check calculations, and wait at least. 7300 years before returning to site.

[never_retreat]

If you have room and angle grinder will make quick work of the rivet heads.

[Nick1911]

If you have room and angle grinder will make quick work of the rivet heads.

Yup, grind the heads off.  Be sure to wear eye protection!

[grampster]

You must build a new garage around a new door.

[AmbulanceDriver]

Ah, my mistake.

Looks like rivets, wrap loop of detcord around rivets, tie in with loop running down for seams and up ascending rails.  Tie that in with several 4x48" cuts of detasheet positioned every 8' around perimeter of home, and around all load bearing walls.  Using explosive delay line, tie off 20ms delay connected to 26.35lbs (NOT 26.0) of C-4 placed around a 150 liter dewar of liquid cryogenic fluorine.  To properly tamp main detonation, cover dewar with ziploc bags filled with a mixture of  atomized fine powder Cobalt-60 and strontium-90 hydroxide.
Lay approximately 150 miles of fuse to where you have a long range helicopter waiting, trigger fuse.

I guarantee door handle will be able to be easily pulled from wreckage door.

Some collateral damage may occur, seek professional advice to double check calculations, and wait at least. 7300 years before returning to site.

Ok...  I used to think there wasn't such a thing as overkill...

Birdman has just shattered that illusion...  :D

[RevDisk]

Ah, my mistake.

Looks like rivets, wrap loop of detcord around rivets, tie in with loop running down for seams and up ascending rails.  Tie that in with several 4x48" cuts of detasheet positioned every 8' around perimeter of home, and around all load bearing walls.  Using explosive delay line, tie off 20ms delay connected to 26.35lbs (NOT 26.0) of C-4 placed around a 150 liter dewar of liquid cryogenic fluorine.  To properly tamp main detonation, cover dewar with ziploc bags filled with a mixture of  atomized fine powder Cobalt-60 and strontium-90 hydroxide.
Lay approximately 150 miles of fuse to where you have a long range helicopter waiting, trigger fuse.

I guarantee door handle will be able to be easily pulled from wreckage door.

Some collateral damage may occur, seek professional advice to double check calculations, and wait at least. 7300 years before returning to site.

150 miles upwind, of course. And eye protection. Safety first!

[MillCreek]

To ask a followup question: how do I drill out a rivet?  Am I just drilling out the center, and it will fall off then?

[Nick1911]

To ask a followup question: how do I drill out a rivet?  Am I just drilling out the center, and it will fall off then?

Usually it involves taking a centerpunch, putting a mark in the center of the rivet head [so the drill doesn't walk], drilling about half way through the head with a bit the same diameter as the rivet shank, then promptly catching the rivet with the drill, resulting the whole mess uselessly spinning and not cutting.  If you're exceedingly lucky, when the rivet binds it will tear itself from the door mangling the sheet metal in the process.  If you're not lucky, then you end up just grinding the head off.  While wearing eye protection. 

[Azrael256]

^ This man speaks from experience, clearly.

[MillCreek]

^^^ You know, some people that I know who have worked the shop floor at Boeing tell similar stories.  Apparently, it is kind of a big deal when you tear a hole in the fuselage skin.

[tokugawa]

Angle drill the rivet head- usually the force vector is far enough from the axial to keep it from spinning.
 If it is a pop rivet, the drill you need is slightly bigger than the center "pimple", as you are trying to drill off the flange, not the core.  These will usually only spin when the flange is almost cut through anyway.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

dremel with cutter wheel is good too