I am looking to stud my wifes 500ss and purchased some thicker tunnel protectors. Drilled out the rivets and took off the snow flap. Pulled out the factory protectors thru the "window" on the aluminum piece that the snow flat attaches too. When i went to install the thicker protectors there is not enough room in the "window" to get a straight shot to slide them in and there is not enough flex in the thicker protector to get it to stay in the track. Any suggestions??

Yes, you do have to notch out the aluminum to make the hole bigger, there's no way around it. I had to do the same thing, after research this is the standard method.

When you rivet the snowflap back on, i believe it is the center rivets cannot be riveted back in w/ standard gun.so,get backing plates(look like washers)and place rivets in from back side use a deep well socket to hold backing plates in spot.hope this helps.

Use stainless hardware (nuts, bolts & washers)to put the snow flap back on. Much easier to deal with if and when you need to remove next time.

x2 on the stainless nuts/bolts.

Tried 3 different rivet guns and could not get them to work right.

I suspected that I was going to have to do some modifying of the "window". Appreciate the info confirming my suspicions. Echo the comments on the nuts and bolts. Thanks for all of your help!!

Dragon: I just finished studding my 500ss a few weeks ago and encountered the same problem - the old tunnel protectors came out fine since they were smaller and more flexible but I had to cut and bend the metal to get the larger protectors in. However, once you get the snow flap back on it doesn't matter how it looks since it is covered. This is a design flaw in my mind - not sure why they did not make the window larger.