Sorry I wasn’t clear. I left the rivets alone that attach the brackets to the body itself. If those brackets ever came off it will be because I am taking them off for good and filling in the holes.
In my case, many parts of the flare itself was secured to the bracket by rivets. Looked like a factory job too despite that rivets suck. I don't think the flares were ever taken off prior to my ownership.
So when I did the cleaning under the flares, instead of re-using rivets. I used M6X1.0...
I didn't think about that.
Unfortunately on the 77 models, the flares are also on the rear side doors some, so the hole plugging would have to happen on those rear side doors as well.
If I could walk into a Toyota dealer right now and order a new 70 series, any model available. It would...
Sorry I didn’t mean to hijack the thread about flares but to answer the question, it is my concern about corrosion but thankfully there is none to be seen last time I took the flares off to install new rubber seals.
I don’t get mud up in there myself but I redid the flare seals awhile back and made it very easy to remove them now for easy cleaning. No more rivets. Only Toyota hardware bolts hold on the flares now.
If I could, I would delete my oem flares.
Edit: I mean to say if I could easily. No weld or hole covering involved. Sadly that isn’t the case. It is a mess of brackets under those flares.