When I got my current car it had ugly lumps in the tread rubbers over the fixings. It was one of the first jobs that I did was to whip the rubbers out but the fixings were not rusty, in fact they were still bright and shiny. The problem was the fixing heads were too big and distorting the rubber. The rubbers are now permanently distorted so this thread has got me motivated. I’ve ordered up 4m of new rubber today so will attempt a fix using aluminium pop rivets.
Rog, if you are careful you can countersink the channel a little deeper to make sure the new fixings don't stand proud & give the nasty looking bulges in the rubber
Careful choice of replacement screw heads help as well. I think I used 3mm stainless low profile slotted pan head with slightly larger spreader washers underneath, and screw slots in line with strips so as to not interfere with rubber. Plenty of lubricant on latter when re-fitting as well.
As an aside one wing was later removed and stripped for warranty respray and the painter joked about my OCD re strip fixings. I had to explain
