Without actually seeing it's hard to say, but I think the rivets would be stronger. Can you just use clamps on the inside and straps around the boat outside? If you use the rivets, use aluminum rivets, drill them out, and then fill the holes for looks. You probably won't need all of the rivets, you can put a fender washer on each end of the rivet to distribute clamping forces.

> Paul, Thanks for the great suggestions! Forgive my ignorance
> but what do you mean by fillit material? Do you mean to thicken the
> epoxie with some type of additive? You got me wondering of simply
> using the pop rivits again untill it sets up and then snapping them
> off. Do you think they would hold better than wire?