Rick, I've been there twice now. Those bolts are hell to remove. The reason they are this way is to prevent them from coming loose. If they were standard design, they would not stay in there. That part of the car flexes a great deal and being a flat surface as it is, they would come loose. This design was very much intentional.
You must use an electric screw gun, and it better be fully charged, or it will not get them all out and back in. The only other setup would be to use bolts and nuts with lock washers. This part of the body on the Viper twists or we may say flex's a great deal, and the cover would come loose if it were not this way. I think the back end of the car has this greater flex in it, due to the fact the SRT doe's not have a dual rail frame to tie it in, and the stiff suspension really throws a lot of pressure into this part of the body, (twist/flex).
I took them out by hand and it wore me out. My wrist was sore the next day. Next time I used my screw gun, and it knocked a fully charged battery down. I then used my cordless drill on it.
