HELP! Stripped bed rail torx screws

HELP! Some of my bed rail torx screws are stripped (4 total). Can someone help me out or know a shop that will take the screws out? I’ve searched and done what others suggested. I’m about to give up installing my bakflip bed cover. Located in Tacoma, WA. Thanks in advance.

 

Post a pic of the stripped heads real quick

 

OK, so the same thing happened to me when I was putting on my diamondback cover. I thought all the bed rail screws were stripped, or cross threaded, but what really happened is that the screws protrude too far into the fender well and the back end of them gets all rusty and corroded and they won’t come out of the hole.

Soak all of the screws with liquid wrench penetrating oil three or four times, waiting half hour between soaks.

Some of the screws you can reach by putting your hand up inside the wheel well and unscrewing them from there. Cut off the heads of those screws and grab the rusty end with a vice grip. Unscrew. For the ones you can’t reach that way you are going to have to be very patient and persistent.

I bought a vice grip that had a little loop on the end of the handle that you can stick a screwdriver into to tighten it after you clamp it to the screws. Get one of those with a narrow nose and tighten the heck out of it on those screws. Move slowly. Turn the screws backward and forward. Unscrewing them gradually. You will snap off some of the heads. Maybe all of them. When you do, grab what’s left a keep at it.

It took me a day and a half of doing nothing else to get the screws out. About forty minutes to install the Diamondback. I replaced all of the screws with stainless. Stick with it. You’ll get there.

 

They all mostly look like this. Tried different size screw extractors but no bueno.

 

Penetrating oil and a left handed drill bit

 

If you can get to the threads from the backside as mentioned above. Just step the the drill bit up size one at time until the head of the screw pops off. Then from the back you can turn them so they pull thru the rivnut( which is what I believe is being used to screw into) then run a tap to clean up the threads. Patience is gonna be the key.

 

That's a rough spot to get a stripped bolt. I might try to jb weld a nut to the bolt head for more leverage, and use penetrating fluid like another member suggested.

 

Might as well just drill them out. Looks like you are already nearly there from the extractors

 

Looks like I need to go back and buy some left handed drill bits and oil.

 

I'd probably just drill them out at this point. Centerpunch in the middle and start out with a small bit working your way up in size. Shouldn't take too long to get all of them done, probably an hour or so taking your sweet time.

 

I will tackle this next week as I’m off to AZ. If anyone wants to help me out, I got some food, beer or can float you some cash. Kinda over it and thought about taking it to the dealer and hopefully they’d do it for free if I bought a trd pro skid plate from them. Kinda high hopes though.

 

This happened to me. I had success but had to do the following with the screw extractors:

• Penetrating oil in the screw threads
• Cutting fluid in the screw head where you want the extractor to bite
• Make sure to pre-drill the screws with the correct drill diameter, you need to ensure you drill deep enough that the extractor does not bottom out before the teeth bite.
• Light blow with the hammer to seat the extractor. Important that there is cutting fluid in there for this step.
• Use a tap wrench on the extractor so that you can maintain force into the screw while turning CCW.

Could not get the extractor teeth to bite without doing all of the above.

 

Okay, this is going down this weekend. Wish me luck.

 

Success! Now 3 more to go.

 

I'm having this exact same issue installing my bakflip. What did you end up doing? Would love to know the exact tools (bit sizes,etc...) you used as well.

 

Assuming you have a drill, buy this and make sure you’re using it correctly (watch youtube videos) - Start with the smallest drill bit and make sure you drill the center of the screw, so use a punch or nail first to mark.
- Drill speed NEEDS TO BE LOW. Take your time.
- Use penetrating oil if needed.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the quick response. Got the first one off but broke the drill bit trying to take the screw off the bit
No idea how I'm going to do all of these.

 

You can exchange the whole drill bit back to harbor freight. Penetrating oil would’ve helped you out.

 

So you drill into the hole using the left handed bits, and then simply reverse out using the drill? I just stripped a bolt on mine and it’s a pain in the ass.

 

You use the left hand drill bit to extract the bolt out. It does take a lot of time since I started with the smallest and went up a bit each screw. Patience is key and don’t force the bit otherwise you’ll end up snapping it.