Help! Tie Down Rail Bolts Spinning

Hey everyone!

I bought my 2010 Tacoma last year as a winter car and for some chores around the house when we need a truck. Due to the natural order of things it's become a side project for me because I can't leave stuff alone.

The wife wants to do some camping and I thought it'd be a fun project to build the Taco up around that want. I bought a rack for our kayaks and went to install said rack and ended up with a massive snag. I'm here hoping that someone can share some insight with me.

The snag: In order to install the rack I needed to take off the tonneau cover. The tonneau cover is bolted behind the rail system. The passenger side came out with little drama. The driver side is another story. Every single one of the bolts on that side is spinning in place.

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what I need to do here. My first idea is to drill them out and add a rivnut in their place so I can screw the rail into that. But without seeing behind it I’m reluctant to do that. Does anyone have any experience with this or any advice on how to proceed?

 

Have you tried taking the tail light out so you can see the backside of the last bolt to see what's happening?

 

Didn’t even think of that. I’ll go check that out!