[TxCajun]

Bed Trim Holes

On each side of the bed, there are about 22 holes for mounting trim. The upper holes are about 3/8 inch and the lower holes are about 1/4 inch diameter. A previous owner filled in all of the holes with bondo, and apparently dented each hole with a ball peen hammer to add some thickness to the bondo patch.

I've decided I want to purchase and install the side trim eventually, so I cleaned out all of the bondo and re-formed the dented holes. This is a job for more than two hands, so my brother was working with me.

We made a tool with two ends, one for the upper 3/8 holes and one end for the lower 1/4 inch holes. The ends were made from 1/4 inch steel which we formed and ground to match the inner contour of the bed side, and welded a nut of the correct size to the back side of each end. The two ends are attached with a bar long enough to be able to position the threaded end behind the hole up inside the fender, and also hold the end from rotating.

For holes with relatively small indentations, we tightened a bolt and washer from the outside so that the contoured plate on the inside basically re-formed the curve of the fender around the trim hole by clamping force.

For holes with larger indentations, we clamped the plate using an eyebolt and nut, and used a slide hammer to work out the indentations.

The first picture shows a typical indented trim hole, and the last picture shows the re-formed trim hole. The pictures in between are the tool.
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