I bought a 98' Ford last month and so far have liked everything about it, except for what I found last night. I had an appointment to have line-x sprayed in tomorrow morning and I wanted them to go over the rail because my plastic caps were looking faded and had some small ripples in them along the outside bottom edge. So last night I took off one rail cap and found that Ford installed those caps with the intent that they were not removable. After ripping one apart I couldn't leave the other one on so I ripped it off also, and the tail gate cap. Now I have BIG holes all the way around me bed. (about 1/4" x 1" every 4")

Has anyone every had these filled by a body shop? Can it be done? How expensive would it be?

I really like the look of sprayed liner over the rails, but I think I might have to settle for new plastic caps.
Any suggestions?

 

Only way to do a permanent repair is weld a piece into every hole, then grind... don't want to imagine cost to do it. The saving grace of rail caps is you can replace them when they get beat up.

 

I had my 2000 done last month. Same thing happened to me but my Line-x dealer took care of it. He used expoxy and fiberglass to patch it and the sprayed it! You can't tell where they were. I know where they are and pushed and poked, didn't do a thing!

 

Yep, those holes look like this. Even if you plug the holes, the rails just don't have a nice looking shape.

 

you can just put tape over holes and spray over them you wont be able to tell might be easier to just purchase new caps