Shave Stake Holes In Your Truck Bed

So you finally decided you want to shave stake holes in your truck bed. You can create a very clean and finished look for the bed in your truck by completing this relatively simple modification. I'm sure those stake holes are useful for hauling ladder racks, or what not, but big bed rail holes don't belong on show trucks or trucks whose owner wants smooth styling for their truck.
I suppose you could take the easy way out and just install some plastic bed rail covers, but you will always have a seam between the plastic cap/cover and the body. Besides the ugly seam and sun faded look of the plastic rail cover, dirt and grime will always find a way to get under the rail cover and will scratch every inch of paint that is under them leaving you with a mess should you ever remove the covers.

Read along below as I show you how I shave stake holes in my 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD. Click on any picture to enlarge for easier viewing.

Before	Closer view of before shaving the stake pockets in the company truck.	Look at those scratches from my original plastic bed rail covers!
Lets concentrate on the back left hole. The process will be the same for the remaining holes	Use a grinder with a 60 grit disc to remove all paint around the hole and expose the metal for welding	This shows the paint removed and clean metal for welding in the filler plates
Remove paint at least 1" around the entire hole	If youur truck has hidden wires for trailer hook up, be sure to pull those out of an access hole for future use	Place a strip of 2 inch wide masking tape over the hole in order to make a template
Use a pencil or crayon to runb on the tape to find your edges	Then use a marker to outline the edges you found with the pencil/crayon	I picked up a sheet of 16 gauge steel to use for the plates to shave the holes for about 10 bucks at Lowes Home Improvement
I purchased a 2 foot piece that was 8 inches wide. I will have plenty to spare for future needs.	Peel your masking tape off of the truck and trim it to the exact size of the stake hole. Stick the tape to the new metal, in the corner	Using an electric or air grinder with a cut off wheel, cut the metal out along the edge of your tape template.
This is the metal I cut out with te tape still applied	Test fit your new piece in the stake hole you are shaving	Once your sure it fits well, remove the tape
At first, this plate was still just a hair too big, so I continued to grind the edges until it fit nicely	Remember that it does not have to be a perfect fit to shave stake holes. You will be welding this in place and the weld will fill the gap(s)	Happy with the way this plate fit, I used it as a template to create the rest of the filler plates
Use your nice fitting filler plate as a template to trace onto the 16 ga. steel	I traced the filler plate to make three additional outlines of the remaing plates	I then rough cut out the additional plates and marked each with a "bottom"
clean up the edges of the remaining filler plates with your grinder/cut off wheel	I created an angled edge on the bottom edge of each filler plate so that it would sit nicely in the bed stake holes.	Now all four plates are ready to be instaled/welded in place
I use a Hobart welder for projects like this. This a 140 amp model and is a great welder for the money	I set up my welder to properly penetrate the size metal of my truck be and filler plate steel	Tape one of the filler plates in place over the stake hole that you are shaving
The tape will hold the filler plate in place while you weld a few tacks	Tack weld each corner of the filler plate before removing the tape	Sheet metal tends to warp with the high heat from welding. I always keep a water soaked rag to place over the weld area to cool it down quickly.
Continue to spot weld around the plate, but take breaks between tacks to prevent the metal from getting too hot.	Tack/Spot weld around the entire plate until it is fully welded and you have officially shave stake hole in this corner of your bed. Dont lay bead welds, ONLY TACK WELD.	Get your grinder back out and grind down all of the tack welds until the panel is as smooth as possible. Don't forget that grinding will make the metal get hot too. Keep it cool with your water rag.
Here you can see that all of the tack welds high spots are ground smooth.	Rear view showing all of the tack weld high spots are smooth. Also grind down any weld splatter that has landed around the welded filler plate	After you clean up your weld area, sand down the paint for another three inches beyond your filler plate. Clean it up with laquer thinner or paint prep. Mix up some bondo and spread it evenly over the shave stake holes area with a plastic spreader.
To shave stake holes in the front of the bed is done the same way, but be sure to tape some paper to your rear glass to prevent cutting/welding fragements from scratching or breaking your glass. A little prevention can save you some headaches at a time like this	I got a little sloppy on this corner with my Bondo, but it will sand smooth without much effort.	By the time the Bondo had dried enough to sand, it hads gotton dark, but after sanding and washing, the bondo was smooth enough for another skim coat of Bondo, then primer followed by paint.
I decided to have my entire bed Rhino-Lined and proceeded to clean up the rest of the bed	Fortunately, Rhino Liner has excellent fill capabilities so I didn't have to worry asbout sanding all of the scratches smooth in my bed floor	All four Stake Holes Shaved Bondo'd, and sanded.
After having the truck bed painted, or Rhino Lined in my case, the smooth and clean look of your bed rails with the shave stake hole swill make your truck look much better!	Finished view of the left bed rail	Bed Floor after Rhino Lining
Smooth Right side Bed Rail	Rhino Lined Tail Gate	My Shop Dog, Newman, has approved the work
Reinstalled my Extang Tanneu Cover to complete the job	Yes it is possible to have a bed cover AND an exhaust stack	All Done with the shave steak holes project!