ayau

Somehow I managed to strip away the head of the screw as shown below.



If I remove the plastic lining on the trunk cover, will that expose the other side of the bolt? If so, how do I go about in removing that cover piece?

willyb0b

Removing the plastic cover takes quite a bit of pulling force. It's connected pretty solid with 4 to 6 connection points that require some pulling. Don't be afraid to break it, it will take a lot of pulling to get it off. You'll feel where are the best spots to pull as you go about doing it.

stevies30

How about getting a screw/bolt extractor kit? You can find them at Sears or almost any auto parts store.

tfischer

With a screw/bolt extractor kit, you drill a small hole into the center of the bolt with no head; then you use a screw with a reverse thread and screw it into the little hole. When it gets tight, it turns the headless bolt in the counterclockwise direction (the unscrew direction) and the whole thing turns and turns until it lifts out of the original socket. It's a pretty standard procedure and the kits are not expensive. This happens a lot, which is why there "kits" for this. All you need is a drill powerful enough to drill into the center of the bolt.
Keep the kit around for next time or, more probably, for when someone asks you how to extract a headless bolt, and you lend him your kit with undertones of wondering how anybody could get along without a bolt extractor kit in the basement.