Plastic bed rail covers and spray on bed liner?

[kidplunge]

I have a 2000 F-150 that I use for camping. I would like to get the bed lined (line-x or rhino) and I am concerned about the plastic bed rail covers. Can I take them off? Do I need to? I would like the liner all the way around the top of the rails. The bed liner place said they were an integral part of the bed construction and that if I took them off the bed would be weaker. I have a hard time believing that a ****ty plastic rail cap would have that much importance, but Ford has surprised me before. The whole deal is simple, I have a camper shell which I would like to bolt to the bed permanatly. I want the whole bed lined so it wont rust. I will seal the holes after I drill. With all the little gaps in between the body parts i want the back to be as water tight as i can make it because wet sleeping bags suck. So anyone with any ideas or experiance please let me know. Thanks

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[DarrenWS6]

Go with Line-X, and they will do all of the necessary measures when you take the truck in. Such as removing the caps, bed bolts, bed hooks...

[TruckGasm]

You'll need to keep those plastic rails on. If you take them off, you will see a bunch of rectangular holes all the way down the rails.

The bedliner dealer will not remove them, they will mask them off prior to appying the bedliner.

[kidplunge]

Thanks for the info i will remove them for the lining then reinstall. Anyone know of a good replacement for them i.e. diamond plate

[06yz250f]

if you were to put diamond plate bed caps could you line ex over them since their metal?

[TruckGasm]

The aftermarket aluminum diamond plate bed rails attach to the factory plastic caps with 3M double stick tape (and one screw on each side). A good brand is Dee Zee.

It's really not a very good idea to apply a bedliner product to aluminum rail caps. Aluminum has a unique property when exposed to water called cathodic migration which can lift the bedliner material (or primer) from the aluminum if there is an edge (edge of bedliner and aluminum) exposed to water.

[Fire604]

I have a Pace Edwards retractable bed cover whose guide rails are powder coated aluminum and the PC has worn away to almost nothing. I was going to have them shot with Line-X to match the bed. No good??

[TruckGasm]

Pace Edwards covers have a three year warranty, is it still in warranty?

[Fire604]

No, it's about 6 years old.

[Jditta]

CAn the plastic bed caps on the 04 up f150's just be line-x'd along with the bed?

[TruckGasm]

I don't think a bedliner product could be applied to the Pace Edwards rails and look nice and still allow the cover to function properly. I think you're better off either painting it or having it re-powdercoated.

Typically, when your dealing with fairly flimsy plastic, it's best to apply the bedliner all away around to totally encapsulate the plastic, as we do with say....Bushwacker flares. The plastic rail caps can't be totally encapsulated (or else they would not fit back onto the truck) so, I would discourage spraying the caps.

[Jditta]

They can't be sprayed while still being on the truck?

[TruckGasm]

I don't recommend it and I would not do it at my shop.

But, that doesn't mean you won't find someone who would do it.

[Jditta]

Originally Posted by TruckGasm

I don't recommend it and I would not do it at my shop.

But, that doesn't mean you won't find someone who would do it.

Just curious as to why you wouldn't do it?

[TruckGasm]

There are too many negatives to the application:

1. The plastic is flimsy and thus is not a good substrate.
2. You can't encapsulate the plastic (which you would want to do since it's flimsy).
3. There is too much water exposed LINE-X/plastic edges (on this flimsy plastic).