Before i was able to put on the molded mud flaps, i drove my truck about 2000kms over highway. Now the bracket that holds the running boards on under the rear doors is sand blasted to the metal and now starting to rust. not to mention the rocker panels are gone the color of the truck (meaning the two tone paint is gone). This on a red two tone FX4.

 

I've got bracket troubles too. After only 900 miles, the rear brackets on both sides of the truck were peeling as the pic shows. Two months and a couple thousand miles later, the brackets were almost completely bare. My bars came from Ford's parts department and my brackets are aluminum. The paint was coming off in chunks as opposed to being sandblasted. The dealer gave me two new ones and while I was installing them, I noticed the fronts brackets are now peeling. Argh!! Now they're ordering me four new brackets. The step bars themselves look fine. The brackets are crap and must be from a different vender. I'm hoping that I just got a bad batch.

 

One post says brackets are rusting, another says they're aluminum...who's correct?

 

No matter what the are made of, it sounds like the paint is the problem. If they are getting sandblasted then no regular paint will stand up to that. If it were happening to me I would take the brackets off and have them powder coated or buy the rubberized coating in a spray can and try that. The powdercoating will last longer than paint. The rubberized coating should last longer than powdercoating if done correctly. My personal favorite would have to be spray-on bed liner. You can get this at Walmart in a spray can and works very well. I did my rear wheel wells above the tires and looks great.

 

Maybe we both are.

mxz600 says his are rusting, which would make his steel (or iron?). I'd be more concerned about the paint that's getting worn off his truck. That sounds abnormal.

My brackets and bars are feather light and definitely are not steel. I'm not a metals expert, but my "guess" would be aluminum. As I stated, my step bars were purchased at the parts department. They are different than the factory bars and may be from a different vendor altogether.

Here's what they look like..........



grayflare,

Mine don't appear to be getting "sandblasted". The paint just isn't adhered to the brackets very well and is coming loose in big potato chip-like chunks. Bad prep perhaps? I thought about painting/coating them myself, but I don't feel like I should have to do that. Plus, matching the matte finish might be tough. With some luck, the next set of brackets will solve my problem.

 

mine are factory installed steps, and they are steel cus there is rust spots like pin holes all over the bare metal. And as for under the doors, or rocker panels, i guess that is just as vulnerable as the step brackets, can't expect paint to hold up to road sand slush salt. Hopefully with the new mud flaps this will stop. I plan to repaint the brackets in the spring.

 

I have after market hoop steps on my '97 F-250. They were only available in the aluminum, so I spray painted them black before I installed them. I knew the paint wasn't going to last long, so I just touched them up from time to time. When I did the herculiner on the bed, I coated the hoop steps. I did that about 4 years ago, and other than an occasional shot of Armor-All to keep them looking good, I have not had any problems. I have not been very impressed with the Herculiner in the Bed, for the price it is fine, and as a 7 year old truck it is fine. Where that stuff really shines is in applications like coating running boards etc. I think you can get it in 1qt cans for less than $30 bucks. I have seen the spary on stuff also, but have not had the chance to use it.

If you do apply some sort of coating, make sure you clean off all the old paint first, that way it will stick better and last several years.

 

I've got the same problem with the rear brackets as well as some paint flaking/peeling from the rubberized coating on the bottom-most section behind the front wheels. Both happened before I got my mud flaps installed, but it was with less than a 1,000k and the truck hadn't even seen gravel yet! I'll be brining it into the dealer for an oil-change soon so I'll expect that it'll be taken care of . . . . .

 

Hey Clem, I would like to know "HOW DO YOU PUT PICS IN YOUR POSTS?"

I cannot figure this out, let me know and i'll post a pic of what i got going on under my truck.