I have been searching all over for diamond plate bed caps for my 1997 F-150 FLARESIDE. I've been told that because of the unique bed style that they do not extist.

 

Nobody knows of any aftermarket company or anything dag.

 

No One Offers Anything for the bed style

 

try lookin up for a lightning, more popular truck, and its got the same bed

 

Well one of these aftermarket companies should hop on board here, there is a large market for people with the flareside bed.

 

There isn't much available for the flairside bed because it is fiberglass. Ever notice you dont even have stake pockets. The bed wouldnt be strong enough to hold the stress. This is what I was told by the local Ford dealer body shop. I wanted to use the stake pocket mounts for my dual CB ants. and thought the holes were under the plastic. NO STAKE HOLES. The top of the bed rail is about a 1/4" of fiberglass with sheet metal on the bottom layer. The inside of the bed is a sheet metal skin but the outside is all fiberglass. Thats how they get that nice shape.

I installed a Yakima rack system on my bed rails and I know because I had to drill all the way through to the bottom of the bed rail and use spring loaded wing nuts to hold it down. You can see the all the layers. I also had to use much longer bolts to go through all the layers. I would say buy some diamond plate and make your own. You can have someone weld studs on the bottom in the location where you can access the bottom of the bed rails. There are 2 or 3 lcoations I believe. Find someone with a break to bend it however you like. It should be pretty easy to make and then you will have a 1 of a kind.
I mage a front skid plate out of 1/4" diamond plate and it is pretty easy to work with. A dremel tool or a grinder can be used to contour the ends where it meets the cab.

 

I didn't know the outside was fiberglass I know they are on the z71 or something because my buddy has one and the rocks kick up from his tires and hit the inside wheel well and chipped the paint off on the outside of the z71 flareside fender.

 

To be sure you can always do the bondo checker and try sticking a magnet to it. I am almost positive. I have never seen one unpainted to know for sure, but I do know for sure the top of the bed rail is fiberglass. I also have a nice gouge behind my wheel that shows at least that area is not metal.