I'm about to paint my nerf bars to see how they turn out. If I remember correctly you painted yours (and from the looks of it you did). How did you pry apart the plastic step from the bar? This thing is giving me trouble. I see a little clip on each end but I don't want to pry too hard and break it. PITA What's the trick?


edit: I'm currently searching through your old threads (particularly your blackout threads) because I think that's where I read what you said about it. Will delete this if I find what I'm looking for.

 

Found it:


Did you ever figure out how they're attached and re-paint them or have you just left them alone?

 

Heyas.. yea.. I did figure how to remove everything, but it's definately going to take some patience. It's a 2-step process, and once you figure out how it works, it's really not that bad. My bar is only slightly different from yours, being that I had a supercrew step bar with 4 pads, but it should be all the same underneath. You're going to need a couple screwdrivers, maybe some of those small micro screwdrivers, or just about whatever tools you have laying around the house.

I used a sturdy flathead screwdriver to remove the step pads. You can be kinda rough here, but what you have to do is pry in between the bar/step and get to the retaining clip. You have to pry on top of the clip and pull/push down to detach the clip from the pad. Do this on both sides. I found it easiest to work from the outsides, towards the middle. Like I said, you can be kinda rough here, you shouldn't have to worry about breaking the clips in this step, and the step pad itself is pretty tough, nothing to break there.

Here's a pic of what it looks like underneath the step pad.. look closely at the clips, and you might understand how they are attached to the step pad.



After you manage to get the step pads off, now you're going to have a few one-way clips to pry out. Obviously, you can't just pull them right out, so you're going to need to get something really small and push in on both sides. Here's where I used a micro screwdriver set I had laying around, but whatever you can manage to fit into the hold will work I suppose. I had to push in on the clips and pull up at the same time, kinda shimmy it back and forth and it will eventually come out. --- Putting it all back together is very easy, slide the clips back onto the step pad, and push the pad/clips back into the bar. Let it dry for atleast 2-3 days to make sure it has time to cure before you start messing with the painted surface.

Here's a pic of what the clip kinda looks like inside the step bar and stuff..
The clip is illustrated black, the step bar is the red rectangle, the green circle is the hole in the metal where you have to pull the clip back out, and the blue arrows show the direction of where you need to push the retaining clips to pull them back out.



After you manage to pry off the step pads and clips just repeat the same steps for painting your wheels, using the Duplicolor wheel paint/clear and self etching primer. I couldn't figure out how to remove the end caps from the step bars so I just masked them off. IMO.. removing the step pads is the only way to paint these step bars, or else it will chip along the step pad.. you have to paint underneath the step pad. When I first painted it with the rustoleum, it chipped.. so do it right the first time and you won't have to mess with it again.. I'm very pleased with how well it turned out this time.

 

Wow thanks man! I really appreciate the in-depth description. I just got my first one off and started painting it. I'm actually using Duplicolor bed lining--hopefully it will hold up well enough. We will see...

Thanks again, bro! That makes it much easier. Yours look great.