I have the factory black tube steps on my '99 and its starting to rust through the paint. I want to re-finish them, but before i do was curious if anyone has done so with a DIY bed liner or some heavy duty paint.

 

I tried it with the DIY bedliner on my factory steps. Let's just say that was a gigantic fail!

I don't know why, but the stuff just shrank (a lot) and peeled like crazy. I took all the steps I was supposed to take to the letter, but it still happened. It could have been bad stuff, but it was a good brand name (Rustoleum).

I took pics of the crappy steps and the empty cans of crap and got my money back.

My .02? Just find a good, durable paint to refinish them in. Maybe others who had luck with the DIY bedliner stuff will chime in with their results.

Good luck!

 

thanks man, good to know

 

I painted mine almost 2 years ago.... and paint started flaking away from the step part of the tube with in a couple of weeks. The rest of the tubes look ok, but there are chips all around the plastic step. I want to redo them and was looking at the diy bed cover, but have not made any decisions yet. Primer and paint chipped too. I did not want to remove the plasstic steps because I was afraid of breaking the clips that hold them on... I know this was a large part of the problem but I could not see any other easy solution.

 

Powder coat? As long as it's not rusting out from the inside out, if it's just surface stuff.

 

Yeah more than likely why it flakes. I want to see if anyone has done it and how it turned out before i do. Just the driverside on mine is getting rusty. Thought about maybe POR-15 or some other heavy duty paint, depending what it costs and if itll be good for step bars.


I wish I could afford powdercoat, but then again if I could I would probably just buy a set of N-Fabs and not worry about my old ones