Stock bed extender is showing some signs of oxidation in that it has a few spots that appear 'rusty'.

A couple of questions...

1. Am I dealing with aluminum or stainless? Some other type of metal?

2. Any suggestions on attempting to remove the oxidation spots?

3. Do you think that I could pull this off as a warranty issue? If so, what stance do I take?

Any other thoughts?

RP

 

I was under the impression the extenders were stainless. Take a magnet to the surface and see what happens. If is sticks, it MAY be stainless, but it sure aint aluminum. If is slides off, it may be aluminum or an austinitic stainless steel. It doesnt feel coated, so I wonder if just some mothers polish, rubbed in the direction of the "grain" would take care of it.

 

I'm definately up to try ANYTHING to make it look new again. That's definately one of the areas on my truck that I need to focus some work upon ... that, or just leave the extender in the garage until when I need it.

Thanks for the reply Dave. How's South Bend? Looks like it might be a while before we get back up there to do any additional work.

RP

 

My factory extender is polished stainless......thats why they are so expensive(I made them throw one in for free after I negotiated the price on the truck)

The ones you see in the magazines for $150.00 are usually aluminum.

Use a little Mothers or something similar and it should come right off.

Edited to say I just made my 100th post and senior member status

 

The first product I tried was a cheapy product. I should've known better than to buy it but, that's really the only stainless piece that I'll ever polish thus, I was hoping that I could get away with just doing it that way...

Oh well. Live and learn... never buy the ultra-cheap stuff. You get what you pay for.


RP

 

how much are the stock bed extenders? I want to find a good bargain on ebay.

 

Fireman, My bed extender has a scratch on it and that scratch is rusting. I placed a magnet on it, and it fell off. So it rusts like steel, but does not take a magnet. Hmm. I have a product in my garage that disolves rust, but what to cover it with?

Coach, I picked mine up on ebay for $155. They show up there on a regular basis, and the bidding seldom goes beyond $200 when shipping is added in. Shipping is expensive from $30 - $60.

As I understand, some of them sold on ebay are stolen and sold there. If the seller says it is off of his turck and this is the third one he has sold off his truck then you may want to wait fo the next one.

The story I got was the kid sold one for his dad, and when he saw the price he got for it he bought another one on ebay which sold for less and resold it. You decide.

I posted in a thread here what parts to buy and how to install it. There is also info there on how to fix it so that it cannot be easily stolen.

 

Yeah, I've got one. Mine was used as well and I believe the places that I'm seeing rust were 'scuffed' during shipping.

I think that mine might be an 'alloy' of sorts that has a certain Fe content but, not that much.

Probably the cheapest thing that Ford could use honestly...

That's life.

I'm going to try to get some of the rust off of mine but, the initial inspection doesn't look good.

RP

 

bed extender in my garage...anybody interested...

 

I'm interested. You've got mail.

 

Good luck shipping the extender. You're pretty much going to have to break it down into pieces and ship it that way. None of the major carriers wanted to ship mine from Arkansas unless about $90 in shipping fees were paid.

Thus, we tore it down and shipped it, taped up, in pieces with an attached little box of the hardware. It was a beast.

 

Hey RockPick,
I bought mine used off eBay and I had the entire thing shipped via UPS from Missouri to Texas fully assembled. I think shipping was somewhere in the $40 range. The guy used a water heater box to wrap it up with and a ton of bubble wrap. It made the trip to Texas just fine. I lucked out, the guy really packaged it nicely and I had no scratch marks etc...

 

Hey RP. Well figure out a bogus reason to come out here and I will meet you at your favorite itailian place. P.S. THe wife and I are going there tonight, thanks for the heads up!

 

CoachP,

My Stealer...I mean dealer's.... price for the extender was more than $350.00....closer to $400 I think. I dont remember the exact price cause I made them gimme one.

 

My extender was shipped as is with a tag wrapped around it. I think it was a shipped UPS with a Fed-X address tag on it.