Has anybody here made their own gap guards before out of some kind of thin rubber or plastic material? If so, can you give me some information about what to use and if they look good

 

Rubber will expand and contract with temperature at a different rate than the fender wells that it is screwed into. The holes will stretch and eventually tear.

Plastic will be tough to work with. To thin, and it will be torn by rocks and debris from the road. Too thick, and it will be a royal pain to install.

Urethane is what Performance Accessories makes their gap guards with. Get some sheets of it and cut to fit. Or just buy theirs.

 

go to wal-mart or autozone, something along those lines, and buy some floor mats big enough to cover everything. make sure they are black and the backs of them are flat. when you install them, but the back facing the outside of the truck.

 

or you can use some kind of thin sheet metal. i think that would look good even better than using plastic or rubber

 

I welded 3in flatstock to my crush blocks when i did my 97. Worked awesome. I Didnt like the look ofa mudflap hanging in there. I have pics Ill get them posted.

 

https://www.f150online.com/forums/me...ap-filler.html

try this link, use 48 inch long peices. You can get them at farm and fleet or TSC. I would bet you could bolt them to the crush blocks if you dont have access to a welder. I personally wouldnt do it any other way.

 

that is a good idea but is there a way to hide the side as well so where you dont even see a gap at all?

 

If you used thiner metal and a break to bend it im sure you could. At first I was worried about that small gap but that gap is there without any lift at all. its just ussually on top of the frame and a body lift makes it more drastic.

I had a lot of people that had to ask to make sure it was a body lift because they didnt notice gap guards but didnt see a suspension lift.

 

yeah thats tru... it still looks great bc like you said tht gap is usually there anyways but if you got one to cover it both up then it would be awesome bc its not rubber or plastic and you wouldnt be able to tell at all

 

what did you do for the front just normal gap guards

 

if you use a thinner metal and bent it twice really tight it could be done very neatly to cover both gaps. wouldnt want it to bee too thin as it might wave. Maybe could rivet it to the wheel well and weld or rivet it to the crush blocks.

Or even a second strip along the original bed it wouldnt have to be one piece.

It could be done.


The front I left alone so you could see the shortys. It never really bothered me to have that open.

 

Yeah i hear ya.. Im gonna look more into this one for the rear bc the front ill just use regular ones for the front

 

i made my own in the back with sheet metal, just cut and bet it then bolted it to the frame

 

Seems like a lot of work to save $75.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PRA-6730/

 

yeah but then again you can get it for free or really cheap and just do some prep work and it will hide it soo much better than the gap guards... Id rather take more time in making it look better bc thats why its gonna stand out more when im completely done if thats ever possible