What are the factory nerf bars made of? I was gonna paint them with some Krylon Fusion, but I'm not sure if that will do the trick.

 

Mine are the black ones and they are made with some kind of metal because they are starting to bubble with rust...sucks. I am thinking what I want to do to mine as well.

 

I know one guy on here, i can't remember who, did his in what he called "rockerguard" which is essentially bedliner spray. That is the most likely route I'll go with mine.

 

Yeah J.Wal did that I think too. I have parts of mine done like that and one of my options was doing it to the side steps but not sure yet. I wanted to do red and black just not sure whether to do the steps or the bar part red/black. If that makes any sense. Either way I am going to sand them down where all the rust is starting.

 

That actually sounds pretty cool. I did a little investigating during the daylight and it appears that the bars are metal with a plastic step and end caps. Now I'm trying to decide if I wanna do the whole step bar with rhino liner, or just the metal parts and paint the plastic with Fusion.

 

Yeah thats what I was thinking too...I think the Herculiner stuff that I am going to use might be too slippery on the steps...Maybe not...although, It would be more durable since thats where all the abuse will come from (stepping in and out). Then I would paint the metal part red to match my truck...hmmmmm

 

The factory nerf bars are made of a powder coated steel. Mine were bubbling up as well so I decided that I would redo them myself.

I disassembled them as much as I could, unbolting the assembly from the cab, unbolted the brackets from the bars themselves, carefully unsnapped the plastic pads, and unbolted the caps on each end of them (do not break off the caps when removing! I made that mistake >.

I borrowed my buddy's soda bottle sand blaster and got most of the rust and crap off of the bars and brackets. then I followed with some 60 grit sand paper to make the paint adhere a little better.

I then sprayed them with 3 coats of Rust-O-leum white primer. It was recommended by a local auto store to use a rubber undercoating to paint the bars with. It was a bad choice for gravel roads, so I would not recommend using it in any place.

I think I will try and redo them again, using some duplicolor bed armor instead, or even maybe have a local body shop shoot them with rhino liner. Hope this helps

 

Wow sounds like you really put some work into them. I'm not really needing to go that far into it, since I haven't seen any rust or bubbling. They just look kinda faded and thats one of my big pet peeves. I'm thinking I'm gonna clean them up and then shoot the metal with the duplicolor bed armor.
Thanks for the input!

 

Don't use Krylon Fusion....that's for plastics. If rattle can paint is what you decide to use, go with a rust preventitive type paint.

 

If i do a bed liner type of coating do I need to do any type of primer or scuffing?