looking to redo running boards
 

So now that it's good weather I put the ranger in the garage so that I could do the oil, rotate the tires and hopefully tackle these running boards. I have the standard stepbar style that is on the Rangers, but since it's been out in the weather the past few years the matte black is starting to show signs of rust starting/pitting. I want to take them off, sand them down, and recoat/repaint them with something. Any suggestions, thoughts, etc? What was on it and how can I get something strong and reliable back in on them?

Bedliner works well for them!

cool, what brand/type would you recommend. I am thinking with bedliner it'll get a pretty rough texture and mud will become damn near impossible to get off, or am i wrong?

dupicolor makes a kit that it tougher than nails but is pretty smooth. Ive only ever used the spray can of the stuff but its easy to clean

can you let me knwo what the kit name is, I'll pick it up at an auto parts store this week. I assume just lightly sand all rust, wet wipe, let dry and tape off the plastic foot grip areas?

I would advise against using bedliner unless you get the bars REALLY clean.

Alot of people rave over bedliner as the 'fix all' coating, with out realising, or having the forsight, that when it rusts again, getting the bedliner off, to fix the problem is going to be a real chore!

Be sure to sand/grind the crap out of the step bars... maybe even look on ebay for replacements... Maybe look in the phone book and see if someone will sandblast them for you for a reasonable cost... such as, have them blasted while they are blasting something else for beer money or something... blasting step bars, takes literally 5 minutes... then their clean, rattle can them to get paint on them RIGHT AWAY then coat them in bedliner. Duplicolor does make a nice bedliner in a can and its like $70 at autozone. I used it on the bumper of my work truck (which was sandblasted clean, primed, and topcoated with emron... that bumper will outlast the truck....

Definitely get all of the rust off there that you can. I vote for the Duplicolor stuff too... works great.

im gonna have to do the same. i need to pick up some media to blast them

Try soda blasting them. you can do it right in the driveway and the soda just blows/washes away.
I'm heavily looking into it for re-painting my car in the winter, from what i can tell, its worth the extra cost.

Also, Raptor liner is pretty good too, its a spray on thing and it isn't really as textured as the other ones.

I vote por-15 and some rustoleum.

Por15 and rustoleum.. really?~ your going to shell out the cahs for a high end industrial top coat, and use homeowner grade primer?

REALLY?~!

Rustoleum is good for getting a coat of whatever on freshly blasted parts, however, as a base primer, the stuff sucks, esp when used with an industrial finish.

The Duplicolor coating, has very little 'grit' its like a very thick paint, almost as thick as sherwin williams duration.. if you want traction i suggest adding pool sand before applying. when they say use in well ventilated areas, they mean it the stuff is stinky, will burn your nose...

Also, soda blasting set ups are very nice... however they are cost prohibitive for the do it yourselfer... also, the gravity fed sandblasters are a waste. you want atleast a pressurized pot... if you dont blast professionally, spending $20,000 on a professional set up, is a waste of money. you can get a small pressurized pot from Harbor frieght for like $100. then, head over to Home Depot and pick up a couple bags of play/pool sand. the plastic media that HF sells is both an EXTREME rip off, and it doesnt even comapre to pool sand. Pay close attention to your CFM rating, on both the Air compressor as well as the pot. Using the pot, which exceeds the CFM of your compressor over a long period of time (over an hour) could very well cause major damage to your compressor due to over heating... most small comps run around 5 cfm... at 90psi... my shop air compressor supplies somewhere in the ball park of 50 cfm at 90psi, which still isnt enough to run my pot... which requires 120cfm at 90 psi and runs off a 4 cylinder diesel.. itll clean anything, and fast. however most of you arnt in this position which is why i suggested that you ask around if someone can clean your bars while they blast other parts. especially if you have never blasted, or dont blast often...

with that said, blasting at dusk, is totally awesome!

Sorry, por-15 w/a coat of paint to make it look pretty....
I said rustoleum cus it was the first thing that popped into my mind. I'm sure any exterior aproved paint would work with the proper prep.

As far as shelling out for it, a starter kit ran me $20+ shipping. Doesn't seem to expensive to me.

Duplicolor Bed Armor is what you are looking for. I used in on the inside of my bed and the stuff is great! I would take the boards off and do them. All I did on mine was to scuff up the paint after I cleaned it with something (I forgot what I used to clean it with!). I got a couple of paint removers from Walmart that chuck into your drill at about $8 a piece. I think I got mine from jegs as a kit and it was <$100 shipped to my door.

Wear gloves while you do it because it STICKS TO EVERYTHING!!! Since it is water-based, it is safe to do it in your garage, not like herculiner which gives off some bad fumes. To stir it up great, also use your drill with a paint-mixing paddle, about a buck or two for that.

Good luck!

One last note, since POR15 is in the discussion, it wont hold up against UV light. So you could use POR15 then top coat it. I plan to use industrial Devron Primer (forget the name) and then coat it with Devron 224HS industrial paint... Its made for use on ocean oil tankers. I figure that will surely do the trick. The stuff is a 2 part epoxy, and is slightly expensive at about 70 for the primer, 70 for the paint plus extra for the activators. However it helps that I have about 30 gallons of each from an auction we bought out 10 years ago.

POR15 is some nice stuff however. it runs about $130 a gallon. However its not a top coat finish. Its more like a middle coat, first use a good quality primer, then POR15, then top coat it with whatever.

As far as latex based finishes, Personally, I wouldnt waste my time or money. While latex has come a LONG way in the past 20 years, it still doesnt hold up to the durability, and ease of application, of oil based finishes.

oil based paints, and other non latex based coatings, are much more durable than their waterbased counter parts. While it may look great for the first 2 years, how is it going to hold up over 5, 10 15 years down the road? Not well. If it did, everyone would be using it and advertising how they use 'green' materials... However, since hardly no one uses it, its not 'there' yet.

You could always blast and powdercoat

i just did the duplicolor bedliner on mine with some gloss black rustoleum and satin black fusion on the plastics

youll be happy to know that, the black gloss rustoleum, sticks very nicely to the duplicolor bedliner. I painted the rear bumper of my work truck last fall, and it has yet to peal.