andylevy@yahoo.com wrote:
: Posting for my brother in law....
: Brother in law bought a Tacoma w/ about 66K on the clock. Came with a plastic
: drop-in liner that goes over the rails, and he's finally noticed (had the truck
: a week now) that the liner rubs the bedrails and is scarring the paint. Ideas
: on what he can do to solve this? All I can come up with is to cut off that
: section of the liner and put on some securely-mounted caps on the rails, or cut
: it off and Line-X/Rhino/Herculiner the tails.
Going the cheap, easy route :-) I would say that it depends
on what he plans to do with the truck in the long term. You
mentioned the possibility of a spray-in liner in the future, or a
toolbox with matching diamondplate caps for the rails. Assuming
that his future plans involve covering up the bed rails, I would
just leave the liner in there and let it rub. If it hasn't
actually rubbed through to bare metal and he doesn't need the
protection of a bed liner, then I would recommend pulling it.
However, if it HAS already rubbed through to bare metal, you
will either need to pull the liner and hit those spots with
some primer, or maybe even just some rattle-can clear. Easier
and cheaper though to just leave the bed liner in place. Unless
something changes, it will continue to rub, so it won't allow any
rust to develop by virtue of the constant rubbing.
Sure, leaving the liner in place he might notice the rubbing,
or if you pull it and spray the exposed surfaces, it won't match,
but I figure if he was concerned with how his truck looks, why
buy a Toyota in the first place? ;-) Kidding aside, if he is
planning to use caps or an over the rail spray-in in the future,
I'd just leave it alone. Sure, it won't look perfect for now, but
its just one of a bazillion lookalike trucks on the road, who is he
going to impress? :-) Use the blemishes as motivation to find the
time/money to accomplish the long term mods.
If, on the other hand, his long-term goals do NOT include
something that is going to hide the damaged parts, then I'd
probably pull the liner right away and see if the paint will
buff out. (no doubt there will be even more serious scuffing
inside the bed itself, so you might need to go the primer
route there for now.) Depending on the extent of the damage,
he might have to modify his long-term plans to include something
to cover the damage, or worst case, bit the bullet and spend
some coin at a body shop.
Sorry for the rambling nature of this advice, its late and I
should have been asleep a LONG time ago; I hope you can decypher
it and glean SOME use from it. :-)
--
-Jon-
.-- Jon Steiger ---- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com --.
| 1970 Barracuda - 1990 Dakota 'vert - 1992 Ram 4x4 - 1996 Dakota |
| 1996 Intruder 1400 - 1996 Kolb FireFly - 2001 Ram QC 3500 CTD |
`------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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