The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed Stainless bedside strips, best way to install??

Never installed stainless strips, do I bolt them in or weld. Thought welding would discolor them. Help please thanks

The body shop that painted my truck used pop rivets to attach them to the bedsides, and aligned the rivets so they were inside the bed pockets and under the fenders. It would have worked out fine, but they placed the strips a bit too high and I had to remove the rivets. My intention was to re-rivet them once I had the bed in, but they fit so snugly against the sides that I left them without rivets and they're just fine - except for the holes from the rivets. It's not that noticeable.


Based on the above, I'd recommend bolting all the strips down through the bed, then check the sides to see if they stand out. Then you could pop rivet them or just leave them. I think spot welds would discolor the stainless.

You can see mine in the gallery.

Welding would discolor the stainless, plus it would be tough to get the stainless to stick the the carbon steel bedsides. What Tom suggested seems like your best option.

Check out the Mar-k site and look under Installation Info. They say the discoloring on the stainless can be polished out. I haven't made up my mind if I want to use bolts between the stake pockets and fender or weld them in.

Dennis

I pondered the same thing. I used steel angles and stainless strips. Take a look on my photobucket to see what that looks like. If you can weld well and you want to polish the welds back out you can do it. Lots of work.