Those damn rusty bed bolts...no more!

Follow the directions on whatever rattle can product you bought? IIRC some are 30 min up to 2 hrs after first application. You shouldn't need to reapply the black rattle, however, I would put at least 3 coats of clear over it. Check to make sure that your clear is UV resistant, this isn't a deal breaker but it should last longer when exposed to the harsh sunlight before cracking and hazing.

Edit: To add, I'd break torque on the bed bolts so they are loose after you wire brush the rust off, that way you can get a better application of paint/clear. Just avoid getting any paint on the threads otherwise you could be dealing with seized bolts later down the line.

-J

 

I while back I had to remove the bolts from the bed of my son's 2005 and walk the bed back a few inches in order to replace the leaking air vent on the back of the cab. The bolt shafts, especially the 2 near the tailgate, were severely corroded, a whole lot more than surface rust. There were big scaly flakes of rust which left deep pits when wirebrushed. Note that we live in the deep south (no salted roads) and the frame of this truck does not have any rust. We do have a lot of moisture here and I guess the bolts stay wet in the void area between the bed and the frame. The heads only had surface rust. After wirebrushing the bolts thoroughly, I taped the threads and sprayed the rest of the bolts with several coats of Rustoleum. I did the same to the bolts in my 2011. Those were rusty, but not severely corroded.

If you are going to paint the bolt heads, you may want to remove the bolts and clean and paint more than just the heads. You'll need a Torx 55.

 

Unfortunately the can does not provide instructions for all scenarios hence my polling the audience. I’ll treat the clear coat as another coat of the regular. Says dries in 15 min and reapply within one hour or wait a day. But also further up in the instructions says to apply 2 or more light coats minutes apart. A bit misleading if u ask me. It doesn’t say how dry they should be between coats. I’m seeing it still looking wet when I’m reapplying. Hopefully won’t matter too much. I’m putting a bed mat over them in a day anyways. Just wanted to try and do a little due diligence before covering the problem for good. Plan to park the truck in a parking garage across the street from my apartment after the coats bc it is supposed to rain here for the weekend. That’s why I got an early start this morning. Doing my best

 

I think I get what you're saying, when it says dries in 15 min it means it's dry to the touch and ready for a second coat. To check for dryness, when you touch the paint lightly with your fingertip, the paint should be tacky but not wet enough to leave a finger print. Once it gets to this state, you should be good to apply another light coat. If you choose not to do your second coat at that point, you'll want to wait until the paint is completely dry, as in not-tacky or sticky to the touch. Then you can apply a heavier coat. Quick light coats, in my opinion, leave a better (smoother) finish than heavy coats that may have paint runs in it. Hold can at a 45 degree angle at at least 12 to 16 inches from the object to be painted and pass quickly over the object. Don't start your paint stream when the rattle can is over the object because you may get paint spits. Quick, light passes with the rattle for a nice even coat. Don't worry if you don't get a good even coat with your first pass. As you accumulate more light coats you'll get a nice even coverage. Once you are satisfied with coverage, you can begin to coat with clear following what I outlined above. Clear will apply better when the topcoat is still tacky as it gives the clear something to adhere to. Treat each coat of clear as you would a color coat. Light quick coats and you'll be a pro in no time. I hope this is what you were looking for.

-J

 

Yeah hopefully it’ll be cool. I touched the paint with my finger before I started the clear and it didn’t really leave much maybe a mild residue from the finger touching. It looked very wet I went ahead and applied the clear and did what the clear label said. Mild coats like 2-3 min apart. I did 3 of them Gonna let that call it good. 3 coats black, 3 coats clear. She looks wet and slippery good like Carmen Electra in latex lol. Gonna go check on her after an hour and probably park her in a garage across the street soon after before rain comes. Will prob not apply the bed cover over them until Monday or so. Kind of a shame I didn’t do this sooner after having for 12 years lol. Won’t really get to see it much lol. It’s all timing I guess. Wouldn’t mind cleaning up some of the other bolts around the bed and tailgate.

 

You'll be fine, it's hard to mess up spray paint unless you go heavy with the spray and leave runs.

-J

 

Thanks man

 

I also have never found specs on the bed bolts. But I have purchased many factory bolts 64189-0C011 for customers. They are hot dipped galvanized and the threads look to be cold rolled rather than cut. I need to use carbide tooling to remove the washer retaining ribs. That tells me they are at least surface hardened. Wish I had a Rockwell tester. Anybody want to do a hardness test on a bolt?

 

I recommend to customers that they clean and lubricate the bolts in the frame where accessible before trying to remove them. They are all at lease accessible to a WD40 spray tube.

 

@Giuzeppe
I’m not entirely sure, but I recall that some grades of SS fasteners should not be used in plain steel threads. They can, in fact, rust under some conditions.
In boating, particularly salt water marine applications, everything is SS, bolts, screws, washers, nuts, plates, pretty much no regular steel around.

 

Looks clean, might have to do this sometime...

 

FWIW, I did this years ago and the paint slowly wore off because I use the bed of the truck. It looked good initially but after replacing the bed bolts the other week, I didn’t bother painting them this time around. And don’t let the paint on the top fool you into thinking the threads aren’t rusted to shit. If the tops look good I’d still pull them all and inspect, grease and reinstall.

 

https://www.lowes.com/pd/3M-2-62-in-x-3-75-in-Commercial-Sanding-Sponge/3540360

 

@Chris(NJ)
Now that is one rusty bolt
Galvanizing not very effective there!

 

What is the best way to protect new bolts? Guessing we should tape off the threads, then paint the rest of the bolt before installing. Powder coating would be even better, but that's probably overkill.

 

Grease or similar is probably the best solution for below the head. Anything that hardens will be damaged by a tight fitting hole and obviously will not work on the threads only in the shank. I use CRC heavy duty corrosion inhibitor on most of the exterior bolts that are exposed on the threaded/nut side. It sprays on like a heavy oil and dries to a greasy/waxy shell. I spray it on the threaded anchor and the bolt/screw before assembly and then assemble while it's wet. Seems to do well for a long time. I've used LPS-3 in the past will similar results but that stuff is relatively expensive compared to the CRC stuff.

 

just use a bunch of anti seize On your current ones and buy new bolts every 10 years +/-

 

In the scheme of things, bed bolts are not that expensive.
I buy 10-15 64189-0C011 bolts at a time for ~$10.

 

Curious why this part number doesn't come up as a Tacoma bed bolt. When I've searched it at a online Toyota dealership website, it shows as a Tundra bed bolt. They don't list anything for Tacoma bed bolts. Not a problem, I'll order it anyway, but still curious why Toyota doesn't list it for Tacomas.

 

I taped off right at the threads then primed and painted everything else. As others have mentioned, anti-seize the threads. That’s already a better preventative measure than it being raw from factory


That spec beneath the washer was just a piece of cardboard that got stuck to it while the paint was drying. Added another layer of protection to that centimeter area lol