Cleaning rust off bedliner bolt heads?

I have a 2011 Tacoma and all the bolt heads on the bed and tailgate have moderate surface rust. Is it better to clean them, replace them or just live with them? I'm a especially concerned on trying to remove the 6 large bedliner bolts as I bet they're seized in there.

 

Crawl underneath and spray penetrant oil on the bolt threads days before attempting removal if possible. Ensure you have the correct fitting Torx driver and a long wrench.

Unless you plan to have all the bolt replated, check cost and availability of new ones.
Mine, I replaced years ago. Kept them painted with POR15, which failed quickly. Used Rustoleum after that, it too came off and now currently, the heads and washers show corrosion. Undecided if I will replace them again.

 

Live with it, unless you’re planning on removing the bed for some reason.

 

It’s not really a service part but you can make it one or treat it as a body weld instead. If you want to add tailgate reinforcement brackets you’ll need to be able to remove the ones in back.

 

Similar experience to PMK... My bolts were crusty and rusty when I bought the truck, to the point that some of the threads were disintegrating. I wire brushed 'em, painted the heads and washers with anti-rust, coated the threads with anti-seize, and reused 'em. Anti-rust lasted maybe a couple of months but, two years later, they still look better than they had...

 

I had to cut 4 of mine off, they were rusted really bad

cut the threads off bottom of bolt if you can before removing them or you have 3 inches of rusty threads to fight

 

POR15 is not meant to be exposed to UV rays. You can't get any more exposure to UV Rays than in the bed of a pickup. It will last years if top coated with the POR-15 product meant for that purpose or any other paint. Appropriately enough, it's called POR-15 Top Coat.
I gave my bolt heads the same treatment and it's held up for about three years now and still looks decent.

 

To keep the info accurate, I did use POR15 Top Coat. It faded in short time and did not hold up. On another vehicle, I followed the POR instructions fully. Went to bare metal, treated the metal before applying POR primer and POR top coat. Again the POR15 did not hold up or last long. FWIW, the bed bolts got POR15 Top Coat in gloss black, while the other vehicle got POR15 in gloss white. Neither held up as an external top coat.

Possibly it works ok for interior work, areas not exposed to sunlight.

I drank the POR Kool Aid, and it let me down.

Couple weeks ago, I fabricated a new door for a friends vintage RV. Him being a full time car guy wanted to paint the metal with POR15. Explained to him, don’t bother. Can of Rustoleum will do just fine. Exterior was polished since the door skin is sheet aluminum.

Thanks for the advice though, but an experience I have already suffered thru.

 

I have the bolts galvanized, they seem to hold up well.

 

You DIY cold galvanized?

What was your process? Pull them and treat the heads/smooth part of the shank?

 

They're done by the shop. I'm not sure how they did. Sorry!

 

Detail, they are bed bolts, not bedliner bolts, as we don't have bedliners.

Tailgate bolts are short and easy to deal with if you want remove and refinish.

Bed bolts can be tougher and may well be worth doing. This thread will help.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bed-bolts-replacement.653276/

 

<scratching head> I had planned on replacing the bed bolts in my “new” ‘06 as part of a general cleanup of the bed. So maybe that looks like a bridge too far. All of the rust we normally see is red rust (Fe2O3). Rustoleum makes a good rust converter that changes the red rust to what is called black rust (Fe3O4). In other applications, this product has been a pretty good primer. Unless something else shows up in this thread, my Alternate Plan B will be a bit of Dremel sanding to knock off the looser bits of rust, then Rustoleum, and a cover coat.

 

That will make the heads pretty, if thats the goal.

But it won't make the rest of the bolt cleaned up and protected.

 

That’s all very true, but I’m running out of ideas for my 18 year old truck. I like the idea of galvanized bolts, and wasn’t planning on tackling this until spring, so I have time to talk to garages about the feasibility f removing the originals.

 

You don't have a bed liner, that is the bed and you'll probably never have to remove it. No reason to touch them. If the time ever comes when the bed has to come out worry about it then. Any real rust that will cause problems is on the bottom.

 

Very, very good point.

 

I found them online for about ~14$ a piece. It may be cost beneficial to just replace the front 2 which are typically corroded the worst and wire brush the others or spend about 100$ and replace all 6 and call it a day for the next 20 years. If it were me, I'd replace the 2 front ones and clean up the other 4 with a wire brush and a brillo pad then reinstall with a light coat of marine grease.

-J

 

i live in a state (MO) with less corrosion than my old Rust Belt home state, so this isn't really a big problem. I keep the bed bolts on my 2015 wiped once or twice a year with Fluid Film, the lanolin-based rust preventative I also use on frame and other under-truck bits. The bolts look like new.

 

I wanted to add tiedown points to the front bed bolts so I sprayed PB Blaster on the backside of the bolts and let it soak in over night. They were a little stubborn but came out w/o too much trouble, helps to walk the bolt back and forth some when it breaks loose. We don't have serious rust issues here so I just wire brushed them and reinstalled the bolts. They'll get some surface rust over time but it's not worth it to me to try and paint them since I know stuff moving in the bed will scratch up the heads. The fact that they unthreaded after 17years means they'll last the rest of the truck's life w/o any drama. I feel for the guys with more serious rust conditions, I could see these getting frozen in worse conditions.