bed rail cap

Does anybody know how to remove the bed rail cap. I need to seal under it, I get water from car wash. I have a topper and want to get it as waterproof as possible. Thanks

 

You start at the end up by the cab. Pull up while wiggling the cap back and forth. The snap fasteners molded into the rail will let go with enough wiggling and upward force. Continue this until you get the end by the tailgate. Once you have it off, you will see lots of holes in the actual bed where the rail was. These holes are open to the road, so to speak. I used butyl rubber tape I purchased at a RV store to do the sealing. I put the tape in the refrigerator to stiffen it up a bit and then trimmed it lengthwise with and old pair of scissors so I had pieces that were about 1/4 inch thick. Lengths of about two feet were most manageable. I laid a two strips on the bed along the entire length of the rail, on each side of the holes. I didn't want water that may come up through the holes (when washing or whatever) to get trapped between the strips when the rail cap was back on, so I used short pieces of the tape perpendicular to the long strips on each side of each hole. It looked a bit like an HO gauge RR track when I was done with the tape. You will also notice that there are six screw holes in the side of the bed where the factory tonneau cover would attach if you had one. These are also open to the road. I put stainless steel flat-head screws with thin rubber washers on them into the holes and snugged them up before putting the rail caps back on. You could just plug them with the butyl rubber, but I didn't want to mess them up in case they might have some use down the road. I did the same thing with the two screw holes in the front rail. You need to remove the front rail, peel off the useless stuff on the bottom of the rail, and seal the rail back in place. Again, I used a thin strip of the butyl rubber tape to do this. Then you need to plug up the gaps between the front rail and the side rail caps. There are lots of posts on how to do this part, so I won't go into that. At any rate, start at the front of the rail cap and wiggle back and forth while pulling up. You will think you are going to break the tabs off, but you won't. It actually comes off fairly easy one you get up the gumption to so it. None of my tabs broke off.

 

This thread has some pics of the rail once you remove the cap. Searless described a process for a 3rd gen which is mostly the same but all you have to do is pop out the plastic retention clips in the stock rail towards the tailgate and then I start at the tailgate end and gently just work may way to the cab in popping the rail off.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/kbvoodoo-side-rail-caps-installation-write-up-pic-heavy.372647/

 

Thanks guys, TW is a wonderful thing. I did not think about water coming up from the bottom, gonna have to get some butyl tape and thanks again.

 

Does anyone know of any other options for aftermarket rail caps other than Voodoo? - looking for something in vinyl or thinner.... 3/16 steel seems heavy.....

 

Our side rail caps are 1/8" thick.