05+ Tacoma bed rail reinforcement

If you have a cap, ladder rack, tool box, or some custom bed bars with a basket or RTT on top be sure to reinforce your bed rails.

If you don't this is what to expect under them.

Yes, that's bare metal and rust.







They will also start to crush.


Step #1: Remove bed rails and wash them. Also wash the bedsides.

Step #2: Sand down the bedside rust to bare metal.

Step #3: Prime and paint the bare metal.



Step #4: Grab yourself a 12pk of a non sagging, non shrinking, non cracking, ok tooling time, good elasticity, safe for paint silicone I chose Dow 795 structural silicone. Mainly because I have a ton of it laying around and because it dries just like a medium density rubber.

Step #5: Fill the bed rails with way more than enough silicone.

Step #6: Place saran wrap over the bedsides and install the bed rails.






Step #7: Push the bed rails down, but not all the way. No matter what caulk you use it will shrink a little so keep it about 1/8" above final height until it cures. Remove excess caulk.





Step #8: When the caulk is cured in a couple days take off the bed rails and remove the saran wrap. It may just pull off depending on what your using. If it doesn't just trim it.

Step #9: Reinstall the bed rails.

Now they are ready for some weight on them without turning your bedsides into rust buckets in a few years.

Big thanks to Toyota for being cheap once again

 

How did you manage that ? From your kayak rack ?

 

I like this idea, mine has rubbed the paint off too. I think Ill try this when the weather gets warmer.

 

Some of the pics are old & some are from today.

It's a ladder rack with 800# limit. I have had hundreds of pounds of aluminum extrusions on it + my tool box is heavy as hell.

Here's just one of my tool bags from my tool box. I'm guessing at least 50#.


I'm sure by now your bedrails are rusted up for sure. Prob also crushed.

I started the thread because I was getting a ton of PM's about it. I had originally done it a few years ago but I didn't take pics of it or have enough caulk to finish. Today I stripped the bed for other reasons and decided to finish it up.

 

Don't use saran wrap. Caulk will never cure. Needs something breathable.

Ill let it skin up tonight and put some though into it tomorrow. First time I just let the rails cure off the truck. This time I wanted a form fit and still have them removable. Could of easily taped off the rails and just permanently stuck them to the truck.

 

Interesting, thanks. I have 2 kayaks, so up to 140lb. I'm running a Thule xsporter, but the potential is there for the rub.

 

Well... you mentioned this to me when I first got my bed rack on the rails and almost a year later I notice one corner starting to intent. So I will be doing this project in the near future. I am curious though, why not just remove the caps, fill them, and let them dry before reinstalling. Why put them back on to cure?

Thanks for being the first to try this.

Nevermind. Just read back through the thread and found my answer as to why to cure them on the truck. SMH.

 

This is a great idea. I'm about to get some Thule rails for my truck and want to do this first. What would you recommend using instead of saran wrap?

 

Slight hijack, but has anyone crafted a replacement for the plastic bedrail caps? I have been interested in a metal replacement to just have sprayed with bed liner. Either mounted or welded on? Just curious.

 

Yikes, I paid zero attention to this thread.

Saran wrap with the breathable holes is what I would use or just saran wrap and slice some vents into it. Mine ended up coming out great - just took a while to cure. Ill have to post some finished pics one of these days.

Relentless. He's a vendor here. Shoot him a PM or check out his site http://www.relentlessfabrication.us/

 

I'm confused. Did that damage to your bed rails happen through your bed rail caps/covers? Was there damage to your bed rail caps/covers?

 

Yes. Bed rail caps are plastic directly on paint. With zero weight on the caps I would assume just vibrations would wear through the paint.

Add the weight of a tool box, rtt, bed rack, cap, etc. The bed rails start to crush and deform. Look at the pics of my bed after the caps were removed. See how the rust/damage lines are wavy? That's the plastic crushing.... It should be straight.

 

better link: http://www.relentlessfabrication.us/online-store.php#!/~/product/category=3368787&id=14637896

 

Bored ? Lol

 

yup....

 

Wanna do my taxes ?

 

no way.... lol..

still gotta start thinking about doing mine

 

Any damage to your bed rail covers?

How do the covers come off?

 

Thanks for the link! Does anyone know what the finished product looks like? I only found text on their site.

 

No clue, but if you post in the relentless vendor page here on TW Eric can probably help.