Replaced my old rusty d-rings with new ones

I have seen my fair share of people adding d-rings to the front of the bed, and at some point I will be doing that. I wanted to replace the old rusting d-rings in the bed of the truck before I did that though, and after much searching, I couldn't find anything on here where someone had done that, so I wanted to put this here for the lurkers like myself who want to hear someone else's experience with mods and replacements.

The whole process took less than 5 minutes, and the d-rings were like

$35 Toyota Tacoma Cargo Bed D-Ring Pair 2005 06 07 08 09 10 11

$25 on Amazon. The old ones literally just unscrew from the bed with the proper size torx bit (sorry I don't know the exact size, but it's smaller than the T55 the bed bolts use) and the new ones screw right in. I didn't have a torque spec but I didn't want them going anywhere, so I made them tight enough to make me comfortable that they'd be able to stay in place and not rattle loose.

Before:


And after:



Here's what the old ones look like after removal:



Since the pieces are meant to be installed on the side of the wheel wells, they come with these plates that are welded to bolts. I didn't use them, so I can keep them around for another project.

 

Looks good.
Now you gotta replace those rusty bed bolts!

 

Thanks! Feels good to have rings that don't look older than I do.

That is on the list, but I pulled one of them up a while ago and the rust was mostly superficial on top. That was years ago though so that may no longer be the case. Time to find a part number I guess...

 

scratch my post in the other thread haha found this one