CD in NM

Living on a dirt/gravel road is let's say a pain in the rocker panels.

I really hate to have to spray bedliner onto the rocker panels to stop all the messing with touch-up paint.

I'm thinking about putting on some stainless steel rocker panel covers. My truck is two-tone, atlantic blue with the silver rockers. I think the stainless would look good and also help to control the problem.

So guys and gals, what's you opinions???

TIA, CD

jamesbfishin

Just make sure you treat the existing chips very well before covering them up with the panels, you don't want the rust to start festering in there.

Post some pics when you get it finished, I'll be looking at options a year or 2 down the road as my truck gets chipped up too.

CTDinMT

Man, I have stone chips all over my rockers behind the wheels. I am going to get the rockers sprayed with Line-X one of these days...

megacabdad

Thinkin' of bed lining the rockers before winter.

X2 on the takin' care of any rust or existing chips before covering them up with whatever you choose.

SpLaT

Working on dirt/gravel road is hell on rocker panels, windshields and hell everything else. Good heavy duty mud flaps help some, had the stainless steel
panels on the old truck... lets just say they didn't last! They looked worse then the chipped paint!
Bed liner the way to go, it can be painted to match colour.

CD in NM

Thanks for the replies guys.

I have the Powerwagon fender flares and good mud flaps, but still some stones DO get to the rockers. I had a set of nerfs on my truck, they were really battered too.

I was thinking about treating the chips before installing the rocker covers. I'm not too sure what I should use, any suggestions on this subject would be welcome also. I installed the stainless rockers on my old truck when it became aparent that the chipping was getting severe. I used that stuff you use on rust, paint on kind of metal conditioner that restores the metal before I installed the rocker covers. I cannot remember what it was called, but it DID do a great job. Right now the chips I have seem to have not disturbed the primer, just chipped the paint, or dimpled the paint might be a better description.

I have thought about using that 'do-it-yourself' bedliner stuff, wondered if it could be painted??? I guess if the stainless doesn't work out I could go that route. No one within close to a couple hundred miles/3 hours travel time one way of me does the bedliners.

CD

Guardrail

The only thing SS stick-on panels are good for is trapping dirt and moisture between the panel and the truck, accelerating the rust process.

hivoltage

Good point, I wonder how much space there is between the edge of the adhesive and the edge of the panel. Is there enough that a guy might be able to use a thin bead of silicone on the back of the panel witout squishing it out or onto the sticky stuff?
I've been thinking about the panels too. I just can't bring myself to spray black stuff 1/3 of the way up the side of my truck. I know they can color match but I've heard that the red turns pink over time. I sure don't need a pink truck.

Silverram03

What about a set of these?http://www.rockerflares.com/pages/ro...res/dodge.html

EDR

One of the other members has the Rockerflares and was very happy with them. Do a search and you can find more on the discussion.

Another option I've been considering is a product that looks similar to the clear bra material but is supposedly thicker, and the price is hard to beat. Here's the link > Trimbrite Bodyguard Paint Protection

mega-engr

I second that one. The clear bra thing seems to work well. I've seen the whole front end of a car done, mirrors, grill, etc. You can hardly see its there. It was not that much money either. Of course, the paint needs to be in good condition before applying... Not sure about thickness, but it seems to hold up to most debris.

If you're basically, blasting your paint then the liner is the way to go...