Anybody have any tips for removing the plastic bed rail caps without totally ruining them? I am taking my truck to get Line-x sprayed in the bed on Tuesday, and plan on having it done over the rails. I figured if I remove them myself I will probably be a little more careful, and I might be able to save myself some money.

 

i dont know if that is possible... It would be real time consuming. You would have to go at it from below the rail trying to pinch in each of the connectors... and there are alot of them. If you have diamond plated rails that cover them you would be alright. You would beable to snap most of them in place and cover it up with the plated rails.


What you have to watch for is when you are pealing it up is folding the plastic... that is what happend to mine. So once you get it started just be patient and work your way forward. I think I started from the tailgate...

it can be a pita...

 

My dealers paint guy used a 20" flat pry bar and started at the tailgate. As for trying to get to the clips from under the rail half of them there is no way to get to them. There must be 20 or more on each side. They came off in less than a minute a side. I line-x the top rails and did not put the plastic caps back on. The cap on my truck covered the holes. There is pic's in the link below of the paint damage under the factory caps I had fixed.

 

Did you have your cap on before you found the bed rail damage? I would expect to find that kind of rubbing with a cap sitting on the bed rails. Beats the alternative for me, of denting the bed or messing up the paint. However, I try to not even mess up the bed rails, especially since I just installed a brand new bed!

 

Yes the cap had been on for 3 years with alot of weight in it. I had wanted them removed before the cap install but they were against it.

 

Good to know, sorry at your expense! Might be a good idea for anyone running a cap then to remove the bed rail caps and use a good quality foam tape under the cap.