Best way to freshen up running boards

[mapitts]

Bought a 2011 Expy Sport about 2 months ago for the wife. She had an '04 and LOVED it. I am going to get the front bumper and valance painted and it will look good as new. The running boards are a little diffent. They need TLC. Lots of thoughts runing through my head, Plastidip, Rhino lining, etc. Only concern I have about Plastidip is durability. What have some of you done for this? Open to most any ideas.

 

[rayt]

Bought a 2011 Expy Sport about 2 months ago for the wife. She had an '04 and LOVED it. I am going to get the front bumper and valance painted and it will look good as new. The running boards are a little diffent. They need TLC. Lots of thoughts runing through my head, Plastidip, Rhino lining, etc. Only concern I have about Plastidip is durability. What have some of you done for this? Open to most any ideas.

i'm running a 2011 expy xlt sport, my boards look brand new. But if i had to repaint them, it will probably be some roll on bed liner like rhino etc.

 

[bertro]

My running boards were tan and I plastidipped them black (~6 layers). The dip would start scratching and peeling after only a few days of stepping on it. So I took a spray can of clear coat I had in the garage (regular clear coat not the clear plastidip) and sprayed over the plastidip. It's much more resilient now. And even when it starts to scratch it doesn't start peeling off anymore.

I think truck bed liner would last much longer.

 

[CJ0920]

I actually replaced mine with Aries Black nerf bars...They look great compared to the faded tan running boards. I thought about plasti-dipping them as well, but was hesitant on the durability. Good to know clearing them would make them hold up.

 

[GAINMOB]

spruce them up with soap and water...that's all I do

 

[01yellerCobra]

We did the Wipe New on the wife's GT. A lot of the plastic had faded. It still looks good. I don't know how it would handle being stepped on though.

 

[TechRN31]

I replaced mine with Black nerf bars. Looks so much better than running boards!

 

[bertro]

Good to know clearing them would make them hold up.

Yeah, spraying regular clear coat over plastidip makes it _very_ hard to remove. You can scrape it off bit by bit, but it doesn't peel off like it normally would. That's why many plastidip tutorials out there warn people to not spray regular clear over the dip if they ever want to remove it. Plastidip manufacture their own clear coat, but it's nowhere near as shiny as regular clear coat.

 

[mapitts]

Been busy as all get out, The weather and holidays are not helping. Unfortunatley for me neff bars or step rail are out as far as she is concerned. A really good bath and some TLC with 303 protectant may go a long way. I used that stuff on my over the hood stripes on my GT and it worked wonders at keeping them protected and new looking. Sold the Mustang GT (2012) and kept the protectant! Thanks for all of the input.

 

[floridabeach]

There's a product called Back to Black. Unbelievable. Depending on how much you put on can be slippery.