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Rock chip protection - leading edge of bed pannels?

19K views 34 replies 21 participants last post by  Alexqwert 
#1 ·
Anyone have a solution or seen anything fabricated to protect the leading edge of the box panel behind the cab of a crew cab?

Seems pretty vulnerable to damage and rust from road debris flying up...
 
#4 ·
3M makes lots of protection film options for this from clear and smooth to textured black. Just pick up a roll, make your self a template and cut to fit. Sometimes a little heat helps to get it to conform to the panels during installation.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Never Too old... That's the Top Mad in Warren Vermont... Get back in that boat!

Yup - I've got the same film protectant on mine too, but the area where I'm seeing the damage is at the tip of the metal... It looks to be getting hammered by road debris. The metal is still I'm great shape but it's exposed and a repaint will just get blasted off after another winter season.

Anything more robust than the film?
 
#13 ·
Agreed on the bed liner spray or rubber stripping. I'm still confused how the tip
Of the fender is getting hit with debris, I have flaps and even side steps so there is some protection there.

I've seen a couple of Frontiers that have had an extra flap installed between the cab and bed, but that looks hoakey at best...sort of a hack job. Other ideas would be great....
 
#14 ·
I think your talking about the foam they placed in the gap between the bed and the cab, it was for aerodynamics, increases mpg.

I have grabber at2's and have not had my mud flaps on for 2 years with no running boards and have no pitting in the front of the fender. Just stock film. Thats driving in our winters and off road, throwing salt, sand and dirt.
 
#15 ·
Yea - looking at it from the side profile the leading tip looks like it is tucked up in enough not to catch anything. The truck isn't lifted, I don't have oversized tires, there are mud flaps and stock nerf bars. Its just weird. I think I'm going to spray it with matching bedliner or rock chip protection and call it a day. THanks for all of the insight folks...
 
#16 ·
Yup - got the leading edge of the fenders professionally sprayed with bed-liner and still have the rock chip protection plastic higher up. We are not even 1/2 way into winter and I took a look and the damn bed-liner has chipped off.

This truck is a weekend truck to the ski hill with very minimum use (have a work truck that gets driven all week). This design SUCKS that it is so susceptible to road debris. Longer mud flaps are the answer, but that would mean removing the OEM ones.

Again, anyone ever see a plastic like cap to fit over that horn that seems to take the brunt of the road rash. Even GM has a low profile cap that protects that leading edge on the bed/rear quarter-panel.

Anyone ever see anything for the Frontier or fabricated something. My autobody guy told me to come back in the spring and he'll clean it up and retouch the bed-liner work, but I'm willing to bet it happens again. Central VT coats the piss out of their roads with sand and salt!

Thanks for any insight folks!
 
#17 · (Edited)
I have the Nissan step rails on my Crew Cab and they serve to deflect a lot of road debris from impacting the paint. (I'm not a big fan of their appearance, but the step rails are needed by my family.)

 
#18 ·
i have the factory/dealer installed film in front of the rear wheels. have chips all the way around them now. Im thinking over this coming summer i might look into getting below the doors done in color matched bedliner then having the areas that are higher touched up and larger pieces of film put on them.
 
#19 ·
Got the side steps too. I had them off over the summer and very quickly realized that my kiddos were going to trash the door-jams climbing in and out of the rig w/o them there to step up on first. They definitely take a lot of abuse from road debris that would otherwise be hammering the rocker panels.

Yup - good luck with the film over the "horn", I worked with my body guy for a while to get it to stick to that nutty contour. It is just too harsh for the film to conform. There has got to be some plastic shield or something. I'm half tempted to try to fabricate something myself. All it needs is to make up the gap from underneath to where the film is. In the mean time if anyone is slicker with plastic fab than I am and comes up with something, please share!
 
#20 ·
What about trying Kydex? Its used to make custom pistol holsters. I've watched a friend use it a few times and it may be a possible solution to you're problem. It would be quite a process for that tight of a corner but once it was formed around the corner you could trim and shape for the exterior look and then double sided tape it on.
 
#21 ·
I put the Hefty sliders on in part to help reduce the rock chips on the bed. They are still causing damage after the slider install.
 
#22 ·
I just done a quick search and u might look at "invisiguard" clear film. I know your looking for a plastic "cap" for the corner but it looks like these are precut to allow for that leading edge. I'm an installer for both clearsheild and spray in bedliners so I'm a little confused myself how all of the rocks are still getting through, especially with the sliders on there too. I am definitely not bashing your bedliner guy, we all myself included make mistakes, but that in itself should be plenty of protection. If he's going to fix it for you then he's at least standing behind his work. Just make sure it's sanded for a good tooth and cleaned with alcohol to remove any impurities and that bedliner should take care of it.
 
#23 ·
Yup Thanks Tintedup... The guy is actually one of the more reputable body guys in Central VT. He does good work. His thought was that it got a chip and then with our crazy temps swings from -20 to 45 back and up several more times since November, the moisture that got in under the bed liner application may have just popped off. He definitely stands by his work and is super friendly about it too. I just have the feeling that we'll be chasing it w/o something a little more robust. Same with the invisiguard. It leaves about a 1/2" exposed on the leading edge. He actually tried to cut a special piece to cover the horn but the angle is so acute that it wouldn't stay put, leading us back to the bedliner spray. I'll check out that Kytec stuff you mentioned earlier....

Thanks again
 
#24 ·
If you cut a peace bigger than the area you are trying to cover. Spay with alcohol water mix 3:1 on the surface and the invisasheild. Place it up there. Squeegee out the water on the flatter area. Heat with a touch not touching the flam to it. Pulling on the edges around the curve and squeegee down then trim the over hang it stay.
 

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#25 ·


I sprayed my rockers and lower doors. Don't like the factory mud guards and I also don't like rock chips. I also found the rock sliders take a lot of rock damage from driving, mine were getting new powdercoat when I took the truck in for linex
 
#31 ·
What hardware did you use to attach it?
 
#29 ·
IIRC, adding color to these coatings costs a pretty penny. IOW, black is the least expensive.
 
#34 ·
I think he used linex bedliner sprayed on wheel wells and lower rockers.
 
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