Running boards clean up and installation

SirRobyn0 said:

Hey I was just talking about you in a radiator thread with Bextreme04, Eric. I'd noticed you had been here in nearly 2 months and got concerned. I've enjoyed reading your stories about your place. Well I do hope you have been doing well!

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No, not really at all, but that isnt that big of a deal.

@AuroraGirl I'm sorry to hear that, but I get it.

I empathize with that. Life was good with a nice job and a career future then megacorp blows that up and by proxy sidelines my truck project which was subsequently damaged by my mechanic during all of these changes. Life's a real roller coaster sometimes....

This is not the best picture, but I just polished up the worst of the two running boards. Yea, acid bathing them does leave them looking dull. My method was simple, dump polish onto board, spread it out with a finger nail brush let it sit for a few, ran a microfiber up and down each grove a few times, then finished it off but hitting it with the headlight buffing pad. Good enough for me. I also acid bathed both fender pieces and rinsed them off. Hopefully I'll have to polish and take pics of those later. For now here is the one board after polishing. Whatever coating is on them from the factory is gone in one spot. It was pretty obvious fresh out of the acid, not so much after polishing. These will look and be just fine for me! I had to flash it because it's inside the shop, but it gives a good idea that they cleaned up well.

They came out great. I'd roll with those on a K if it was my daily for sure.

Ok here are the fender pieces. Below, after acid bath.



And Below after polishing:



These pieces are by far the roughest part of the running boards, probably from years and years of being hit with rocks. The one on the right with the chunk out of the corner also has some damage at the bolt hole. For now I'm going to run a large washer over that. Long term I'll replace those fender pieces entirely. I'll either get some plain sheets of aluminum or diamond plate aluminum to replace them down the road, but they are fine for now.

@Soundmound I'll be rockin' these on my C20, keep in mind the C20 sits quite a bit higher than a C10 would, but of course I think my C20 is lower than a K truck. 4 years I've been looking for an affordable set of running boards that are complete, as in all the pieces are there. You wouldn't believe how many times I've looked at used boards just to find out all the bracketry is gone. So I'm super happy with these so far. I think the boards themselves are pretty good shape after being cleaned up. It's just the fender pieces that are probably not going to look the best, but we will see after installation, maybe they will be just fine.

I honestly have no time to install them this weekend, but thinking of making the time I really wanna see them on and start using them ASAP!

They look good so far.

I was going to suggest oven cleaner to remove the rust.
I have used it on my VW parts with good results.

It says to not use it on aluminum, but common sense rules here.
You can use it, you just can't leave it on for hours at a time....

SirRobyn0 said:

This is not the best picture, but I just polished up the worst of the two running boards. Yea, acid bathing them does leave them looking dull. My method was simple, dump polish onto board, spread it out with a finger nail brush let it sit for a few, ran a microfiber up and down each grove a few times, then finished it off but hitting it with the headlight buffing pad. Good enough for me. I also acid bathed both fender pieces and rinsed them off. Hopefully I'll have to polish and take pics of those later. For now here is the one board after polishing. Whatever coating is on them from the factory is gone in one spot. It was pretty obvious fresh out of the acid, not so much after polishing. These will look and be just fine for me! I had to flash it because it's inside the shop, but it gives a good idea that they cleaned up well.

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SirRobyn0 said:

Ok here are the fender pieces. Below, after acid bath.

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And Below after polishing:

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These pieces are by far the roughest part of the running boards, probably from years and years of being hit with rocks. The one on the right with the chunk out of the corner also has some damage at the bolt hole. For now I'm going to run a large washer over that. Long term I'll replace those fender pieces entirely. I'll either get some plain sheets of aluminum or diamond plate aluminum to replace them down the road, but they are fine for now.

@Soundmound I'll be rockin' these on my C20, keep in mind the C20 sits quite a bit higher than a C10 would, but of course I think my C20 is lower than a K truck. 4 years I've been looking for an affordable set of running boards that are complete, as in all the pieces are there. You wouldn't believe how many times I've looked at used boards just to find out all the bracketry is gone. So I'm super happy with these so far. I think the boards themselves are pretty good shape after being cleaned up. It's just the fender pieces that are probably not going to look the best, but we will see after installation, maybe they will be just fine.

I honestly have no time to install them this weekend, but thinking of making the time I really wanna see them on and start using them ASAP!

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Damn man!!! Those look great!! I honestly didnt think they'd clean up that well at all. Great job. Way better than I thought.

Sorry those 2 front peices are banged up, that's from many years of dirt roads and getting beat on I'd guess. I'd say if you maybe take an angle grinder and cut off the bottom or just round it off again, it might be passable. But luckily that's a pretty easy peice to recreate, very flat.

A guy I know bought a firetruck a while back to chop up for scrap metal, I'll see if he has any sheet stock of aluminum diamond plate leftover from that.

SirRobyn0 said:

4 years I've been looking for an affordable set of running boards that are complete, as in all the pieces are there. You wouldn't believe how many times I've looked at used boards just to find out all the bracketry is gone.

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Makes me sad... I scrapped a perfect set of factory running boards off my first K10 when it bit the dust back in 2014. I had all the mounting hardware and such.

At the time, I didn't realize that I had contracted the square body sickness. I didn't know what era Chevy truck I would replace may '84 with. Well it turned out to be an '85.

Now I wish I had those running boards for either of my trucks. Oh well... I got other projects lined up for them.

Your running boards are looking awesome, Rob.

Hey you guys thanks for all the positive thoughts and comments. I'm pretty happy with progress, actually I'm ecstatic about to progress. Absolutely none of the clean up has been hard, time consuming or difficult. Just my style, quick and easy.

@Catbox Oven clean, that would have been a good idea. Of course Muriatic acid even cut 50% with water could damage aluminum easily if left on to long. You ever use oven cleaner on nasty greasy parts?

@AyWoSch Motors You got nothing to say I'm sorry about, these boards are coming along great! I'm gonna be happy with them I'm sure. I had one of the guys hold one up to the truck this afternoon but didn't take a pic. They be great on this truck!

@scrap--metal I know what you mean about contracting the square body sickness. I've posted my square body story before but probably before you joined and if any of the other guys didn't read it here it goes. I bought a 92 Dodge Dakota in 2002. The farm was a tiny hobby at the time, but though the years the farm has expanded, and we really NEEDED something more capable of hauling weight and towing than the Dakota. We wanted to get a small tractor and a trailer to haul it on. I hadn't officially started looking for a full sized truck yet, but I was getting close. I was kind of eye balling a 2002 or prior Ram, 2500 or 3500. Now I'm glad I never even started looking for one.

Go back to the early 2000's I'd meet a man that lived in Portland who drove a tan 84 C20. I kept in touch with him for a few years then drifted apart. In 2018, a friend of mine mentioned that he had passed. I called his widow and we talked for a bit. Said she was planning a move to Idaho, she remembered I was a mechanic and said she still had his old truck. Hasn't run in a year, you'd have to come down and get it running she's thinking $800, she reminded me it has a dump kit on the bed, and I said I'd be down the next weekend. So we went down, I charged up the battery. A couple pumps of gas and a few seconds of cranking and she sprang to life. Replaced a leaky fuel line and drove it home without an issue. It had clearly sat while he was ill so some work need to be done to it and a lot of cleaning. So once home I decided I'd drive it to to the shop and back for 2 weeks, to shake it down and make sure it would be reliable for the farm work and feed runs. I've never stopped driving it. I've tried a couple times to go back to my 96 Grand Cherokee which is suppose to be my daily driver, but I just can't seem to do it. I'm more comfortable in the square than anything else we own, it's just me.

Well guys I'd love to say that the first thing I'll do tomorrow will be to install these running boards, if I get lucky that might be the case, but more likely it'll be a day or two. I'll be sure to post pictures.

SirRobyn0 said:

Go back to the early 2000's I'd meet a man that lived in Portland who drove a tan 84 C20. I kept in touch with him for a few years then drifted apart. In 2018, a friend of mine mentioned that he had passed. I called his widow and we talked for a bit. Said she was planning a move to Idaho, she remembered I was a mechanic and said she still had his old truck. Hasn't run in a year, you'd have to come down and get it running she's thinking $800, she reminded me it has a dump kit on the bed, and I said I'd be down the next weekend. So we went down, I charged up the battery. A couple pumps of gas and a few seconds of cranking and she sprang to life. Replaced a leaky fuel line and drove it home without an issue. It had clearly sat while he was ill so some work need to be done to it and a lot of cleaning. So once home I decided I'd drive it to to the shop and back for 2 weeks, to shake it down and make sure it would be reliable for the farm work and feed runs. I've never stopped driving it. I've tried a couple times to go back to my 96 Grand Cherokee which is suppose to be my daily driver, but I just can't seem to do it. I'm more comfortable in the square than anything else we own, it's just me.

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Awesome story! Thanks for sharing it. These old trucks can't be beat (except in the gas mileage department, but I don't care about that). My K10 is my daily, but it's getting really rough. My K20 will be the next daily once I get all the little kinks worked out.

Life's too short to drive anything else.

Looking forward to the pics.

scrap--metal said:

Awesome story! Thanks for sharing it. These old trucks can't be beat (except in the gas mileage department, but I don't care about that). My K10 is my daily, but it's getting really rough. My K20 will be the next daily once I get all the little kinks worked out.

Life's too short to drive anything else.

Looking forward to the pics.

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I spend two hours a day driving to the shop and back, that's to long to be inside of something I don't like. The Jeep is ok, but not more than just ok. I bought it not because I like Jeeps but because I needed a 4wd that could fit 2 adults and 2 great danes in it. The square on the other hand I enjoy being inside of it for that time.

SirRobyn0 said:

I spend two hours a day driving to the shop and back, that's to long to be inside of something I don't like. The Jeep is ok, but not more than just ok. I bought it not because I like Jeeps but because I needed a 4wd that could fit 2 adults and 2 great danes in it. The square on the other hand I enjoy being inside of it for that time.

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so does your cab then use a bracket like this one:

The one on the right side of the pic, thats a cab floor lol.

AuroraGirl said:

so does your cab then use a bracket like this one:

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The one on the right side of the pic, thats a cab floor lol.

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Yup, a bracket just like that! One for each side.

Got the farm chores done this morning and figured I had a few minutes to play around with the running boards. Here's how it went. I started by laying the parts out.



I didn't take a picture, but I took the black metal brackets and hit them with the wire wheel, and then a couple coats of rust converter.

Below picture, I measured and drilled the bolt holes for the rockers first, in this picture it's just hanging from that.


Then I did the center support bar, the rear support, and last the front panel. Honestly the installation was easy and went quick and easy. I think I have 45 minutes into it. I still need to do the passenger side.

Below picture, same angle as above, but fully installed with the bed lowered.



Below picture, front angle, supervisor in the picture on the right side.



I think that they look GREAT on the truck. I think it fits the image of an old school work truck that is taken care of and in good shape. I'm glad I cleaned them up and didn't paint them black. I actually really like the aluminum color. Even better it makes it so easy from me to get in now. @AyWoSch Motors Ayden, Thank you so much for shipping these to me!