how do bed angle strips attach?

[TX58]

im about to order new strips for my stepside and wanted to know how the side angle strips attach. I've seen them welded, is this correct? Im doing polished strips so that wont work,can they be bolted in place?

[bondobob]

The side ones are spot welded. If you have stainless ones you could still spot weld if you have stainless wire. Not really spot but rosset weld.

[Speedbumpauto]

The biggest reason I decided to go bed color on the angle strips and stainless on the bed strips were the rosette welds. I just couldn't see polishing/finishing them after the welds to my satisfaction. It was hard enough finishing them good enough for paint. I did use a mini belt sander adapted from a 4 1/2 angle grinder that HF sells. It did make it much easier and might make finishing the stainless weld possible.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Don't I remember somebody sells thin gauge polished mock angle strips to go OVER your stock ones?

[_Ogre]

the method i used is to plug weld them from the back side
i drilled 1/4'' holes every 6-8'' in the bed sides (a little over kill),
clamped the rails on the bed sides and plug welded them thru the bed

if you want body color use plain old 1.25x1.25x1/8 angle and you can save a lot of $$$
i used regular angle iron, it made it easy to form around mini-tubs and looks good

[Russell Ashley]

I used 1/4 inch stainless phillips screws when I replaced my side strips recently. I chose to use screws instead of welding because I thought it would be batter for rust prevention. I sprayed bed liner on the sides before attaching the side strips. Even if you use weld-through primer you will have some bare metal between the strip and bed side after welding them. You can space the screws so that all of the nuts are under the fender and the bed corner posts and don't show, but you will loose about 3/8ths of an inch clearance between the tire and bed sides. If your tires are very close to the bed sides it could be a problem.