Applying racetrack trim

[johaner78]

I will be adding racetrack trim to my 78 F250 Crew. The original truck had the racetrack trim; however, in the course of the restoration, the doors and fenders (NOS) do not have any mounting tabs for the racetrack trim plastic holders. I'm presuming that my paint guy will have to drill holes in the panels to attach the plastic clips. Rivets seem like the only thing to use unless anyone has any other bright ideas.

If rivets are the thing to use, what kind - steel, aluminum or stainless steel?
Steel ones will rust (cant' have that), aluminum and steel are not compatible (the aluminum will errode) and I've heard that stainless steel (at least bolts) undergo some kind of chemical change / "rusting" over a long period of time.

What is everyone's opinion on what type to use? The truck will not see the salted Iowa roads in the winter and will mainly be a show stopper show truck.
Thanks,
eric

 

[UNRULEE]

Just my opinion since I've never installed racetrack trim............

I work on OTR trailers for a living, and I know the horrors of dissimilar metals. Steel and aluminum have a very bad relationship that develops over a short period of time, so aluminum is out.

And yes steel will rust.

I say go with the stainless. It's the longest lasting, and takes a very long time to deteriorate.

 

[Alvin in AZ]

I work on OTR trailers for a living, and I know the horrors of dissimilar metals.
Steel and aluminum have a very bad relationship that develops over a short
period of time, so aluminum is out.

Stainless and iron aren't as bad as aluminum and iron, that's for sure, but the
same problem exists, just goes the other way. Sometimes the corrosion
problems are made worse by adding stainless steel fasteners or other parts.

"all corrosion is electrical" -Richard "Curly" Hastings, metallurgist

Alvin in AZ

 

[TexasNomad]

I have the original race track molding on my truck and its in good shape, I say go with the after market stuff that DC or MACs sells to mount the molding.
If I remember right all they is rivets..

 

[bucks77ford]

I'm actually doing the same thing right now and have the same situation. I'm going to use some stainless steel metal screws to mount the plastic tabs. You can use rivets also and I'd go with stainless on those. I just figured screws would be the easiest. I actually may apply a little bit of silicon to the screws to seal each hole around the screw to prevent any water from getting in. I just drilled some holes to mount my upper trim to my fenders/doors and I was sweating the whole time making sure I didn't drill in the wrong spot. I'll have fun drilling all those holes for the lower fender racetrack trim.

 

[TexasNomad]

Your truck is a Race track Buck?
I think the Race tracks are the best looking model of trucks

 

[bucks77ford]

Your truck is a Race track Buck?
I think the Race tracks are the best looking model of trucks [/QUOTE

Yes, it was originally anyway and I want to get back to that look. I like the racetrack style.

 

[m78]

The rivets that came with the Ford service pack (which included the plastic clips) were s/s rivet with a steel pin. The problem I found is they have a tendancy to compress or break the platic clips,especially old brittle ones.
I used aluminum rivets because the pins snapped off easier but I also loaded it up with anti-oxidation grease used for aluminum to metal electrical connections.
Plastic rivets might be better

 

[miottimouse]

i used stainless steel screws for mine i also used dialectic grease and on the backside sprayed rubber undercoating to seal every thing up 5 years since doing and no problems so far what i also got done to protect the inner box wheel well area was go to a rust proofing place and they took the tail lights out and used a 6 ft spray gun with a rotating tip to spray epoxy till it dripped all over the place still no problems so far regurds joe

 

[fatherdoug]

The one thing that is REALLY hard on stainless is something with a high chloride content, i.e. salt. Also scratching the surface of a piece of stainless can actually cause it to rust, because it sets up a corrosion cell, although that can be a long term process. We have a number of LARGE stainless tanks, that contain slurry, and we try to keep the chloride content to less than 1,000 ppm(1%) chloride. Doing so minimizes the corrosion of the stainless.

 

[johaner78]

hey guys, thanks for the input. Think the unanimous vote is for s/s - that's what i was thinking too. Think I'll go with rivets thinking they will stay tighter longer.
Texas - yea i've got all new plastic clips (and mostly all new DC moulding - except for my C/C parts) so nothing should be brittle.

Miotti - my paint guy was going to seal the back side of the rivets too with some type of autobody sealant.

Fatherdoug - Nice lookin truck!! BTW - you can be sure my C/C willl NOT see the salted Iowa roads! It will take 3 spring rains to wash the roads off before my C/C will come out in the spring.

 

[fatherdoug]

Thank you johaner78. Good luck with your project.

 

[UNRULEE]

OK it dawned on me, we use "nutserts" at work to attach things thin alm., steel, etc. I believe that they're galvinized steel and regular machine screws thread into them. Kind of like this, but with the method that I use, the tool isn't pneumatic, it's very similar to a pop-rivet gun.

http://www.avdel-global.com/en/products/threaded-inserts/thin-sheet-nutsert.html