[richeilers]

This week's project: Bed Rail Covers......Since I finally got my top off for the first time and plan to keep it off until it snows, I figured I needed to cover the 35 or so drilled holes in my bed rail. Thought about a couple of ways to do it and came up with a relatively easy and cheap way to do it. Supplies: 13 feet of 1/4 x 2 1/4 in wood trim wood (Home Depot), 1" foam to cover said wood (Hobby Lobby), 2 1/2 yards of black vinyl (Hobby Lobby and only 6.99 a yard on sale), 6 double ended screws # 8 x 1 1/2 - machine on one end, wood on the other (Home Depot) and wife's glue gun. Rail Prep: drill 3 holes in the rail for the two ended screws to snugly fit in to. I put the screws most of the way in and then laid the wood on in the position I wanted and gently pushed down to make a mark on the wood for where to screw the screws in later. Steps: 1. cut the wood to correct length 2. lay that strip on the foam and use a sharpie line on each side and cut to fit the wood 3. glue foam to wood 4. cut the vinyl to length and width - go a little wide and trim it down after gluing it to the wood 5. method we used was to tack the vinyl to the wood about every 4 inches without compressing the foam, then fill in between, do one whole side first, then the other (don't cover your rail screw marks) 6. found the vinyl doesn't glue to vinyl so we stapled the ends/corners. 7. Drill a pilot hole in the 3 marked spots from the Rail Prep step, be careful to not go too far through and nick your vinyl 8. Insert screws to barely come through the wood 9. Install 'em! Might have to do a little drilling out to get a good fit but mine are snug enough that I'm not worried about them flying off while I drive. I may add some super magnets to the bottom of the wood strips just in case.