F350 running boards

jon f mn

Well-known Member
Picked up a new pipe bender so decided to build myself some running boards for my pickup. I talked about this last week on tractor talk, thinking I needed 2 steps for my wife to get in sonce my truck is very high. After some trial and error we decided that I only need one step, but it had to be lower than commercial units that I've seen. Besides, buildong is more fun. Lol.
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My orginal plan was to bend a 90° on the ends of 2-1 1/2" aluminum pipes, but the first problem was that the pipes broke rather than bend. I've bent this pipe before with no problems, but this time it didn't work.


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So I went to plan B, which was to use some of my older pipe that I knew would bend. The trouble was that I only had a little of that, so I cut short pieces and bent them and would fill in with the new pipe for the straits.


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Next problem was that with 90° bends the boards would be too wide, so I decided to cut them down to get the width I wanted. This left a point on the ends, but I think it looks ok.
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Then cut the ends to length.

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Then attatched the ends to the sides.


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Next was to put in the filler. I considered expa ded metal, both flattened and not flattened, but decided on 3/8" square instead. I was goind to twist them, but my favorite youngest son Nick talked me out of that. Welded 3 lengths lengthwise and some crosses to hold them.
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Positioned it to measure for the mounts.

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Decided to mount directly to the truck frame. In the end that turned out to be not such a good idea, but I'll get to that later. I decided to mount to a single spot on the frame since frame twist could tear apart a welded tube frame. I used 2" pipe for the mounts, surprisingly they bent fine. Don't know why the 1 1/2" pipe wouldn't. So I bent up 2 s shaped legs.
 
For some reason modern view quit loading pics. I'll
try it here.
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Mounted a piece of 1/4" plate to the frame to mount too.


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Then cut to length and tack them on. I just positioned the board where I wanted it and clamped the pipes to it and tacked the other end to the plate.


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Then notched the mounts for the board.
 
So still having problems with pics loading. So anyway I notched out the mount pipes so the boards fit in. Then took them off again for welding. Put them back on, but they sagged and mo ed around too much. So it was back off again for a little extra plating to tie the pipes together and tie them to the plate better. They seem to be good now except that the truck frame flexes a little. I thought it would be stronger mounted to the frame and never guessed that the frame would flex, but it does. I may run a cross member in there to take that out, but it will need to be removable since the driveline and exhaust run through there.
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jon, those things look good, and you still have plenty of ground clearance! Just a thought. If you know someone or have a friend who knows someone who runs an accessory shop, you may be able to talk him into letting you look at the installation instructions on a set of running boards. This would tell you how best to mount them minimizing flex that possibly causes damage. Your neighbors see them things, they may want a set too. You may have found yourself a second job. LOL
 
Those are some good looking running boards. Makes it easier to get in the truck yet won't collect a lot of mud like I've seen some factory running boards do. Appears as though you have done some welding in your day, been a few years since I've done any welding and rarely looked as good as those welds.
 
I am a bit ashamed of the welds actually. I'm out of practice since I haven't done much tig welding in 15 years. For tig those should be better. Lol That's part of why I did this job, for the practice on a project for myself. My son sent me this pic this morning of me working.
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That's a nice looking set of running boards. I have a regular cab F 250 and always wanted to build a set for mine just never got around to it. I don't have the ability to weld aluminum here in my shop but a could build them out of mild steel tubing and then have them powdercoated. I know it sure would make it easier to get something out of the tool box if I had something to stand on. I like how you used the square stock so that the mud wouldn't build up on them.
 
If it's steel or aluminum I can do it. Some of those are pot metal or white metal, the same thing toys are made from, not much you can do with that. Post some pics of what you have and I'll let you know.
 
The factory boards mount inside the rocker panels with
several brackets. Utilizing those mounts would eliminate
your frame flex problems. Frames flex a lot, we had trouble
at the dealer with people solid mounting boards to new
Chevy trucks. They sounded like the truck was breaking in
half when turning or going over speed bumps.
 

You'll need a corrosion barrier between the mounting plate and the truck frame. You can either coat the faying surface of the plate with a corrosion inhibiting compound (epoxy type) or rubberized undercoating, or use a shim made from something that is impermeable to water, such as the plastic from which antifreeze jugs etc are made of. You should never use stainless steel bolts to mount aluminum to steel either. Preferable a grade 5 zinc plated bolt and washer with a nylock zinc plated nut. The bolt should be dipped in wet primer before installation also.
My last job was prescribing structural repairs on aluminum bodied rail passenger cars, and before that aircraft. I'm very familiar with this type of build.
 
I've never tried my hand at TIG welding, just MIG and stick welding and a lot of that was back in high school. I'm sure my welds would not look as good if I tried it today.
 
Forgot to post those pics, I put a piece of .030
stainless between and used stainless flat washers
and grade 5 bolts. Just a note, drilling stainless
is a pain and this thin stuff is worse, so I just
mark the holes and use a punch to make the holes
them grind off the back side. Much easier and faster
than drilling. For that the holes can be over size a
quite a bit since it's just a spacer.
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(quoted from post at 15:19:46 10/12/14) Forgot to post those pics, I put a piece of .030
stainless between and used stainless flat washers
and grade 5 bolts. Just a note, drilling stainless
is a pain and this thin stuff is worse, so I just
mark the holes and use a punch to make the holes
them grind off the back side. Much easier and faster
than drilling. For that the holes can be over size a
quite a bit since it's just a spacer.
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Stainless is hard on aluminum, harder than plain carbon steel. It will cause more corrosion even faster, and road salt will just make it worse. Get rid of anything stainless, and you'll be ok, as long as you have your rubberized undercoat on the aluminum plate, at least. You don't need the joint causing structural problems on your truck frame. That's the biggest headache using aluminum.
 
If your sure it's aluminum I could fix that. I You want to strip it down to just the broken parts and ship them to me I'll fix it and send it back. No guaranty on time tho, I only do projects like that in my spare time. My email is open.
 
I've always used stainless with no
problems. I'll keep an eye on it and if it
shows corrosion I'll do something else.
 
Jon:

Beautiful job, they look fantastic.

Did you coat them with any kind of a "Clear Coat" finish. I know what road-salt does to steel rocker panels on vehicles back there, so I can imagine what it will do to those Aluminum running-boards.

Again, beautiful job, you do great work. :>)


Last time I did anything like that was back in '95 when I helped make all of the hand-railing and steps for the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I also made the structural-steel supports for the underground tunnel out to the Infield at the Speedway.

Doc
 

That's a chit load of work I am impressed... I hope I am not the one that has to lift it and not bend up your work :cry: Ford provided a provision for running board and they work great...

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