[TexasSpeed]

Putting down new rubber on nicely painted and cured running boards. What to use?

[kenseth17]

A windshield urethane would work well. May be a little tough to get off if you were to want to remove it for some reason down the road. Make sure you wipe down the running board and moulding with something like a wax and grease remover, make sure both surfaces are clean. You could even go so far as to rough up the back of the moulding and where it will cover on the running board, but not really neccessary. In fact some glass companys when they install rubber or plastic moldings when they install new glass will set the moulding into the fresh urethane. Make sure you have something for cleanup ready if some happens to sgueeze out past the moulding. Test what ever you will use for cleanup in an unnoticeable spot first before using. If it is an activated paint that has cured for a little while, lacquer thinner or a wax and grease remover shouldn't really effect the paint, but test to be sure. Probably won't really need any cleaning on new paint, but if by chance for some reason it were buffed and glazed i would probably want to clean it off. Also you will probably have to tape the moulding down while the urethane cures. You don't want to tape if the paint is too fresh.

[powerrodsmike]

I believe that there is a glue specifically for that rubber moulding. I think Dennis Carpenter or Bob Drake sells it. I have heard they are not easy to install. I would use a fine toothed trowel to spread the glue if I were to use the urethane so as not to get any lumps that would be hard to push out. (I laid linoleum for 12 years, pushing excess glue out from under a non porous material is less than fun.)
Hope this helps mikey

[kenseth17]

I was thinking about a moulding for some reason, like there was a space in the running board and a moulding got installed. If I understand it now you are installing some rubber on top for the step, anti slip surface, right? wrong?. If the manufacturer has some type of glue they tell you to use, maybe you should use that. Windshield urethane if fairly thick and it would be hard to get a smooth surface if it were fairly thin material. But if you put on a moulding with urethane and its clean, that sucker ain't coming off anytime soon.

[shine]

drake no longer ships it . a good rubber contact cement is what you need. be sure to clean the rubber good. i brush it with a wire brush to give it some teeth.

[cboy]

I used plain old contact cement from my local Ace Hardware for my '32 pickup. The only special preparation I did was to lay the rubber down and then put masking tape around to define the edges and protect the paint from any overlay of the the cement (I feared it might be a problem to remove). I then just wiped down the back side of the rubber and the running board, applied the cement to both surfaces and used a series of dowels laid on the running board to prevent premature contact (if you've never used contact cement be aware that there is NO room for error - once the two surfaces come in contact they are going to stick like crazy.)

I did this two years (15,000 miles) ago and there has been absolutely no peel up or release of the rubber. (I'll be glad do shoot a pic of how they look now if that would be helpful.)

Dewey

[37ford4dr]

i'm working on my running boards now and they have 1/8" holes drilled in a grid pattern about every 3"...i wonder if this is a factory set up to help hold glue???

[Irelands child]

I went thru the same dilemma so I called LeBarron Bonney, Mac's and a couple of others as to what they use. Turns out that as stated above, good old style FLAMMABLE contact cement like you can get at the blue or orange box stores. Just make sure it is the FLAMMABLE, and more expensive stuff. The non-flammable stuff will not work.

Word of caution tho, one good coat on both the rubber and the running board will do it - the cement will lift in patches if you try to put on more. Scuffing both surfaces with ScotchBrite wont hurt either. Use a cheap 3-4" foam throw away roller to put it on evenly plus gloves unless you like wearing contact cement and the dirt it picks up for a week or so !!!
You only have one shot to align it - so get it right