Painting My Rusted Running Boards

[dwalker813]

I have a 96 explorer sport. My running boards over the years of sludge and salt, etc. have gotten rust all up and down.

I would like to know if anyone has suggestions on how hard it would be to take the running boards off, sanding those bad boys, painting them, and then reinstalling.

Would a capable amateur (me) be able to accomplish this? If so, any suggestions on the unistall/reistall and what kind of paint would be best to use would be appreciated.

 

[bender]

I have done this 3 times for my brother's 96 sport. seeing as yours is the same age, the biggest factor is if you will even be able to get them off and if so will they go back on.
they are bolted to the body (not the frame) so if you have a bunch of corrosion in the underside of the body i dont recommend you take them off or you wont get them to bolt back on safely. that being said it is 9 bolts per side, the plastic foot grip is on with clips that can be salvaged if you are careful. the ends are also plastic. once they are off it is a matter of how much time you put into refinishing. if you dont mind the stupid look for a while you can take the bar the bar off of the 3 brackets and leave the brackets on the vehicle. but then you risk the bolts stripping and not being able to put them back on... if you DO have a successful effort they will look really nice (for a while) we did my bro's 2 times and the 3rd time they rusted we just took them off for good. good luck