OEM Running board neverending saga - advice / tips needed!

[Miami305]

Hi all! Would love some advice / suggestions here - what should be a simple thing turned into a months long debacle

Got our 2022 about 7 months ago and was happy it came with the running boards; we did a full chrome delete but they said wrapping the boards really wont hold up well so best to look into other options. Soon after we decided we don't really NEED them, and could just take them off totally. Then I figure out about the panels, and did a whole hunt to buy some - finally found them (after they got lost at UPS and spent a week dealing with that lol) and got a kit with the replacement clips that a few people said to get to attach them with. Great, or so we thought.

Finally ended up making it this week to our guy and he removes them, only to find that the clips I got don't work and he has no way to attach the panels. Sigh. Then DH decides, oh, he doesn't love the look without them (think just got so used to seeing them that it looked weird with nothing.) So, now he wants to keep them...so went down the street to the auto paint guy and he said for $350 / 3 days he can do the sanding/prepping/coats of paint. $100 to remove and replace. Seemed high to me (more than half the boards are rubber so it wouldn't even be that much to work on, but I get it - it's a process.)

For the same $450 I could buy the black Peerless ones / have them swapped - but would have to deal with selling the originals. Prefer the rubber parts on the oem, but no worry about wear with the Peerless.

Thought of powder coating but would have to remove/reapply the rubber and I'm sure they would never stick the same way again (plus people say PC isn't the easiest to touch up.) I emailed my PC place who did our wheels to get their thoughts and pricing but DH said he does not want to rip that rubber off, so that may be out.

Googled for a while and saw lots of people recommending using bedliner spray as a coating for these & that it holds up extremely well. We do like the look of it. Does anyone know about this or other options / tips - or maybe did this themselves? Ideally I'd love to just keep and black these out and have 2 less chores of buying/selling stuff, but not sure which way to go and what would hold up best. The guy already said we need to buy new spring cilips or something if we want to remove/reinstall again, I'm just so over the whole thing and want it to be done!

Thanks all! Pic of our lovely Pickle with the eyesore brushed stainless

 

[Familyman20]

I didn't read all that but just take em off if you're not gonna buy some black ones. Someone on here will buy em or on ebay to offset the cost of new ones. Especially if they're just for aesthetics.

 

[Miami305]

I didn't read all that but just take em off if you're not gonna buy some black ones. Someone on here will buy em or on ebay to offset the cost of new ones. Especially if they're just for aesthetics.

Yes definitely an option but think would prefer keeping/blacking these out if there is any reasonable solution. I am reading that the Peerless BH ones acutally require the panels to install now, so would need to keep those too. We also don't have a way to do any of this ourselves unfortunately so each time is a trip to the shop and another bill Wish we could just spray it on and be done lol

 

[Familyman20]

Rattle can it for sure or use that bedliner.

Have you looked in to the Canadian market black OEM steps? Same or similar as US spec but they're black. Some genius at KIA decided on NOT including them on the US NF package. Tards. Throws off the entire look of the vehicle imo with the silver side steps on there with everything else blacked out.

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[Miami305]

Rattle can it for sure or use that bedliner.

Have you looked in to the Canadian market black OEM steps? Same or similar as US spec but they're black. Some genius at KIA decided on NOT including them on the US NF package. Tards. Throws off the entire look of the vehicle imo with the silver side steps on there with everything else blacked out.

I did see these when reading the threads...I agree, silly not to offer them here. If we are going to swap them, makes more sense to do the Peerless as they are MUCH cheaper ($300 ish vs near $1000). I agree, even though the board look in general has grown on both of us since it came the entire car is so nice and black/sleek and these stick out terribly. I'm googling and seeing some images of the Peereless ones on and some look flush, others look like they have a big gap between them and the car. Also trying to determine if we will need the orignal rocker panels; says attaches to them in the manual but am reading posts that people didn't use theirs.

I suppose if we have to pay to remove and replace them to do the paint etc - may as well just pay them to remove and replace with Peerless and be done with it....its too bad there is no real way to paint them while on!

 

[Familyman20]

Not sure how mechanically inclined you are but watch some YouTube videos. Might help build your confidence. There's no electrical work involved to my knowledge and it's easy access on the outside of the vehicle. I wouldn't pay somebody for a job like that.

 

[Miami305]

Not sure how mechanically inclined you are but watch some YouTube videos. Might help build your confidence. There's no electrical work involved to my knowledge and it's easy access on the outside of the vehicle. I wouldn't pay somebody for a job like that.

We have zero space and in a condo garage so not an option even if we had the patience, space, tools etc I just want to be 100% prepared with all the right parts this time, so if / when we do pay someone it's the last time lol.

Sent out some requests for quotes for painting and will see where that comes in and what options there are for that. The guy did say if we removed and replaced the oem ones again we would need a new set of whatever spring clips they came with bc they aren't meant to be messed with over and over / wont hold up. The peerless seems to come with all the hardware, but seems like I may need to keep the panels vs selling which is another chunk of $ added to the pile (I had to buy them.)