Don’t Be Afraid to Cut Your BuiltRight Panels

We get compatibility questions all the time. Will our Bedside Rack System work with this tonneau cover? What about this bed rack? Can I run this toolbox with it?

Most of the time, the answer is yes. Sometimes everything bolts together perfectly, and sometimes you need to make a small modification to get two products that weren’t designed together to play nicely.

That might mean drilling a hole, trimming an edge, or cutting a small notch in one of our panels.

We know taking a cutoff wheel to a brand-new BuiltRight panel probably feels wrong. We’re here to tell you it’s fine.

There’s No Way to Account for Everything

There are hundreds of tonneau covers, racks, toolboxes, clamps, brackets, and other accessories out there. Even two tonneau covers from the same manufacturer might attach to the bed completely differently.

We try to make our systems compatible with as much as possible, but there’s simply no way for us to design around every accessory somebody might install now or five years from now.

The good news is that our panels are pretty simple pieces of equipment. If a tonneau cover bracket needs an inch of space where the panel currently sits, you don’t necessarily need a different tonneau cover or a different storage system. Sometimes you just need to make room for it.

That’s what we’re doing in the video above. There’s an interference point, we figure out how much material actually needs to go, and we cut it. Problem solved.

You’re Not Going to Hurt Our Feelings

This is probably the part we want people to understand most.

We designed these panels, but once they're on your truck, make them yours.

Drill holes in them. Trim them. Cut a notch for a tonneau bracket. Add something we never intended to mount there. If modifying the panel makes your setup work better, that's exactly what you should do.

Just be smart about it. Mock everything up before you start cutting, mark what actually needs to be removed, and start small. You can always take a little more material off, but putting it back on is considerably harder.

Once you're happy with the fit, clean up the edges and hit the exposed steel with some touch-up paint. After everything is bolted back together, chances are nobody will ever know the panel didn't come that way.

Build Your Truck the Way You Want It

The whole reason the Bedside Rack System exists is to give you a flexible place to mount and organize your gear. It would be pretty backwards for us to tell you that you can't modify it to work with the rest of your truck.

Maybe you're running a tonneau cover we've never tested. Maybe you've got a weird bracket in exactly the wrong spot. Maybe you're mounting an air compressor, recovery gear, electrical components, tools, or something we've never even considered.

Make it work.

We'd much rather see someone cut a small section out of a panel and end up with exactly the setup they wanted than compromise the entire build because they were afraid to modify a piece of steel.

Measure twice, cut once, touch up the bare metal, and move on.

We promise we won't be offended.