The faded 'strip' - is there a way to refinish it so it looks decent and/or finish it to a dark black color or even purchase something that covers it?

 

you could cover it in black vinyl, mine is fading as well and im not sure what im going to do with it.... maybe remove it

 

Previous owner of my duramax rhino lined mine, looks great!

 

The faded strip your talking about is called the body side moulding. Mine did the same exact thing. Since the most of the trim on your truck is black, you could clean it up with wax & grease remover, skuff it up with some red scotch brite pads. Clean it again & mask it off. Grab a quality rattle can spray paint from your local auto parts store.
Good luck!

 

I agree with havin it repainted! It'll probably look a little better than buffing it.... But i have never personally tried it

 

I have been considering removing mine. I think these trucks look a lot cleaner w/out them. However, you will lose protection from shopping karts!

But, I have found that Ice polish/wax stuff, clear liquid, I think from Turtle wax or one of those guys, works great! You can put it on everything, painted or not and it shines everything right up. It is wet for quite some time, but looks great. And, can be applied in direct sunlight, according to directions.

 

How do you remove them ?

 

I have seen some threads where people were talking about debadging. I haven't done it, yet. I don't think the ones I read were on this forum, but there must be some. I would have to research it again, before I did mine. And, I am pretty sure I am gonna.

Anyway, as best I can remember.... (and I would recommend researching on your own, as I am not sure) .... I think you can use something like dental floss, maybe. Something that won't scratch your paint. You could prob'ly peel them off, but might want to put them back on, you know? Anyway, run something like floss, carefully along and break-up the glue. Then you will have to clean the glue. I remember someone said that the magic eraser (wheel on a buffer, I think) worked awesome to clean-up the left-over glue.

If you try it, let me know how it turns out. I really think I want to get rid of mine, and my 4x4 stickers. I'm not sure about the badges yet, though. I kinda like them.

I have also been thinking about bedliner up to the point these body moldings cover. Or, another idea I had was to take these off and bedline or plasti-dip them and put them back on? I dunno. I think I will remove them one day when I am not so busy, or it is not so hot and see what my truck looks like.