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- - DIY bed liner (https://www.performancetrucks.net/forums/technical-write-ups-201/diy-bed-liner-498417/)

just thought id share my experience and do a short write up with my DIY bed liner project.

first off, my truck is a 4x4, and she gets treated like one. Its a 01 sierra 1500 ecsb z71, with a mild built ls1, torsions cranked and 2500hd springs in the back to get it level. i do realize alot of this site is dedicated to the show and shine rigs, so this thread might be damn well worthless here, ill try to be entertaining. lol.

anyways... ive already got line-X in the bed, so my mission was to protect the underside and lower 1/3rd of my truck from road salt, tire debris, small children and anything else that could damage it. Line-x wanted around 600 to do what i was asking. so that was a no go.

I went with a spray on liner called "raptor liner" manufactured by "U-POL". i got the complete kit with the spray gun from amazon for 130 shipped to my door.

prep work was fairly simple but very intense. first i taped off a nice line with automotive grade "Green" masking tape from 3m... wiped everything down with wax and tar remover. then began with the sanding. i had never done anything like this before so was wet sanding with 320 grit. took for ever. i did some research online and found some guys were dry sanding with 180 grit and that sped the process up alot. one thing about this product is you dont want to take it down to bare metal. if you do have any bare metal, shoot it with some cheapo self etching primer. you just want to sand through the clear coat basically... wipe down everything alot to get all the dust particles off before you shoot. just when you think your good. wipe it a few more times.

the instructions are simple but very vague. it says to pour the hardner in the liner bottles to the imaginary line.....<-- WTF does that mean.... it came with exactly 4 bottles of liner and 1000 ml of hardner so i put 250ml of hardner with each bottle of liner i used. im not a fucking scientist, so i used a small coke can to get me close. i shot it at about 50 psi with the included gun from about a foot away. i was impressed at the simplicity and the results. all the pics i took are from a camera phone. but you get the idea. its still drying while i type this so i will post pics again when i pull the masking tape off. and again a month from now for an update.

Interested in seeing how it olds up. Maybe you should update this thread in a month or so with how it is holding up. Also do you have any idea of the weight of the liner itself?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlackGMC (Post 4883224)

Interested in seeing how it olds up. Maybe you should update this thread in a month or so with how it is holding up. Also do you have any idea of the weight of the liner itself?

i was curious about weight too. but was suprised the entire kit showed up at the door weighing probably close to 20- 25#. majority of the weight is from the containers and the spray gun. the liner probably weighs half that...

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwerlineman (Post 4883230)

Cool thanks for the write up and info.

Got dupli-color roll-on liner in the back of my Colorado, and it's held up surprisingly well. Definitely not Line-X or Rhino, but it's alright. Mainly serves as cosmetic. I do have a buddy who has a Jeep Wrangler Line-X'd like the truck above and it's held up awesome for almost two years. Nice project!

Just out of curiosity, have you used herculiner before? It's what i was going to use and i'm curious as to how they compare. They're about equal cost wise, but different application methods.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chevy_freak (Post 4897102)

Just out of curiosity, have you used herculiner before? It's what i was going to use and i'm curious as to how they compare. They're about equal cost wise, but different application methods.

i have used herculine before on the inside of my wheelers. it would take probably 4 coats of hurculiner to get as thick as the 2 coats i put on my truck with the raptor liner. also the hurculiner leaves sharp little burrs were the raptor liner shoots a smooth texture that can be varied with air pressure and distance its shot.

been almost a month and its holding up great

looks really good following that body line. i've seen a lot of people just put down tape and go. looks horrible that way