Under coating...

[kornball426]

Not sure if this is really the right section, but anyway it'll do. I was just wondering and I hope this isn't a redundant question that has been asked a million times. But has anyone thought about, or used rubberized truck bed liner as under coating? The stuff is tough as nails so I would think it would be perfect and it's pretty easy to apply the one time I did it to a truck bed at least. The aerosol spray on under coating stuff they sell, I have never used it... But it looks like it would be a big pain in the *ss and very messy to apply unless you had the car stripped completely and off the frame. Roll on or brush on seems like it would be much easier.

 

[kornball426]

So no one has even thought about doing this? I know people do the insides of the tubs of their Jeeps and stuff with rhino liner or a similar product... But no one has ever done the under side of a body and chassis? It's gotta be tougher against stones and salt and abrasion than just paint.

 

[brettlaage03]

I was gonna do it to my last car, but junked it. I may do it to the one I have now and definitely wanna do my truck's bed and the underbody as well. I would definitely do a two part bedliner. In tech school we were told any product that is two part(has a catalyst) is almost always better. So i'd look for something w/ a catalyst/hardener. Which wouldn't be an aerosol. I saw a pic of an entire truck done in it in Truckin' magazine!

 

[78mali350]

I have a black pickup and since my bumper was starting to get rust all over it I just sanded it down and used rustoleum paint on bed liner on it, looks great, held up great. I see no reason why it wouldn't hold up under the car as well. I think it would be a great alternative to the rubberized stuff. Especially since it dries rather quickly and a little goes a long ways. I put four coats on my bumper and I barely put a dent in a one gallon can. I would do the frame rails and floor pans on the bottom of my truck but I don't think i'll own the truck long enough to make it worth my while in sanding and prep work.

 

[kornball426]

Huh what does the rustoleum stuff look like after it dries? Is it just like a super tough paint or something? After I do the floors in my car I just want to undercoat the hell out of the entire bottom of the car so it'll never rust again. I figured bed liner would be some pretty tough stuff.

 

[brettlaage03]

I did not like the rustoleum professional undercoating. I Think the 3M rubberized stuff is the best. It's almost $15 a can tho, but it adheres very well. I've used the spray bomb bed liner to without much luck. I think i'm gonna use SEM Rock-It Liner or this stuff called Raptor liner on my car n truck. We used the SEM stuff at tech school and it works awsome. If you look it up on amazon some come with a spray gun too. Also the SEM stuff is tintable.

 

[78mali350]

Huh what does the rustoleum stuff look like after it dries? Is it just like a super tough paint or something? After I do the floors in my car I just want to undercoat the hell out of the entire bottom of the car so it'll never rust again. I figured bed liner would be some pretty tough stuff.

From a distance, you can't tell that it isn't black paint. Otherwise it's a very even finish, and basically seems like pretty tough paint. Has a bit of like a sandpaper feel too it as well. Hard to describe. I will try to get the truck cleaned tomorrow (drove 700 miles this weekend) and i'll snap some shots with the bumper to try to give you a better idea. And this is truck bed coating I used, not undercoating or anything like that, strickly truck bed liner that I think would work the same way

 

[78mali350]

Here's my front bumper. As I said I believe it's around 4 coats worth of coating on it. Personally I love the way it looks, cleans up extremely well as well. I would not be afraid to coat floorboards or frame rails with it, I just am not doing it on this truck simply because I won't hang on to it that long. any questions just ask

Here is a pic to try to show the texture. It really isn't extremely rough, fairly smooth

 

[kornball426]

Yeah that actually looks pretty cool... Almost like a leathery texture. It looks cleaner than that tar like undercoat they sometimes put on... It is just the underside and it's never going to be a show car so I'm not that concerned about the appearance I'm more worried about it being functional keeping the rust off. But, it does look nice which is a perk, that was my one concern with rubberized truck bed liner like Hurculiner which was what I used on one of my truck beds once... It looked good but after a while it's like dirt got ground into it and you couldn't get it to look clean anymore. It always looked dirty, kinda like have you ever waded in a muddy creek when you're fishing or something, or just got really muddy and you can never get that tint of mud out of your shirt or jeans, or white sneakers are the worst you get them muddy once and they'll always be stained kinda brown. Well it looked kinda like that. :lol:

Thanks for the snap shots...

That's a pretty nice truck, why aren't you gonna keep it?

 

[78mali350]

That's a pretty nice truck, why aren't you gonna keep it?

Main reason for not keeping the truck is because I personally would prefer a truck with 4x4 if I am going to continue to live in the midwest after college. Also if it's my primary vehicle I would also like a crew cab truck. Great running truck, but not what I really want after I am out of college. But I have been wrong before, so maybe I will be kicking myself for not taking the time to do the undercarriage of the truck.