M923 Bedliner Paint Job

[LoveOfCountry]

Just acquired a 1990 M923 and considering giving it a bed liner spray paint job. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[Steelreaper80]

I admit I do not on these but I had a Chevy 2500 with a Line-X bedliner in it and it was AWESOME!. I will be looking into that option soon.

 

[M35A2-AZ]

I did a M35A2 bed with it. I used a Raptor liner kit. It looked great.

 

[LoveOfCountry]

I did a M35A2 bed with it. I used a Raptor liner kit. It looked great.

What sort of prep was involved? Do you find the thickness of the spray hid small imperfections in the metal? Thanks!

 

[US6x4]

Since they can mix your color of choice into the solution it would be easy to add 383 green or desert sand color to the liner.

 

[LoveOfCountry]

I’m going for a custom non-military color. More of a “patriotic” theme vs military. I’ve heard you can tint Raptor with rustoleum?

 

[98G]

I’m going for a custom non-military color. More aid a “patriotic” rig look vs military. I’ve heard you can tint Raptor with rustoleum?

In your climate you want to make absolutely certain you're starting with completely rust-free steel. Otherwise it'll rust from the inside.

No idea on tinting it.

 

[ToddJK]

In your climate you want to make absolutely certain you're starting with completely rust-free steel. Otherwise it'll rust from the inside.

No idea on tinting it.

That's 100% correct. Another issue with bed liners and such, deep scratches can lead to holes and over time air gets underneath it and then it traps moisture, later leads to rust. That's why vehicles with an undercoating tend to rust out extremely bad throughout the entire vehicle or specific spots, more so than a vehicle that has no undercoating. Definitely want to sand it down extremely well and make sure there's no rust. Prime it extremely well and then coat with the truck bed coating. I wouldn't do it though if at any point you believe you might load some heavy objects that can scratch that coating. If you do, you'll need to apply more of that coating over the scratches, especially those down to bare metal, to make sure it doesn't bubble up later and cause rust issues. On my old pickup, it had the spray on bed coating. One day I was in the back of it and when I stepped right in the middle the floor sunk and I can hear the metal giving away. It completely rusted out even though the rest of the truck looked fine with only minor rust spots. My guess, the previous owner didn't prep it very well and it was used a lot to haul stuff since he was a landscaper, which the spray on coating was scratched pretty bad.