Installing the Roadless Gear
Bedliner Kit
By Figmo
It doesn't matter if your vehicle is used primarily
on or off the road, your interior paint takes a pounding. Dirt, mud,
rocks, parts rolling around, whatever. Scratches, scuffs, scrapes
and stains all add up to one ugly looking interior. One option is
to carpet your rig - and this works fine for street rigs. But off
road driving tends to bring alot of mud and dirt into the vehicle
and it's a major PITA to get out of carpet. The Roadless Gear spray
on bedliner kit is another solution. It's cheaper than carpet - wears
like iron - and cleaning it is as simple as a high pressure hose at
your local car wash. It's a paint type product - with ground up chunks
of recycled tire rubber added to it to give it a non-slip texture
look.
The kit comes complete with everything you need to do
the job. A sanding sponge and Xylene to make sure you have a good
surface to paint over - a Shutz gun to apply the bedliner with - and
of course, the bedliner itself. There is enough bedliner included
for two coats over the interior of a Samurai, with alittle left over
to put on the shelf for touch up here an there in the future. But
not that you'll need it. You'll be hard pressed to chip this stuff.
A quick note about working with toxic substances (and
these are toxic substances). First, always work in a well ventilated
area. That buzz you'll get from the fumes is your brain cells kicking
off. Second - wear gloves when working with Xylene. It's a pretty
potent solvent that can irritate the skin causing a rash and possibly
burning - plus it can be absorbed through the pores in your skin.
And of course, anytime you paint - wear a respirator. You want to
apply a coat of bedliner on your rig, not the inside of your nose
and lungs.
OK, on with the show. Any paint and body man will tell
you, there are only three rules to follow in order to achieve a nice
finished product. Listed in order of importance they are:
The more time you spend preparing
the surface of your interior to be painted, the better your end result
will be. Rush the prep, and you'll end up with a bedliner that will
chip and peel within a month of putting it on. This means that all
surfaces that are to be painted must be sanded and wiped clean with
Xlene. We decided it would be easier for us to remove as many parts
as possible from the vehicle to save time later masking them off -
and to get them out of the way of our prep work. This step is optional
- you could work around the roll bar and seat belts if you wanted
to. But you'll want to remove the seats at a minimum.
Once
you have all the interior parts removed you must sand the areas to
be painted. Sanding gives a rough surface for the paint to adhere
to. Make sure you sand every square millimeter. If you see a shiny
spot - sand it. Don't neglect the nooks and crannies. Especially watch
those low spots that you tend to sand right over without even touching.
The included sanding sponge is great for getting at those hard to
reach spots. When you think you are finished sanding - sand it again.
I can not stress enough how important this step is.
Once
you are done sanding, wipe everything down with Xylene. This ensures
there is no grease, oil or wax left on the surface that could interfere
with bonding. And trust me - there is ALWAYS grease, oil and/or wax
on the surface. Just because you can't see it - doesn't mean it aint
there. Your bedliner will know it's there and punish you for not removing
it. Xylene dries quickly and leaves no residue behind like other solvents
or paint thinners. Again - be sure to wear gloves for this part and
do it outside where there is plenty of ventilation. Xylene is potent
stuff.
Now
mask off everything you don't want painted. We decided we wanted the
bedliner to cover the top rail of the back of the bed so the kids
would have a nice non-slip surface when climbing in and out of the
vehicle. So we masked off the sides - but left the very top of the
bed exposed. Don't forget to cover your dash, steering wheel and shifters.
A note about the included Shutz gun that you'll use
to apply the bedliner. It operates at very high pressure. It has to
in order to siphon up chunks of ground up rubber. If you've painted
before with rattle can or a paint sprayer - this is nothing like either
of them. The Shutz gun will shoot out a lot of product with a high
pressure so you wont have the control you may be used to. This means
you should be prepared to overkill the masking part of this project.
This stuff ends up everywhere and the pressure from the sprayer can
lift paper and even poorly attached masking tape and leave overspray
on your vehicle.
Here's
another tip for you. When this stuff dries - it's darn near impossible
to get off. So why waste a perfectly good shop funnel? When filling
the bottle of the Shutz gun I used a cut off empty soda bottle as
a funnel. When the project was over I just tossed it in the same place
I dug it out of before I started (the trash). Also, if you get any
on your skin be prepared to look like a Dalmatian for a few days.
The only way you're getting it off is to let it wear off.
Now
the fun part begins. Use the Shutz gun like you would a normal paint
sprayer. Keep the tip about 10 inches away from the target, and anytime
you pull the trigger make sure you are sweeping the gun back and forth.
For the first coat - don't worry about getting the texture "just
right". You want the first coat to be alittle thin so just try
to make everything black with the first coat without stressing over
the texture.
Let
the first coat dry to the touch. Depending on how warm and what the
humidity is outside - this typically takes about half an hour. For
this vehicle - by the time I was done with the first coat the area
that I started was ready for the second coat.
When applying this coat - pay special attention to areas
you might have missed with the first coat. You can also make sure
that your texture is even on this coat. Spray alittle more on the
smoother spots, alittle less on spots that already have a good texture
from coat one
A note about the under the dash area. This is the toughest area to
get. Fortunately, this is also the area people will see the least.
Get a nice texture as high up on the firewall as you feel comfortable
with. If your vehicle is already black - that's all there is to it.
It will blend right in. If you are not so lucky (such as I was with
this red vehicle) - go back after the job is done with some black
spray paint and touch up under the dash. You will have more control
with the rattle can than with the Shutz gun, and nobody will notice
that the firewall is black, but not textured.
Once
you are finished - remove your masking as soon as possible. Don't
wait for it to dry completely. The reason for this is two fold. First,
if you let the bedliner set up it's possible you may chip the edge
of the paint when you peel your masking tape off. But secondly, if
you accidentally got some overspray on the vehicle due to a break
or rip in the paper - you'll stand a much better chance of getting
it off now than after it sets up. Just take some Xylene on a clean
rag and it should wipe right off.
Give the finished product a good 24 hours before starting
to reassemble the interior. Prior to that, it may feel dry to the
touch but it will be susceptible to nicks and cuts real easy at this
point. Once it sets up - it will wear like iron so don't be afraid
to abuse it. On the off chance you do get a chip or nick - you should
have about half a bottle's worth of bedliner left over after the job
to perform touch ups.
That's
all there is to it. If you've done your prep work right, you'll have
a great looking bedliner finish that will last you years. The total
time for this project depends on how far you go with stripping the
parts out of the interior of the vehicle. If you do the minimum and
mask everything else - it can be done in a day (not counting reassembly).
Plan on a full weekend if you strip it down as far as I did for this
project.
If you have any questions - feel free to email
me. And if you're ready to try this on your own vehicle - you
can purchase the Roadless Gear Bedliner Kit here.
