Lining the whole rig with Al's (2 Viewers)

[plutonius]

So here it goes. I've seen a few trucks lined head to toe, and after seeing Ardentyota's thread and Nay's thread, and playing with some liner samples from Al's Liner, I'm getting ready to do it.

I'm going with a smooth-ish texture in some shade of gray - as much as tan makes the most sense in matching the dirt around here, I can't do tan on blue with a dark gray interior...I mean I could, but I'm not. So some version of gray it is...smoke maybe, or battleship...

If you look very closely at the tan swatch there's a vertical scratch in the center, from a blade of scissors dragged sideways with significant pressure. This stuff is durable. Also all 4 of these swatches spent yesterday buried in the dirt, in the sun, and I merely brushed them off for the pics.

Tan smooth, Gray smooth, Dark Gray rough, Black fine rough (rubber crumb I think). First pic is in the shade, 2nd is in the sun. And yes, my flare gaskets are toast.

The order arrived this morning from RE Paint Supply. When Fed Ex arrived I was actually out in the driveway with a heat gun, a scraper, a can of 3M Adhesive Remover, and a respirator working on scraping off the gummy leftover adhesive from the roof rack removal - a miserable task. The delivery included Al's 6" nylon brush, and since I'm not worried about protecting my paint finish, I figured I'd try it out. The angle grinder might be spinning a bit faster than the recommended max of 6500 rpm, but it made very quick work of removing the 14 year old adhesive.

I'm dumping the black tint bundled with the kit and going with gray. Between achieving a smooth-ish texture and finding a decent gray I have some experimenting to do still. Here are the tints from RE Paint - Case Gray on the left, Smoke Metallic on the right. The photo below shows neat (unmixed) tints, so it's hard to judge the final result, but I can start to get the idea. At least the metallic is a fine particulate and not a cheesy metal flake. We'll see how it looks in the liner, but it's looking pretty silvery here:

I'll update as this project progresses, but I'm pretty excited about this.

Clark

 

[chappysfj40]

watching this for sure

 

[ardentyota]

I'm excited to see it tinted!

The angle grinder may not allow the brush from Al's to etch the surface like it needs since your Ryobi is around 11,000 RPM. Even with 40 grit flapper wheel on a grinder, it's going to be smooth. You might want to look at using it on a drill instead if it isn't leaving a rough surface behind.

Remember that prep is key! You don't want to screw it up by cutting corners (Not implying that you are).

Good luck!

 

[Sno bored]

I ordered new gaskets from cruiserdan when I lined my truck and flares.

 

[plutonius]

I ordered new gaskets from cruiserdan when I lined my truck and flares.

Yeah, I picked up my new flare gaskets from my local Toyota dealer yesterday. The flares are staying for now.

I'm excited to see it tinted!

The angle grinder may not allow the brush from Al's to etch the surface like it needs since your Ryobi is around 11,000 RPM. Even with 40 grit flapper wheel on a grinder, it's going to be smooth. You might want to look at using it on a drill instead if it isn't leaving a rough surface behind.

Remember that prep is key! You don't want to screw it up by cutting corners (Not implying that you are).

Good luck!

Thanks! Yeah, the specs on the grinder say 11, 500 and the brush was flattening out once it warmed up. But on it's side, it took off that adhesive strip left over from the roof rack ribs as if it was butter. Thanks for the heads up. I'm sure I'll have questions once I get deeper into this, and may shoot you a pm or two Nate if that's cool.

Cheers,

Clark

 

[ardentyota]

Thanks! Yeah, the specs on the grinder say 11, 500 and the brush was flattening out once it warmed up. But on it's side, it took off that adhesive strip left over from the roof rack ribs as if it was butter. Thanks for the heads up. I'm sure I'll have questions once I get deeper into this, and may shoot you a pm or two Nate if that's cool.

Cheers,

Clark

Yeah, no problem Clark.

 

[Nay]

Awesome, will be a good project.

I think you should keep some blue, I really like the "right" blue on an 80, hard to do but it really works.

Use electrical tape around all of your gaskets, it peels with zero tearing and leaves a perfect line.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

... I can't do tan on blue with a dark gray interior...I mean I could, but I'm not.

Good call, reminds me of the Bronco II I had in HS, what a turd...

 

[plutonius]

Awesome, will be a good project.

I think you should keep some blue, I really like the "right" blue on an 80, hard to do but it really works.

Use electrical tape around all of your gaskets, it peels with zero tearing and leaves a perfect line.

That's a great tip (using electrical tape). Will do!

I think the only blue that will remain is going to be the door jambs, inside window frames, etc. I like the blue too, but my exterior paint is really shot - oxidized from SoCal sun, pin-striped, chipped from leaning bikes, skis, windsurf gear, camp gear, sandy kids, big dogs etc, sanded down from weathering playa dust storms in the Black Rock Desert, and so on. I call it an 80/80 - looks good from 80 feet at 80 miles an hour. With the liner, anything around a 20/20 will suit me fine.

Good call, reminds me of the Bronco II I had in HS, what a turd...

Haha.

 

[plutonius]

So the smoke metallic tint is really a black pigment with silver metallic - cool effect but not what I'm looking for. I tried a 50/50 blend of the two and it just turned out like a washed out black, not good. I'm leaning toward the case gray, a fairly dark gray with a hint of blue to it. I'm going to mix a small batch of liner tonight and test it. Note the surface here is not fully prepped, but here are the neat pigments:

 

[freshspecbluegt]

Any updates? Have you been able to test the nightshadow tinted liner yet?

 

[Eicca]

Subscriiiiiiibed!

 

[plutonius]

Any updates? Have you been able to test the nightshadow tinted liner yet?

Sorry for the lag on this thread, I've been out surf-camping with my boys, grinding more sand and salt water into my sorry paint job every day. I have indeed tested the 8K0 tinted liner, and it came out somewhat aqua and yucky, and the conclusion is that it either needs 12oz per gallon (vs the 8oz recommended), or the tint is translucent enough that it wont mix very well. It could very well be operator error, but the tests I did with 3 different grays (one metallic) came out the same color as the base pigment and I'm getting the process down. I am a bit hesitant (though not enough ) to blow through a few hundred dollars just spraying tests, but I am going to try some small batches of other dark blues, with and without the vinyl flattener, and even the ford tractor blue (but i think it'll be too bright for my liking). Not to say that the 8K0 tint can't be done, but I may eliminate it as it's an unknown variable amongst a larger set of variables in this project I am able to control. I'll have the tints in a couple of days, and when I have decent results I'll post up some pix.

EDIT: I don't intend to turn this into a "what color should I paint my 80?" thread, but I am definitely still fishing a bit on the right color.

After this trip to the dunes ^^^ the exposed sheet metal on the roof was starting to rust, so I figured I would spray just the roof and use the 8K0 for the test, knowing I'm going over it again anyway. This is what it looked like after a 60 hour cure. It has since darkened quite a bit and the white specks have cured, and I figured out a rougher texture than this for my next, and final coat...but it's still wrong. But the liner itself is awesome. I've been scraping mountain bikes, windsurf gear, surf boards, camp gear, wetsuits, sandy kids etc over it and it is ultra durable.

 

[AH-1W Smitty]

Any Updates? Would love to see any progress. I am thinking of doing the same thing but was hoping I could ride your coattails

 

[plutonius]

Any Updates? Would love to see any progress. I am thinking of doing the same thing but was hoping I could ride your coattails

Hey Smitty, I have not updated this thread as I don't want to bore everyone to death with my color tweaking. I've been there & back again with playing with color tints. What I've decided upon though is that metallic tints are a pita to blend and come out too sparkly for my taste, and that the vinyl flattener is the way to go as it reduces the rubberyness as well as the glossy sparkle. I'm having a blue grey tint blended - military RAF blue - but it's been a bit tricky to get the right blend.

It's amazing though how fast the oxidation in the paint spreads once it starts. My bonnet is completely cloudy now. I'm hoping to spray it within the next couple of weeks, and I will take as many pictures as I can. In the meantime, you can find some inspiration in this guy's lined FJC.

Cheers,

C.

EDIT I might as well add a pic for those that scroll for such. I've been painting my boy's Matchbox trucks with modeling paints I've been hand tinting, and this is the zone I'm going with:

 

[Josh N]

A few years back I did similar to the bed of an F150 I had. From my perspective home done finishes like that wear off way too fast. I plan on going by the line x shop nearby soon to have them do the interior of my 80 and see what they will charge. Who needs a rug?

 

[plutonius]

Lined

46 hours and approaching a full cure. If you do the math and backtrack, that means I finished the final coat at 4am Friday night. It's been a long last few days, but the hard part is done, the rest is just tweaking.

If you've seen this thread before, you're probably wondering what happened to this project. It got put on the back burner due to time restraints...work, family, travel etc make it hard to find a few days in a row where I can live in the garage wrenching, and I'm all about the Y in DIY and set out to do this solo.

After 3 full days and nights of prep and alot of #6's I had the flares off, mirrors off, cowling off, lower grill body panel off, grill & lenses out, emblems removed, and had her sanded down with Al's 6" nylon brush followed by a hand pass with 30 grit. The guys at Al's say the nylon brush is enough, but I needed to feel it with my bare fingers. The rear gate "Landcruiser" emblem snapped in half even though I was daintily attempting a clean pull with a heat gun, 3M adhesive remover, and fishing line (it was cracked already anyway), and the dang 14 year old adhesive is such a pita to remove I ended up just grinding it off with a stripper brush on an angle grinder.

I taped and masked every nanometer where I didn't want the stuff sprayed, and it really took a heck of alot longer than I thought it would...fun and tedious at the same time. The dangerous part was that my 2nd fridge is in the garage, my birthday was last week, and it's stocked full of Belgian ales and hoppy microbrew IPA's - pretty much everything in there is at least 9% ABV. Too many of those and you start cutting corners, or missing them entirely

I rented a gas air compressor capable of pushing at least 10 CFM at 90psi (Al's recommends at least 7 at 25) - the same compressor I used to spray the roof a couple of months ago. My problem was that the tip of the gun was overloading and i was getting an inconsistent texture and splattering. I am a quick learner, but not a pro sprayer, and regardless of air pressure and air gun settings I still wasn't finding a spray pattern I was liking - testing it on the removed flares. Adding to that dilemma is that once you mix this stuff you have about 20 minutes to work with it - you've got to move fast, and make decisions fast. I bought 2 guns such that I could continue to spray while the other was drying out, but running a compressor, dealing with the air line, mixing the batch, and controlling the gun is alot to handle on your own - it's totally doable but leaves next to zero margin for error. So what I decided to do was just spray the nooks and crannys, and roll the rest. That way I could take my time, drink some beers, crank some tunes, mix small (1 quart) size batches, and work late into the night without pissing off my neighbors. I did all of my "painting" at night under consistent lighting provided by 4 x 500w halogens and a halogen mtb helmet light.

The fumes are unreal - even through the respirator I was getting gassed. This is heavy duty, mean stuff. I rolled 3 coats (3 1/2 gallons total with some excess in each batch that I couldn't apply before it set up) with a wide array of non-shedding semi-smooth rollers and ended up with a fine texture. It's not perfect, but things rarely are, and I'm stoked with the results. Oh, I mixed 12 ounces of custom tint into the Al's kit, along with a full bottle of Vinyl Flattener per gallon. The VF gives a harder, rougher texture, like adding sand to paint, and takes the sparkliness out of the finish.

I sprayed the grill and lense trim with Duplicolor Toyota Magnetic Gray. I have the same RAF Blue paint (matching tint to the liner) in a rattle can with a flat clear with which I'll spray the door handles and mirrors. I may paint the RAF roundel on somewhere as well, just cuz. When I started on this I always imagined keeping the flares - I have new gaskets, all retaining clips and hardware, and JB Welded all of the flare-side mounting brackets for added strength...but now that they are off I'm thinking they are going to stay off. That said, once I commit I need to drill out the riveted brackets and deal with all the holes. The line the Kaymar rear bumper makes with the flareless body is weird - I could always spray the wheel wells black and wrap a black border over the edge also filling in the gap to the bumper, but that's TBD.

Anyway, here are some pix - I was moving too fast with sticky fingers in the wee hours of the night to get picture happy, but here are some. The exterior shots were taken today on my cell phone. I will update soon with high quality pix once I get a full cure and can get her out in the dirt.

Roof sprayed as a test, color samples painted on rear quarter panel:

Prep:

Lined RAF Blue, 44 hours into cure, low-rez cell phone pics. The color is grayer than what the cell phone captures:

Finally, thanks to Nate (Ardentyota) and Nay for info and inspiration, Chris at Hefty Fabworks for tech advice, Dana at Al's Liner for answering my seemingly incessant questions, HolcombValleyFJ on the fjcruiser forum for further inspiration and answering my pm's, Gary at R&E Paint for patiently bearing with me in eye-matching and mixing my tint from a swatch I sent, my local Hobby shop for sourcing and special-ordering samples of various military model paints, my local hardware store, and of course my wifey for putting up with my cultish obsession - there's more to come.

Cheers!

 

[freshspecbluegt]

Nice work, I'm digging the RAF Blue especially with the black wheels. What does the texture look like and how does rolling vs. spraying effect your control over texture?

It wold be nice to see a couple of closer shots if you get a chance.

Also are you putting the flares back on? Noticed the holes were still there.

Ross

 

[scottymarks]

46 hours and approaching a full cure. If you do the math and backtrack, that means I finished the final coat at 4am Friday night. It's been a long last few days, but the hard part is done, the rest is just tweaking.

If you've seen this thread before, you're probably wondering what happened to this project. It got put on the back burner due to time restraints...work, family, travel etc make it hard to find a few days in a row where I can live in the garage wrenching, and I'm all about the Y in DIY and set out to do this solo.

After 3 full days and nights of prep and alot of #6's I had the flares off, mirrors off, cowling off, lower grill body panel off, grill & lenses out, emblems removed, and had her sanded down with Al's 6" nylon brush followed by a hand pass with 30 grit. The guys at Al's say the nylon brush is enough, but I needed to feel it with my bare fingers. The rear gate "Landcruiser" emblem snapped in half even though I was daintily attempting a clean pull with a heat gun, 3M adhesive remover, and fishing line (it was cracked already anyway), and the dang 14 year old adhesive is such a pita to remove I ended up just grinding it off with a stripper brush on an angle grinder.

I taped and masked every nanometer where I didn't want the stuff sprayed, and it really took a heck of alot longer than I thought it would...fun and tedious at the same time. The dangerous part was that my 2nd fridge is in the garage, my birthday was last week, and it's stocked full of Belgian ales and hoppy microbrew IPA's - pretty much everything in there is at least 9% ABV. Too many of those and you start cutting corners, or missing them entirely

I rented a gas air compressor capable of pushing at least 10 CFM at 90psi (Al's recommends at least 7 at 25) - the same compressor I used to spray the roof a couple of months ago. My problem was that the tip of the gun was overloading and i was getting an inconsistent texture and splattering. I am a quick learner, but not a pro sprayer, and regardless of air pressure and air gun settings I still wasn't finding a spray pattern I was liking - testing it on the removed flares. Adding to that dilemma is that once you mix this stuff you have about 20 minutes to work with it - you've got to move fast, and make decisions fast. I bought 2 guns such that I could continue to spray while the other was drying out, but running a compressor, dealing with the air line, mixing the batch, and controlling the gun is alot to handle on your own - it's totally doable but leaves next to zero margin for error. So what I decided to do was just spray the nooks and crannys, and roll the rest. That way I could take my time, drink some beers, crank some tunes, mix small (1 quart) size batches, and work late into the night without pissing off my neighbors. I did all of my "painting" at night under consistent lighting provided by 4 x 500w halogens and a halogen mtb helmet light.

The fumes are unreal - even through the respirator I was getting gassed. This is heavy duty, mean stuff. I rolled 3 coats (3 1/2 gallons total with some excess in each batch that I couldn't apply before it set up) with a wide array of non-shedding semi-smooth rollers and ended up with a fine texture. It's not perfect, but things rarely are, and I'm stoked with the results. Oh, I mixed 12 ounces of custom tint into the Al's kit, along with a full bottle of Vinyl Flattener per gallon. The VF gives a harder, rougher texture, like adding sand to paint, and takes the sparkliness out of the finish.

I sprayed the grill and lense trim with Duplicolor Toyota Magnetic Gray. I have the same RAF Blue paint (matching tint to the liner) in a rattle can with a flat clear with which I'll spray the door handles and mirrors. I may paint the RAF roundel on somewhere as well, just cuz. When I started on this I always imagined keeping the flares - I have new gaskets, all retaining clips and hardware, and JB Welded all of the flare-side mounting brackets for added strength...but now that they are off I'm thinking they are going to stay off. That said, once I commit I need to drill out the riveted brackets and deal with all the holes. The line the Kaymar rear bumper makes with the flareless body is weird - I could always spray the wheel wells black and wrap a black border over the edge also filling in the gap to the bumper, but that's TBD.

Anyway, here are some pix - I was moving too fast with sticky fingers in the wee hours of the night to get picture happy, but here are some. The exterior shots were taken today on my cell phone. I will update soon with high quality pix once I get a full cure and can get her out in the dirt.

Roof sprayed as a test, color samples painted on rear quarter panel:

Prep:

Lined RAF Blue, 44 hours into cure, low-rez cell phone pics. The color is grayer than what the cell phone captures:

Finally, thanks to Nate (Ardentyota) and Nay for info and inspiration, Chris at Hefty Fabworks for tech advice, Dana at Al's Liner for answering my seemingly incessant questions, HolcombValleyFJ on the fjcruiser forum for further inspiration and answering my pm's, Gary at R&E Paint for patiently bearing with me in eye-matching and mixing my tint from a swatch I sent, my local Hobby shop for sourcing and special-ordering samples of various military model paints, my local hardware store, and of course my wifey for putting up with my cultish obsession - there's more to come.

Cheers!

Wow this looks great!!! It really ties in nice with the black bumpers/sliders and wheels. I know you mentioned that you were all about the DIY but did you happen to price this out through a line-x dealer or body shop prior to getting started? If so, how did their price stack up against your actual cost?


Scott

 

[ardentyota]

Good job! It looks very cool. Are you puttinng the flares back on?