Thinking about the unthinkable and painting my entire bj42 with bedliner (1 Viewer)

[sandec]

Yes I used to be a person that would make fun of anybody even considering it. I called it a "high school paint job" because at some point every high school kid thinks it's a good idea. And it is for 2 years until the UV fades it, dirt gets in bedded, and the rubber in the actually paint flakes off. Then it can't be removed. I think I even participated in this thread at some point shunning those who ever think about it: Removing Bedliner off the Exterior of a FJ40

HOWEVER now I'm considering what I once said I would never do. There are some pretty good DIY things out there. Monstaliner in particular I have used on a truck bed and I'm very impressed. No rubber in it, as UV resistant as any car paint out there (5 year warranty), and it's cheap.

Why am I considering it? Everything has a budget. I picked up a bj42 in canda for cheap. It runs/drives great, the rust is minimal, and the frame is in good shape. Even though the body is pretty rust free at one point it was blasted and primed. Even though it doesn't have rust left there's lots of pitting The tub was fixed half assed home fix job with weld and grind marks over most of it. There's several very small dents that will require some body filler regardless of what I use but a "real" paint job will require much more finish work............ Long story short I want to paint it now and I see many thousand of hours of body work to get it in perfect shape for a real paint job. Most likely requiring every square inch covered with some bondo (I don't think polyester primer will fill the pitting) or just replacing most of the sheet metal. Monstaliner would be the cheap short cut because it's textured it will hide the flaws very well. It's very very cheap and repairs very easily. The down sides is it's tougher to wash and it's hard to remove if I don't like it. Although hitting it with a pressure washer can make short work of it. If I have to replace the sheet metal I'm pretty much in the same spot I started and out a few hundred bucks and few hours labor.

The one possible alternative is doing a "real" paint job and going with some kind of hammered finish. I know rustoleum and krylon make it in rattle cans and I could probably find it somewhere in car paint. It might be a good compromise between the two options. What do the experts thing? Anybody do what I'm thinking about already and now regret it?

 

[Cleg]

In my opinion your first inclination was correct.
Spraying the whole thing with bed liner would destroy the value.
You'd never get it back off and you can't paint over it.

There are some inexpensive coating options that would preserve it.

Military vehicle paint available in a limited number of colors, mostly low or no gloss at about $40 per gallon for spray equipment or they also sell it in rattle cans.

GCI Paint | Military Vehicle Paint for Sale

Keeping your Willys Jeep paint job looking fresh requires the best high-quality products. Discover our wide variety of GCI paint for your classic Jeep.

www.armyjeepparts.com

Tractor Supply Co. Tractor & implement paint, durable and in more colors if you can find one you like, also about $40 per gallon.
Good option since you can do the body with spray equipment and use spray cans to do all of the small parts without the hassle of setting up to spray.
Touch up will always be easy since you can buy 1 spray can if needed off the shelf for $5.

Rustoleum Professional available in high output spray cans that are suitable for spraying bigger panels without as much rattle can striping.
Some colors available that may not be in stores but Lowes with order it for you with no shipping if you buy boxes of 6 cans.
For less than $100 you could buy a dozen cans and do the whole thing with spares for touch up.

You'd actually do less damage by painting it with a brush and roller than by coating it with bed liner, again, my opinion.

Good Luck.

Cleg

 

[macdaddy59]

Tamco makes a black epoxy paint that they sell to the Navy and Coast Guard. It is $300 a gallon but it is mixed 1:1 so so one gallon makes 2 gallons of paint. It is designed to be put on thick. The military sparay it on with an airless 5 mil thick. It has the highest amount of rust converter in it and is great to spray on metal with imperfectins and rust. The most impoetant piece of this is that it will act as a sealer and stop more rust from forming, cover most of the imperfections, and act as a good base for some othe covering paint.

 

[MOTOV8R]

Rust-Oleum also makes a high fill primer that can help fill some of the imperfections. As a side benefit it's got rust inhibitors. Instead of some pitting, grind marks and some other defects the whole thing will look like a defect if you line it.

 

[jim land]

Paint it with all the imperfections and it will look better than bed liner stuff

 

[TCEd]

Do it and than appreciate how you probably just depreciated your FJ-40.

 

[White Stripe]

Tamco makes a black epoxy paint that they sell to the Navy and Coast Guard. It is $300 a gallon but it is mixed 1:1 so so one gallon makes 2 gallons of paint. It is designed to be put on thick. The military sparay it on with an airless 5 mil thick. It has the highest amount of rust converter in it and is great to spray on metal with imperfectins and rust. The most impoetant piece of this is that it will act as a sealer and stop more rust from forming, cover most of the imperfections, and act as a good base for some othe covering paint.

Where can you get that stuff?

 

[bikersmurf]

Don’t do it
I saw an 80 series the other day that looked like sh!t covered in bed liner.

rattle can it, paint with on of the options above. My ‘74s body is far from perfect with at best a 20’ paint job. Paint it all one colour and enjoy.

 

[macdaddy59]

Call Tamco paint and ask about there military 2 part epoxy paint. You will have to call them as it is not something they usually have on their website.

 

[Eyedaho]

Bed liner might hide defects in body work, but it will highlight defects in judgement.

 

[Ocho77]

We used Tamco paint. The product and customer service was awesome.

We did not do a lot of body work. Spent one day taking out as many imperfections as possible, skimmed some areas with bondo to make it smooth and sanded. Second day we painted. Looks 10x better.

There are imperfections, but the truck turned out awesome looking for 2 days worth of work and not much money. Pics in my Steve Urkel build thread.

 

[mattcamp]

I'd rather drive around with primer as I worked on the body bit by bit than do bed liner, it looks ok at first but I think you would regret it. I would do it to a dedicated cut up trail rig, but I kinda regret even doing the interior of mine.

 

[sandec]

Eventually I talked myself out of this. Thanks in large part to the suggestion for Tamco paints. It looks like they might have something that will work pretty well and get rave reviews. I will need to do more prep work than I would with bedliner but at least it will look good. Another thing I had not considered is wind resistance. This is a stock bj42, they aren't exactly known for power. The number one thing that effects MPGs above 45 mph is wind. I don't have a wind tunnel but I'm betting a bedliner paint job and all the rough spots all over the body would rob a few horses a highway speeds as well when my bj42 doesn't have much to give.

I'm still considering how to paint it. I'm throwing around the idea of brush painting now. I actually did this once when I was younger with POR15 and it looked really really good!........ At least until a month later when I hadn't read the part about it being UV sensitive and it started to chalk up. Eastwood now has an epoxy primer made to brush roll onto a car. POR 15 also has a new industrial line, this one not UV sensitive in a 2k paint made to either brush or roll onto a car. Tamco looks like they might have something even better.

In case the next question is why? Everything happens for a budget and right now it's not in my budget to spend a lot to paint this.

 

[-MaTTi-]

Another thing I had not considered is wind resistance.
I don't have a wind tunnel but I'm betting a bedliner paint job and all the rough spots all over the body would rob a few horses a highway speeds as well when my bj42 doesn't have much to give.

Forget thinking the wind resistanse while you are choosing paint for 40-series. Nothing to do with it.

I chose a industrial polyurethane paint for my BJ42. Temadur HS 90 | Tikkurila

 

[sandec]

It sounds a little silly and I don't think it's dramatic. But the wind rolling over the smooth surface of a car can make a big difference. It's enough for racers to notice the difference between a dirty and clean car. I'm not sure anybody ever put a bj42 and a racer in the same sentence but at hwy speeds I could see it hurting your overal top speed by .5 mph - 1 mph. Which you need all the help you can get in a BJ42. That also takes into account the added weight from bedliner paint as it goes on extremly thick. Mythbusters did a test on the mpg of a clean car vs dirty car and found a 2 mpg difference.

Thank you for the link on the paint. I'll check that out.

 

[Eyedaho]

It sounds a little silly and I don't think it's dramatic. But the wind rolling over the smooth surface of a car can make a big difference. It's enough for racers to notice the difference between a dirty and clean car. I'm not sure anybody ever put a bj42 and a racer in the same sentence but at hwy speeds I could see it hurting your overal top speed by .5 mph - 1 mph. Which you need all the help you can get in a BJ42. That also takes into account the added weight from bedliner paint as it goes on extremly thick. Mythbusters did a test on the mpg of a clean car vs dirty car and found a 2 mpg difference.

Thank you for the link on the paint. I'll check that out.

Conversely, if you dimple the surface of the bed liner, you should get a couple extra miles per gallon based on the same Mythbusters episode!

 

[macdaddy59]

Which Tamco product were you thinking about using?

 

[sandec]

Which Tamco product were you thinking about using?

I'm planning to call tamco tomorrow and figure out a plan. It sounds like their "monocoat" is basically like a UV resistant version of POR15. Their HP5311 looks pretty good as it's an epoxy primer and their say it's a very high build similar to polyester primer. I will have to figure out exactly what I want to do and how I want to do it. I live in the suburbs. I can get way with a little bit of spray paint but anything more is going too far. I've actually done a driveway brush job paint job with the POR15 that came out looking better than what I have paid for a professional paint job on another project (until the UV light started to break it down). Renting a paint booth is an option but I'd rather not go there for a variety of reasons. Eastwood also has their new optiflow primer that's made to paint on with a brush.

 

[-MaTTi-]

Paint with whatever you want, but please forget the bedliner.

 

[Ty C FJ40]

Yes I used to be a person that would make fun of anybody even considering it. I called it a "high school paint job" because at some point every high school kid thinks it's a good idea. And it is for 2 years until the UV fades it, dirt gets in bedded, and the rubber in the actually paint flakes off. Then it can't be removed. I think I even participated in this thread at some point shunning those who ever think about it: Removing Bedliner off the Exterior of a FJ40

HOWEVER now I'm considering what I once said I would never do. There are some pretty good DIY things out there. Monstaliner in particular I have used on a truck bed and I'm very impressed. No rubber in it, as UV resistant as any car paint out there (5 year warranty), and it's cheap.

Why am I considering it? Everything has a budget. I picked up a bj42 in canda for cheap. It runs/drives great, the rust is minimal, and the frame is in good shape. Even though the body is pretty rust free at one point it was blasted and primed. Even though it doesn't have rust left there's lots of pitting The tub was fixed half assed home fix job with weld and grind marks over most of it. There's several very small dents that will require some body filler regardless of what I use but a "real" paint job will require much more finish work............ Long story short I want to paint it now and I see many thousand of hours of body work to get it in perfect shape for a real paint job. Most likely requiring every square inch covered with some bondo (I don't think polyester primer will fill the pitting) or just replacing most of the sheet metal. Monstaliner would be the cheap short cut because it's textured it will hide the flaws very well. It's very very cheap and repairs very easily. The down sides is it's tougher to wash and it's hard to remove if I don't like it. Although hitting it with a pressure washer can make short work of it. If I have to replace the sheet metal I'm pretty much in the same spot I started and out a few hundred bucks and few hours labor.

The one possible alternative is doing a "real" paint job and going with some kind of hammered finish. I know rustoleum and krylon make it in rattle cans and I could probably find it somewhere in car paint. It might be a good compromise between the two options. What do the experts thing? Anybody do what I'm thinking about already and now regret it?

I painted one of my FJ40's with marine paint. I rolled it on the body. Excellent flow and leveling characteristics create smooth finish even when applied with a brush tends to not run, color I used was yellow. I did use the primer, and thinners made by Interlux. I have been using this brand of paint for several years and the job came out great and it is inexpensive. A pencil roller type roller is used not a house roller. The paint is "Interlux Brightside-High Gloss Polyurethane Topside Marine Paint" do give this a thought before using bedliner.