Line-X bedliner - a few quick questions

[Lv1G6He3V2]

1. Line-X before or after body repainting? After 12 years, my truck needs a full repaint. Clear coat is bubbling, chip and scratches in too many places. The bed is scratched from the old drop-in bedliner plus the pile of leaves/gravel/sand/cigarettes/mulch the previous owner left under the liner during installation.

 

2. Can I get portions of the underbody Line-X'd? Underbody paint has come off, looks like previous owner bottomed out the truck or something because the thick back bars (chassis?) that run the length of the truck are down to bare metal at low spots and they are starting to rust. Anyone had experience with Line-X down here where there's no sun-damage anyway? I suppose it comes down to whether the shop has a lift and if labor would be prohibitive.

 

3. Anyone using Line-X with a bed cover? I want Line-X applied over the rails and am concerned about sun damage on the Line-X where my tonneau doesn't cover. I suppose it's as easy as telling the shop where to stop spraying...

 

4. Will the shop fill holes in the tailgate? There are screw holes in the tailgate, where a plastic liner was installed. They are starting to rust and need to be fixed. I plan to have Line-X applied to the tailgate, too.

[randas]

Deafintally paint before liner if you are going over the rail

[RyanbabZ71]

#2 look into lizard skin

 

 

Ryan

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Doug_Scott]

The line-x shop that did mine covered the holes with metal tape, then coated the tailgate. I get the truck krown coated yearly, they do inside the tailgate, that will prevent the drilled holes from rusting from the inside.

 

I used the gm accessory rail caps, and had line-x applied to under the rail.

 

Line-x also does colour match, and from they told me, they apply the paint after the line-x coating, and put a flex agent in the paint. They do not spray on a colour matched line-x directly.

 

Ask you body shop if they can apply body coloured paint over the line-x.

 

Line-x will scuff the paint they are going to coat. Nothing like taking a brand new truck in and watch them scuff the paint inside the box with basically a scotch pad. No sense in having the body shop paint the finish coat in the box if you are going to get line-x applied to it.

[Lv1G6He3V2]

Thanks for the responses!

 

I looked at lizard skin. Spraying anything myself would be quite a project: without a lift, I'd have to rig up some clear plastic to avoid getting coated.

 

Apparently I must verify the undercoating will not absorb oil/fuel; people have said they have lost trucks due to fire caused by build-up in the wrong types of undercoatings.

 

Re: bed caps I'm avoiding anything tape-based. The old bed caps are worn and faded, same with the vent visors. All of them are coming loose. Removing all that adhesive would be quite a project. Think I ought to let the paint shop remove the adhesive? They will use something to strip off the old paint, right? So the adhesive, which is stuck to the paint, should come off with the paint?

[Lv1G6He3V2]

Deafintally paint before liner if you are going over the rail

 

 

Thanks, will do.

 

I wonder what I should tell the paint shop to do with the bed. Probably let them prime it only, just to avoid rust between paint curing and line-x application.

[cracked_up]

Thanks for the responses!

 

I looked at lizard skin. Spraying anything myself would be quite a project: without a lift, I'd have to rig up some clear plastic to avoid getting coated.

 

Apparently I must verify the undercoating will not absorb oil/fuel; people have said they have lost trucks due to fire caused by build-up in the wrong types of undercoatings.

 

Re: bed caps I'm avoiding anything tape-based. The old bed caps are worn and faded, same with the vent visors. All of them are coming loose. Removing all that adhesive would be quite a project. Think I ought to let the paint shop remove the adhesive? They will use something to strip off the old paint, right? So the adhesive, which is stuck to the paint, should come off with the paint?

 

The body shop will only sand the original paint not strip it completely, unless you have asked them to do that. All the residual tape from your stuck on accessories can be removed with one of these http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Marine/Home/Products/Catalog/?PC_7_RJH9U5230GE3E02LECIE20S4K7000000_nid=BZVN4V5PK4beRJ5GMFSMV0gl

[Lv1G6He3V2]

I'm guessing those 3M wheels are not paint-friendly. Not that it matters much at this point...

 

I had talked to a body shop about some dents; the rep said to find a paint shop and get a full repaint. All four wheel wells have chips like 1-2 feet after, bumper strip has paint peeled off, scratches the length of the bed, generic touch up paint in spots, clear coat bubbles around edge of every body panel, etc. He explained that when they fix something significant they have to work on the paint at least 1-2 feet in either direction to make it blend properly. With this many spots they would have to redo most of the truck anyway.

 

Did you mean that a full repaint doesn't involve stripping the old paint? Or just that spot painting doesn't require stripping to bare metal?

[Doug_Scott]

There are a couple ways to get the body/paint repaired. One way is to simply fix the damaged areas and only paint the repaired areas, and feather in the paint, (also called blending). You will end up with some original paint and some newly painted areas. If the original paint is old, it will not be the best matching colour/texture wise.

The best way is to repair all damaged areas, and prep the entire vehicle for repaint. No need to strip to bare metal, unless there is some damage like rust to that area. As long as the body shop properly preps the rest of the vehicle properly there will be no issues with not stripping to bare metal.

 

GM has had paint issues in the past (late 70's, early 80's) that required complete stripping to bare metal, but it has been a long time since I have seen that myself.

 

As for what to do with the bed, get them to prime it, and just don't paint it, no need to mask it off, just don't paint the inside of the bed on purpose. Overspray will not matter if you are getting line-x after the painting. You will want to ask the body shop for their recommendation regarding having the freshly painted truck masked off by line-x. Make sure the fresh paint will be ok with masking tape applied to it so soon after the re-paint.

[Lv1G6He3V2]

I've read that some 3M wheels are designed to NOT harm the paint while removing the adhesive (assuming I don't lean on the rotary tool). An afternoon or two with these might save some money at the paint shop.

 

The paint doesn't have any serious defects. It does have a LOT of orange peel - meaning lines in reflected images are distorted - but the paint seems thick and holds up well. 12 years is just a lot of time and one of the previous owners used it as some kind of fleet/service vehicle.

 

To be clear the body shop won't do the paint job. They are booked so solid on repairs alone they have at least 1-month waiting period, and they have adopted a policy where the painting they do is spot painting on body work, no exceptions. Upside is the repair work is very good: family members had two vehicles repaired there and they looked like new, even down to matching the metallic paint on one car.

 

So the steps are:

 

1. Body shop to fix the dents and apply primer to bodywork

2. Paint shop to apply primer to bed and fix paint job

3. Line-X shop to spray the bed

 

The costs will be significant here and I didn't expect to spend so much up front on seat replacement (other thread). However, it's not good to cut costs on the bodywork or paint, so the Line-X gets cut. For now I think I will have the paint shop do the bed, too, put a cheap rubber mat in there, and then just be very careful not to dent the bed. Line-X will come when my finances are better.

 

I hate the idea of being careful with the bed. Might as well paint it pink...