Spray in Truck Bedliner Rattleguard
I spent a lot of time researching products that I could buy for the DIY (Do it Yourself-er) and didn't like the sounds of the cheaper Herculiner type roll on/brush on liners but I also didn't want to spend $400 plus additional prep work of around $300-500 for my 1989 Mazda B2200 Pickup. Herculiner looked way too thin. I started doing the research though and low and behold I could only find a few companies that would sell it direct. The one I chose was Rattleguard because I liked how it looked in the photo's and it could be bought with an undercoating gun to hook up to a compressor. Additionally it used real automotive tints which should last longer and be more fade resistent. Lastly it was only $105 shipped for a small kit (1.5 gal) which should have covered a small bed as advertised but it did not. I will get into that more later.
I followed the instructions to a T and here is where they are:(Update Oct 01, 2009 link is now dead, maybe the company went bankrupt http://www.rattleguard.com/howto.htm)
I will cover the process I did, what the results were like and recommendations I would try to improve the project in the future (or course these are not tested.)
1. I beat all the dents out of the wheel wells as I had some pretty severe ones. I used standard automotive body tools for this. Basically a hammer and some shaping pieces. I got everything pretty correct but didn't go overboard or try to use body putty (bondo) to get it perfectly smooth. This was a good decision as that texture covered any minor imperfections.
2. Then I blew out the bed with the air compressor and wiped the entire thing with Laquer Thinner, you can also use a degreaser.
3. I scuffed sanded the whole bed with 36 grit paper and sanded off any surface rust. Luckily the bed has had a canopy on for many years so the rust was minor.
4. Then I taped off the entire truck. I have 3M Tape Maskers like you use for a house as I use to be a painting contractor. They come in handy I recommend buying one (I have two, one for paper one for plastic.) I left my tailgate on and worked hard to line up the lines on the truck and the tailgate as well as being careful to make the corners look as rounded as possible. Note: Pictures do not show all taping as area between tailgate and bed was taped but not pictured.
5. I blew it out again and rewiped it down with Laquer thinner.
6. I primed all the bare metal with some abrasive metal primer (Sherwin-Williams Prep Rite).
7. I bled the compressor of all extra water. A 5hp compressor is recommended by Rattleguard. I set the compressor to 60 psi.
8. I sprayed a couple gallon bucket and funnel with WD-40 so I could peel out the liner later.
9. Mixed all the Rattleguard products together using a stir stick (rattleguard does not recommend using a drill mixer.)
10. filled the reducer can with the mixture and screwed it into the gun
11. Got in the bed and sprayed the front side towards the cab first and then did sides as they had the most difficult angles. You don't have much time here but I did this in about 20 mins. The mix can set up in around 30-45 so if you have the large kit you should mix half of it at a time.
BAM!!!!!! We ran out of the product right here at the picture below! Does this look like it covered? No, I couldn't do the bottom or tailgate! So the Rattleguard instructions say don't build the product just get coverage with the first coat. That what I attempted to do but it did not cover I could see huge amounts of Red and white (primer) through the black despite it's thick gritty consistency. So I did a second coat on the sections already done. That is the most I could cover with a 1.5 gallon small kit. See more rant below after the rest of the instructions.
12. I ordered another kit but this time a large 3 gal as I didn't think I could finish with another small and I was right. That cost me an additional $180 so now I'm up to $285 total.
This is the truck almost complete. I still have a .75 gal left and there is a little primer showing through on the floor that can't be seen in the photo.
Then after this picture to cover the bits of primer I could see but you can't see in the picture, I mixed my last .75 gallons WITHOUT mixing in the little rubber chunks included in the kit and I rolled it on with a large nap roller to fill in the holes. That worked much better and now the bed looks good (like the picture above) but you can't find primer spots if examining closely.
Rant: I tried to talk to the rattleguard owner Scott Mead and his wife Susan Mead (she does the internet sales,) both were jerks but luckily they didn't contact me until after they shipped the second product and gave me positive rating on Ebay.
They told me it's my fault and I must not have followed their instructions or let the product set up in the can. Neither of those scenerios is true. They refused to do anything for me except blame me. When I asked if they could do anything since this job was costing me almost 3 times the amount it should, Scott said "You already bought the Large kit, so I can't do anything for you." In other words I got your money so it's too late. A partial refund or at least not being rude would have defused the situation.
Then I left a neutral feedback on Ebay and after a rude reply in the feedback forum I left a negative with my second purchase. Susan wrote me to blame me more and ask me to mutually withdrawl her positive feedback and my negatives and neutrals. No way. I responded back and just explained I'm not an idiot and am a former painting contractor familiar with the use of spray equipment (since her feedback reply said I don't know how to spray) and that I bought additional product so I could finish the job as they mentioned that in the feedback reply as well. I thought maybe I'm a nut and am the only person to experience the issue since I'm the first negative feedbacker but not true. Unfortunately a lot of people leave feedback before attempting to spray the bed.
http://myoldtruck.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=989&highlight=Rattleguard
http://fullsizebronco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42444 Similar problem but he claims if you switch from the undercoating gun that comes with the kit to a wall texturing gun, it works better. He still ran out of material like I did and had to order additional
and others have had other issues.
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1172064
It's the American way, buyer beware.