Talk me out of Raptor lining my truck

Don't do it, you'll regret it for the rest of your life.

 

No, but what I can say is if you can’t see it, then do it.

 

Why's that?

 

Dang that looks fresh dude. I honestly had talked myself out of doing this, but I might have to copy you after seeing this in white.

OP, reasons to do:
- Cheap
- Durable
- Easy to touchup

Reasons to not do:
- Harder to clean
- Might Fade
- May incur chipping depending on preparation & body flex
- Adds drag & may add wind noise
- You'll look like a douche if you pick a dumb color

Do make sure you prep fully like you would for any paint job if you chose to do it. I did my bed with stock black Raptor liner right over the paint and it's chipping everywhere. Factory baby blue looks stupid under black.

 

I have used tintable Raptor on several different trucks recently and I am about to do another. Its an awesome product and you can get professional results in your driveway if you do it right. I have had awesome results and have learned some tricks along the way. I agree that the benefits are that it is durable, easy to replicate and compared to 2 stage shop prices its cheap. What you want to do is up to you, who cares what anyone else thinks if you like it. I had a ton of people tell me not to do this, but I also get compliments all the time.
I can give some advice from someone who has used it and made a bunch of mistakes. #1 and most important in my opinion, prep is king. You can mix the coolest color ever, and if you dont prep well, it will look like shit no matter what. This type of a coating has high peaks and low valleys, this causes natural shadowing and will actually highlight existing body panel imperfections in most colors. I had a 2001 ford excursion that had 3 layers of other liners when i got it. I took an angle grinder and a flap disc and stripped the liner completely off the entire rig. Some areas I was able to keep the grinder to the base coat of paint, others I went to the sheet metal. Took me about 12 hours of grinding total. I thought about going over it with a DA sander but figured that the liner would hide the imperfections (I was careful not to take off the body lines with the grinder)...as soon as the first coat was applied I could see every swirl mark of my flap disc. Hours and hours of work and I added more by not doing it right the first time. Use an adhesive remover to get stickers and decals off, you will see the outline thru the liner. Use a good quality wax and grease remover as well as a fresh tach cloth to make sure the surface is 100% free of contaminants. Taping off a car is an art form. Look up some different ways to tape areas where you want to build up an edge, like rolling the tape edge instead of laying it flat. Youll get better results in areas having 2 colors meet at a tape edge without one overlapping the other. Remember this builds millage quickly. I did the inside of the bed and some highlight areas a different color
Once all the prep is done, do a test panel. Trust me, youll kick yourself if you dont. Your pigment will change color more than you think once mixed with the liner, and it will still lighten up even more once its dried. I prefer to spray this, its easy and honestly just more fun. If you spray it you can adjust the texture to exactly what you want. Texture is adjusted by air volume and distance of the gun when you spray. Do a test panel and mess with the air settings and how far away you are when you spray. I used a little 10 gallon, twin tank roofing compressor that kept up just fine. Its not like your spraying non stop anyways. Use a good air water separater or inline filter.
Have someone help mix the bottles for you while your spraying and clean out your gun after every single bottle. Mixing the correct ratios of liner, hardener and pigment takes a few minutes. You want to overlap the layers of liner while its still wet, so about an hour to get all the way around the car. If your mixing your own its just harder to keep up.
Take your time and do it right and the results are impressive.
P.S.-This stuff is suuuper hard to get off your hands....and out of your beard. Ask me how I know.

 

Actually, that is Lunar Mist color, although in that photo it appears almost white. I would almost call it a "cement" color now, as the liner absorbs the reflective qualities of the color you add. Here is a better example of the color:

 

Go for it!

As mentioned, it’s all in the prep.

 

lol, my bad, "Lunar Mist"
I knew I was gonna be corrected I thought it might be more of a silver

 

I considered it but chickened out

 

Here is a good comparison between my factory silver (Lunar Mist), and the Raptor Liner tintable, using that same paint code to tint it.

 

That’s sweet when I rough my paint up a bit I think that’s route I’m going to go as well. When I did my bronco I spent nearly an entire week stripping it all down inside and out so I could do the tub, jambs, everything (even did the interior like dash and door panels lol). It came out great, but I think I’ll just stick to the factory color and save myself a few days.

 

I wonder how the reflective quality would fare if you put a urethane clear over it...maybe with some pearl or flakes... Somebody's got to have tried that.

 

I have done a bunch of research about pearl and flake in a liner. Pearl, from what I understand wont work bc the reflective particles are too small. Flake is something that I've seen before. Mixing the flake with the liner wont work, the liner builds millage too quickly and will envelope 90%+ of the flake rendering it useless. What I've seen done is spray the liner and while its tacky still spray the flake over it, like mist it lightly. Havent done it myself but it looks cool in pictures.

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/qJvT6UM5TFK7Y3S59

 

Resale will be better with bad paint than good bedliner.

 

What about vinyl wrap?

 

This is a very valid point. In my case, it doesn't really apply. I'm fifteen years into ownership, and plan to run it for many more years, so I am willing to invest in what I hope will be a long lasting and durable utilitarian paint job. Additionally, my resale value was pretty much shot the day I bought it, as it has a salvage title. Understood that from the get-go, but I saved probably half or more off at that time.

 

What about the weight? I follow Jailbreak overland on YouTube and he used some type of Line X on his Landcruiser and I remember him saying it definitely adds a good amount of weight.

 

Funny you should ask, as only today, I headed over to the local transfer station (dump), to weigh mine, post painting with Raptor. Unfortunately, their scale must be relatively inaccurate, as it showed me being 100 lbs lighter, and I had made sure to have everything back in the truck, full tank of gas, and so on, just to get an accurate comparison. Sadly, this is inconclusive, but logic says that if I bought and sprayed 20 lbs of material, the truck should only weigh 20 lbs more. Otherwise, where did any excess weight come from????

 

For the cost of vinyl wrap you could go buy another 1st gen.

Edit: Vinyl wrap including install is what I mean