Painting that little lip thingy under the cab...

Thanks for the help guys. No rock rails or sliders for me, don't like the look.

I think I'm gonna start with the undercoating and see how it goes from there. I'm not great with paint and don't trust myself to start with the plastidip. I'm not bad with a roll of masking tape!

 

I live in the Northeast, Rustbelt, USA. I plan on spraying undercoating as a base-coat to protect it against rusting, then either hit it with some flat black to keep the undercoating looking clean-ish (bare undercoating has a tendancy to start looking chalky after a year or two from all the Calcium Chloride and salt they use on the roads up here in the winter).

 

Sliders look 100X better.....cost about that much more too though lol.

 

I hate the look of that area on my Tacoma, and have been thinking about what to do with it to make it look better. Painting it is an option, and I wouldn't spend money on sliders to cover it up. It would be nice if someone like Weather Tech made a textured matte black molded plastic stick on or screw on cover for it.

 

Plastidip is literally meant to be removable. You can't really screw it up.

I wouldn't bother with plastidip on the pinch weld anyway. That would be just about as useful as spraying a skid plate with plastidip.

I've done this to a 1st gen Tacoma, just scuffed the pinch weld paint with some fine sand paper, and coated with black enamel. Big thing is doing the proper prep work. If you want it to last you'll definitely need to wash it real good, make sure its dry; hit it with some alcohol or something, mask it off real good and then get to painting.

 

Too bad no one makes that slip on black plastic door edge guard material that's wide enough to cover the pinch weld...

 

After seeing that any kind of push on edge trim will block the water drain slots on the bottom of the pinch weld, I'm going to go with painting it with bed liner.

 

You wouldn't want to put a piece of plastic on the pinch welds as this would hold water. In my area after 3-4 years your pinch welds would be rotted. It's best to use chip gaurd, or undercoating or a spray bed material to coat them if you're unhappy with the look. I wouldn't recommend covering them with some type molding or anything similar.

 

If you guys can give me a few weeks I'll do a full write up here:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ok-so-here-we-go.486087/page-2#post-15097981

I don't think you'll be disappointed with the spray on bedliner. You can even paint over it if you didn't want black. I can post some pics of what it looks like when you paint it. I used it on my sway bar (for protection) and then painted over it with Duplicolor caliper paint (because I had it) and it looks great. I just have a candy red sway bar now.

I'd use the black spray in bedliner for protection and then paint over it with whatever color you want if you don't like black.

Cliff Notes Steps:
Power Wash / Scrub (with "car" soap) / Mask / Sand / Alcohol Wipe Clean / Spray Bed Liner

**TIP** on the Spray In Bed Liner- I would mask all the way up to at least the middle of the door with tape and paper. You want to get a light first coat and avoid any "drips" so just go slow. The can says to spray 10-12 inches away, but in reality you're going to want to get like 15-17 for your first coat because it comes out of the can FAST. I'd practice on a sheet of paper so you can see how it's going to come out at first. Keep the can moving and do quick light sprays the first time. The can then says to let dry 1-2 minutes, but I've had better results with letting it dry 5-7 minutes in between the 1st / 2nd / 3rd coats. It will grip well after that. Be patient with it, take your time and you'll be happy with the results. I've used it a lot (as you can see from the link I posted) and you'll be happy.

I'm literally spraying my LCAs in this liner this afternoon.

I'm happy to answer any questions you have as well.

 

Thanks dude, great advice. I'm not in a rush, so I might wait to see your write up.

That's some project you've got going on over there

 

Haha. It's been a long journey already, to be totally honest with you and I'm not even done yet. I just try to work a few hours a night after I put my 3 1/2 year old to bed- which is usually somewhere around 8:30 and I usually get to a stopping point around midnight... What I've realized is that everything takes a lot longer than I usually anticipate it taking, but we're getting there. Cleaning up and refurbishing something after 15 years of road grime has it's challenges- and I don't even live in the rust belt! This truck is super clean already for it's age, but I just want it to really last a long time and I'm really trying to do it right the first time.

If you can give me a few weeks, I'm happy to do a step by step write up on it.

By the way, if you look at the pictures I posted in my "build" you can see that shiny stuff on the frame is spray-in bed liner. It's just really shiny because of the camera flash, but that's what it looks like. I'll post pics later of the "candy red sway bar".

 

Looking forward toward to it

 

Here are some pics of the painted sway bar. Under the red paint is truck bed liner. It still has a little bit of the texture. I took a "close up" so you could see it, but the parts where the bushings and end links go on the sway bar are smooth. It took 2 light coats before the black of the truck bed liner stopped showing through, then I finished it with a thicker coat to give it a little shine and glossy look. It took paint really well.

 

That's a great finish over the bed liner

I wonder what red would look like on the pinch weld haha.....probably end up sticking with black.

 

Reviving old thread. How is everyone’s paint holding up.i plan on using rusto bed liner paint.

 

Watch this video and pick a good product. I may use Flex Seal...good enough for that lip.
Best Bed Liner (ROLL ON)? Raptor, Herculiner, Durabak, POR-15, Dupli-Color, Iron Armor, Flex Seal - YouTube

 

This guy is great I watch his reviews all the time

 

I painted mine when I got my truck in March of 17 and haven’t done anything since. Looks much better painted black in my opinion.

 

I sometimes scroll through necro threads but now I'm vexed by the red sway bar.