In reply to Norma66-Brent :
Yes sir, that's the plan. I've got a couple different flavours to try, I'm waiting to apply them as a last step so the paint can stick everywhere it needs to.
Did the jambs with gloss black tremclad pro (the stuff that won the Project Farm spray paint comparison), and touched up the low spots I mentioned previously.
Mixed up the Raptor Liner.
And applied. This is the first coat,
Had some issues getting consistant colour matching between bottles....
Final results
Results is meh. This is the second time I've used raptor liner, the first time was in Dec 2019 when I did a similar job on my white K1500. That truck I did a single heavy coat, used two bottles to cover just the cab and bottom of the front fenders (extended cab truck, didn't do the bed). This truck I used 3 bottles total for the whole thing, in two coats.
Problems I had with this job:
1) Poor colour match. This is a couple things.
- I should have mixed the paint better by itself before adding it to the bedliner
- I should have measured more carefully how much I put into each bottle of bedliner
The bedliner is supposed to be mixed 3:1 product and hardener, and you can add 10% tint if you want colour. The problem is, the bottles are not really designed for that extra 10% volume of paint. You mix the bottles by shaking, so without some air inside the bottle it won't mix. I remember this from last time and used extra mixing cups to pour some bedliner out before adding paint, then topping up the bottle and shaking it some more when it was half done. If I do this again, I would have poured all three bottles out into once giant container and mixed the colour in separate so each bottle would be a perfect colour match. As it was, my first bottle was a really nice dark blue, the next one much lighter, and the last one somewhere in between. The final colour ended up a little too green in my eyes, not sure if this is all my fault with my mixing or if the paint itself wasn't quite correct.
2) Uneven finish. This is my 100% my fault. I should have painted the edges of the doors with black paint while I was doing the jambs. Instead I ended up going too thick in some places with the bedliner trying to shoot some in between the gaps to cover the light grey primer. This is most visible in the gap between the doors, where the finish is glossier. The hoist posts also made shooting an even distance and angle across the whole truck difficult. Oh yeah, application was with the raptor shutz gun at between 50-55psi under use, measured before the 50' of hose.
Overall I think I saved the colour match, ( the bedliner part is all consistent, even though it's bit greener than the truck) and got mostly even texture. I used about one bottle per side as a first coat, and did a light second coat with the 3rd bottle to try and even out the colour and texture. So I have one bottle left over, I might try and do the tailgate or something with that. I think it photographs worse than it looks in person, and out in the bright sun is where it looks the worst. I'm hoping with a bit of use it all evens out a bit more.
Next is replacing the double sided tape on the flares, mounting them back on, putting the fender braces back on, re-installing mudflaps, then undercoat and cavity wax.
