[DETON8R]

Another little project that Junior and I did. Went to Peninsula Color Service in Santa Cruz and picked up a Shake-&-Shoot kit of bed liner. Good store, professional auto and marine paints and supplies to the public, they are very helpful to hot rodders, and really take the time to educate their customers. Saturday hours are a big benefit!!

We are going to cover the underside of DETONATOR with bed liner and I wanted to try applying it to something while I was standing upright and could see what I was doing. And I didn't want to learn how to apply this while I was lying on my back. And I wanted to see if I could apply it without using a spray gun.

I purchased a 3 inch roller kit and disposable roller trays. The bed liner is a 2 part coating, there are four cans of base and one can of hardener. Pretty easy to use, and it didn't harden before it was all applied. Just follow the directions in the kit for mixing. Everything is cheap and disposable, and I just trashed the roller, brush and tray, that stuff would be a nightmare to clean and reuse.

First Junior and I used sand paper and scotch bright pads to scuff in the paint on the inside of the re-pop fender wells. Then I cleaned all the surfaces that would get the liner with acetone and compressed air, at least twice to make sure no oils or grit was left. Then I gave the roller to Junior and he coated the large areas while I used the paint brush to get the edges and corners where the roller wasn't getting good coverage.

Preparation of the fender wells took longer that applying the bed coating. Photos show the resulting coverage. Took about 24 hours of the thin coat to dry hard, and about 2 weeks for the thicker application to dry hard all the way through.

What would I do the next time around? The bed liner didn't cover and adhere to wide gaps very well where I laid it on thick. So I will use some seam sealer in the larger gaps before I apply the bed liner to the underside of the car in similar areas. Thickness is good for the underside of the body, but I think I want a thicker coat for the fender wells, as I'm going to need to do the same for the mini-tubs. And I think I'm going to need another kit to do the car the way I want to.