We were pretty lucky with Calamity Jane, our 1974 Jeep CJ5 Renegade, in that her floor pans and bed were relatively whole (as opposed to being filled with "holes") and surprisingly rust free. Sure, there were a few issues that needed to be addressed but nothing you wouldn't expect to see on a Jeep that's over 40 years old. More than anything, the inside of the tub just looked worn out and tired and to help give it some new life, Cindy and I decided to spray it in with U-POL Raptor Bed Liner.
In the past, we've used other bed lining products that came out of an aerosol can and found that they tended to come out too thin, lacked a good tooth and chipped or was damaged easily. We've also used products like Herculiner which looked great initially especially if you sprayed it on but it tended to fade quickly and went from a nice glossy black to a dull gray in less than a year. U-POL Raptor Bed Liner has been around for a few years now and of the vehicles we've seen it applied to, they all have been able to stand the test of time both in terms of durability and in terms of looks. Of course, what I liked most about Raptor Liner is how it comes packaged in individual bottles designed to be attached to an undercoating gun and can be sprayed on with ease.
Here are some before and after photos of what Calamity Jane's tub looked like versus what it looks like now with U-POL Raptor Bed Liner.
Here's a shot of the U-POL Raptor Bed Liner kit. I already had an undercoating gun that I've had for about 20 years so I decided to not get the one you can buy with the kit. I should note that this was a MISTAKE as the bottles would not screw onto my old gun. This didn't prevent me from using the product but it did require more effort. I would highly recommend buying the Shutz gun that U-POL sells.
This is a shot of what the floor pans looked like before we started tearing down Jane.
The worst of it was pretty much this tear on the passenger side floor pan and it needed to be welded up before we could move on.
As you can see, the bed had some surface rust where an old storage box used to sit on but aside from that, it was still in pretty good shape.
After tearing everything out of Jane's tub, we cleaned and scuffed everything prior to treating all the areas that still had traces of rust with POR-15.
Once the POR-15 had completely cured, we were able to go back and scuff it up and give it a nice tooth for the Raptor bed liner to adhere to.
To help prevent the transmission tunnel cover plates from becoming permanently fused to the bed, we decided to remove and treat them outside of the tub.
We will just be painting the transmission shifter cover plate and so we removed it as well.
Time to thoroughly mask off anything and everything that we didn't want Raptor Lined.
When all was said and done, it took almost 3 bottles of Raptor Bed Liner to cover the entire bed of this CJ5. When we applied it, it was probably about 80-85 F and so the flash off time or time between coats was faster than the 60 minutes the directions say it will take at 68 F. In fact, the Raptor Liner seemed ready to be reapplied just after 15 minutes but we decided to wait at least half an hour before reapplying. In the end, everything went smoothly and I think the results look great. Here are a few shots of what Jane's tub looks like now. First, a shot right after spraying.
Some detailed shots once all the tape and plastic was removed.
I'll wait till the Raptor Liner is fully cured before reinstalling the transmission cover plates and according to the instructions, that should be in about 5-7 days at 68 F. But, here's a shot of what they look like.
If you're thinking about bed lining your Jeep, I would highly recommend using U-POL Raptor Bed Liner. :thumb:
In the past, we've used other bed lining products that came out of an aerosol can and found that they tended to come out too thin, lacked a good tooth and chipped or was damaged easily. We've also used products like Herculiner which looked great initially especially if you sprayed it on but it tended to fade quickly and went from a nice glossy black to a dull gray in less than a year. U-POL Raptor Bed Liner has been around for a few years now and of the vehicles we've seen it applied to, they all have been able to stand the test of time both in terms of durability and in terms of looks. Of course, what I liked most about Raptor Liner is how it comes packaged in individual bottles designed to be attached to an undercoating gun and can be sprayed on with ease.
Here are some before and after photos of what Calamity Jane's tub looked like versus what it looks like now with U-POL Raptor Bed Liner.
Here's a shot of the U-POL Raptor Bed Liner kit. I already had an undercoating gun that I've had for about 20 years so I decided to not get the one you can buy with the kit. I should note that this was a MISTAKE as the bottles would not screw onto my old gun. This didn't prevent me from using the product but it did require more effort. I would highly recommend buying the Shutz gun that U-POL sells.
This is a shot of what the floor pans looked like before we started tearing down Jane.
The worst of it was pretty much this tear on the passenger side floor pan and it needed to be welded up before we could move on.
As you can see, the bed had some surface rust where an old storage box used to sit on but aside from that, it was still in pretty good shape.
After tearing everything out of Jane's tub, we cleaned and scuffed everything prior to treating all the areas that still had traces of rust with POR-15.
Once the POR-15 had completely cured, we were able to go back and scuff it up and give it a nice tooth for the Raptor bed liner to adhere to.
To help prevent the transmission tunnel cover plates from becoming permanently fused to the bed, we decided to remove and treat them outside of the tub.
We will just be painting the transmission shifter cover plate and so we removed it as well.
Time to thoroughly mask off anything and everything that we didn't want Raptor Lined.
When all was said and done, it took almost 3 bottles of Raptor Bed Liner to cover the entire bed of this CJ5. When we applied it, it was probably about 80-85 F and so the flash off time or time between coats was faster than the 60 minutes the directions say it will take at 68 F. In fact, the Raptor Liner seemed ready to be reapplied just after 15 minutes but we decided to wait at least half an hour before reapplying. In the end, everything went smoothly and I think the results look great. Here are a few shots of what Jane's tub looks like now. First, a shot right after spraying.
Some detailed shots once all the tape and plastic was removed.
I'll wait till the Raptor Liner is fully cured before reinstalling the transmission cover plates and according to the instructions, that should be in about 5-7 days at 68 F. But, here's a shot of what they look like.
If you're thinking about bed lining your Jeep, I would highly recommend using U-POL Raptor Bed Liner. :thumb:
