I'd take a good look under the bed , and make sure good underneath.
Rust on pickup bed
- Thread starter Donald
- Start date
Is it in the floor? For what time and specialty products you buy, would a patch panel mig welded in and painted , be a faster less rusty option ?
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog...7670,body+&+lamp+assembly,truck+bed+floor,859
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog...7670,body+&+lamp+assembly,truck+bed+floor,859
It's been rust proofed most years with NH Coatings.
So after overthinking this (as all BITOG members do) I can go one of two ways.
1) repair the rust area myself with trying to get to bare metal, rust converter and/or rust encapsulator and/or epoxy primer. The apply some brush on bedliner to worn areas of the pickup bed. Then put pack plastic drop in bed liner.
2) pay an extra $450 to have new metal welded into the areas with bad rust. Then a spray bedliner. Sell or toss plastic bed liner.
1) repair the rust area myself with trying to get to bare metal, rust converter and/or rust encapsulator and/or epoxy primer. The apply some brush on bedliner to worn areas of the pickup bed. Then put pack plastic drop in bed liner.
2) pay an extra $450 to have new metal welded into the areas with bad rust. Then a spray bedliner. Sell or toss plastic bed liner.
This is what I'd do
From an ease or $$ or ?
I would then need to pull of the liner at least yearly for inspection and repair whatever I found.
First, removing the rust, is always step one.
Wire wheel is good for a start. Rust will remain down into the metal pits, though. That's when a phosphate wash and media blasting will help. Home Depot sells Kleen Strip Etch and Prep, which is phosphoric acid. It's great for removing rust, yet it's fairly mild and doesn't need to be neutralized after rinse.
Again, I like POR-15 paint, although it was not needed on this frame shown below. For brush application, it's a no brainer, though.
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I would do the rust removal until you are looking at clean metal only, using those flexible 3m scotch bright roloc disc things(they work well with a cordless drill), then prime and paint out of cans, then get the spray in bedliner done.
The shops that do spray bedliner provide a lifetime warranty. I don't think they will provide a warranty unless everything is very solid.
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2022
- Messages
- 1,135
Just rub some grease on it and wait for warmer weather.
Farmers and other businesses often will buy a pickup instead of a cab and chassis and then replace the pickup bed with a flatbed or commercial box/bed.
As noted above, if you want best method without replacement, media blast and epoxy primer. Lesser methods are fine, but odds are something will creep in. Since your covering it, you won't know til it's too late, so if it was me and I was using spray on liner, I'd media blast. If not, converter. Manual removal before converter and from what I've read, POR and some others, do NOT remove with wire/sandpaper, leave the surface rust and just take out the big stuff.
tbf, I am choosing to just not use a spray liner lol. Although when I lift my bed this spring, I'll probably still media blast and primer the frame and bed before reinstalling my plastic liner. If you're pulling the bed I'd replace the mounting hardware as well, maybe plan whatever rear suspension/fuel jobs you may think you want to do.
So maybe not as bad as I thought. I finally got the proper attachment for my angle grinder to remove the rust.
The place that is spraying the Patriot Liner said they see this kind of rust all the time and it starts from underneath. But the truck was sprayed most years with NH Coatings and I have lived since 2021 in southern Delaware with only occasional snow (and salt treatment). So I was thinking the guys doing the NH Coatings missed a spot. But ofc it's same spot on both sides.
I am thinking it's fine underneath and this is an area where the plastic drop in liner rubbed off paint and it started to rust.
The place that is spraying the Patriot Liner said they see this kind of rust all the time and it starts from underneath. But the truck was sprayed most years with NH Coatings and I have lived since 2021 in southern Delaware with only occasional snow (and salt treatment). So I was thinking the guys doing the NH Coatings missed a spot. But ofc it's same spot on both sides.
I am thinking it's fine underneath and this is an area where the plastic drop in liner rubbed off paint and it started to rust.
I have no warm place to work on vehicles until spring. . The place spraying the bedliner will prime. They warranty the spray bedliner so doubt they will spray over a marginal area on the bed.
Well the rust was removed down to bare metal, primed and then Patriot spray bedliner. Happy with the results.
The Ford F250 in 2015 with slide-out step built into tailgate comes from the factory with a plastic liner. It was removed, spray bedliner done and plastic cover put back on. From the factory there is no real cover on the inside of the tailgate because of the slide-out step so the plastic liner is the tailgate cover.
The Ford F250 in 2015 with slide-out step built into tailgate comes from the factory with a plastic liner. It was removed, spray bedliner done and plastic cover put back on. From the factory there is no real cover on the inside of the tailgate because of the slide-out step so the plastic liner is the tailgate cover.
Looks good. Do you mind stating the cost? I got qoutes $695, $795, and $900 for Line X. I assume patriot was a fair amount less?
Edit: Patriot looks like they have been around since 2021. Very new player. I'm wondering how you decided on them?
Edit: Patriot looks like they have been around since 2021. Very new player. I'm wondering how you decided on them?
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I paid just under $600 for a 6 1/2 ft bed. 6 feet and under less. 8 feet more.
Initially I thought my rust spots were bad and needed new metal welded in. This shop could do that and then the spray bedliner. The LineX shop wanted the bed to be ready to go. Any rust taken care of.
So this shop said they have been doing spray bed liners for 10 years. If Patriot is somewhat new then maybe they were LineX and switched to Patriot. I think the Graco spray equipment is used by all the shops that spray the bedliner that dries in 20 seconds.
GON
$175 Site Donor 2026
@Donald , thanks for posting that retail customers are only ten percent of this shops business. My life experience is a lot of volume makes good experience and practice for the installer
I was thinking these independent spray lining shops might be on life support, with manufacturers now offering factory spray in bed liners. Your post made my concern erroneous.
I was thinking these independent spray lining shops might be on life support, with manufacturers now offering factory spray in bed liners. Your post made my concern erroneous.
