trying to decide if it would be worth it to do it myself or pay for it? what have you guys done?


edit: was meaning the tub. forgot to say it

 

Not sure what you plan to line...bumpers, grill, tub? But for referrence I paid $200 to have my grill removed, sprayed with Line-X an reinstalled. That price also included my bumper inserts which I had already removed.

Most installers charge about the same if you are doing one part or ten parts...its the cost to turn on the machine so to speak. Where it begins to add up price wise is when they have to do a lot of prep work or dismantling. The more you make it a simple spray job for them...the cheaper it can be.

 

Lot's of info on here if you do a search. Line-x quoted me $700 for the bed fully stripped, or $900 for the Xtra. Rhino dealer quoted $1200, and asked for me to remove the rollcage as well. I guess his statements of doing "lots" of JK's were a little overblown as I had to show him the cage was welded in place. Herculiner can be done for $100, some people like it - I think the texture sucks and it kinda looks trashy on such a new vehicle. For DIY, I would go with Monstaliner ($240 or $120 depending on how thick you want to go) or Upol raptor ($120, for pretty thin).

Pro liners go on much thicker, and look better. If I had the money right now and there was a dealer around me that seemed like he knew what he was doing, I would probably have gone for the Rhino Tuffgrip - better suited to the interior of a JK, soft, thick and nice looking.

I chose the Monstaliner for the price and appearance, and it looks very hoseable. Haven't put it in yet because the temps have been so low, but looking forward to it.

 

I will take everything I need sprayed to them if possible, as the labor to disassemble and reassemble gets pricey. To spray a aftermarket front bumper with bar is around 125.00. My last one I did not have time to do the removal again, etc., so they removed, ground and sandblasted, and lined and reinstalled for 300.00. I love the stuff on my bumpers and will never run a powder coated or painted bumper again.

 

I got quotes from a few shops in CO on doing the tub.

On the low end if I stripped the whole interior out they would do prep and coat for $700.

Another shop said they would strip prep coat and reassemble for $1000.

I think to avoid that kind of cash throw away I will take this project on myself

 

I did my grill myself with a rattle can and some elbow grease. Cost was about $8 and time was an afternoon, most of which was drying between coats. It came out really nice.

I also did my tub with Upol Raptor liner. We did a TJ and my JK over the course of 2 days. 3 days would have been really nice, but we forced it into 2. Most of the time is taking it apart and prepping. I highly recommend doing this project yourself. It is MUCH cheaper (~$150 per jeep for liner, plastic and tape, etc.) I learned a lot about the jeep my having it naked and actually seeing where everything goes.

If you can turn a wrench and use a power painter, you can do this yourself. The job we did is not professional and you can tell if you look hard but I think it was a fair trade to save $850 and learn a lot about the JK. If anyone has any questions about doing this, feel free to PM and I'd be glad to answer them. It was a wicked fun project.

 

how difficult was the unassembly/reassembly?

 

I thought about doing the tub, wheels and door hinges. I bought a 2 gallon kit of Defender Epoxy Truck Bed Liner w/ Kevlar (1 gallon epoxy/kevlar resin and 1 gallon of activator) made by Morton paint co. some etch primer and an undercoating paint gun. I painted the door hinges but ended up buying new wheels instead of painting the stock ones. I'm still thinking about doing the tub since I only used about a cup of the truck bed liner, all I need is a nice long weekend and a little help.

 

Assuming that you mean the tub, the job can be from somewhat difficult depending on your available tools, to a several hour or more job. If you just want to spray over the heat shielding, all you have to do is remove the carpet and bolts. Easier said than done, as the bolts are very, very tight. A 400# (husky, so probably overated) impact wrench wouldn't budge the bolts on mine. I had to use a 2' breaker bar and a lot of sweat to get them all out. Once out, they are easy to reinstall or reremove. Removing the heat shielding caulk takes a good while. I used a chisel at first, but that blew. So I got a needle scaler and that took it all off in about 2 hours. If I had to do it again I would score around the area, break through the paint, and let some water sit on it. The caulk breaks down quickly to a soft mush and that makes it much easier to remove. If you want to go all out and reroute the wires through the cage, add more hours. I haven't done it yet, but there are some people on here who have.

I am not trying to be an ass, so don't take it that way, but USE THE SEARCH. Many, many people on here have put together very detailed posts with tons of pictures that will allow you to get a better idea of what you want to do, costs, times, and end appearance. You simply are not going to get as much information in this post as you could with a search.

 

Million dollar question. Can you haggle with the liner vendors or are they static with their pricing? I'd imagine they took a big hit due to the economy.