I painted my rockers and rear bumper last spring and they rusted out by fall. Looking to see what I did wrong so I'm not repeating the same mistakes...

Prep:
Sanded with 80-120 grit. Scuffed with red scuff pads. Cleaned up with wax and grease remover and alcohol thereafter.

Primer:
Used duplicolor self etching primer on the rockers. Three coats.
Did not prime bumper. Wanted to see what would happen if I followed the instructions on the can. It said spray onto bare metal. Guessing they lied.

Paint:
Used duplicolor truck bed liner (blue can) on both the rockers and bumper. Used 3-4 coats.


So after all that tedious work, a few months later it all went to waste as the rust started seeping right through the paint.

Called up LineX today and they quoted me $400 per side roughly. That's out of my budget so I'm back to square 1.

What am I doing wrong here??? I don't want to keep having to paint these twice a year!

Also, I'm from Toronto and this is a daily driver so it sees some pretty salty winters.

Thanks!

 

In snowy areas, you'll need something a little better than a spray can. Any small chip will rust out and spread like cancer. A liner like line-x is the way to go. A cheaper route is raptor liner. Take it down to bare metal and make sure the rust is completely gone. Prime and spray the raptor liner. It's cheap, easy, and solid.

 

I'd stay away from any sort of bedliner on exposed products like this.. If the prep was not thoroughly successful, the bedline could peel away leaving small gaps for dirt and water to enter.. then the rust would follow. I would search for Epoxy paints next time and follow through as you did before on the prep work.

 

Any suggestions on roll on liners that do well with salt and snow?

There's so many options, Raptor, Herculiner, Monstaliner, Al's... Trying to pick one is driving me a bit nuts

 

I read somewhere to use por15>primer>bedliner to get a really good protective coating and not have to worry about rust. Might be trying this soon as my bedlined bumper is constantly getting chipped.

 

That's actually a pretty sweet idea! Gutta check if por15 sticks to bare metal *fingers crossed*

 

It won't, you have to use a product they make to get it to stick to bare metal. It's made to stick to rust not good steel.

 

Ah knew that sounded too easy lol thanks

 

I did this on my Jk last summer. Ground down all of the rust with a grinder and steel brush attachment, painted two coats of por 15 followed by a final coat of por 15 with a primer sprayed on halfway through drying. Then waited for that to dry completely and did a last coat of primer, followed by duplicolor truck bed liner. All of the salt and grime on the South Dakota roads has not effected it one bit and it looks just as it did the day I got done painting it. Now to do the front bumper! Hope this helps.

 

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