Raptor Bed liner for paint?

[Frochevy]

Is anyone using (or thought about using) a bed liner for the exterior of your bus? I have thought about using the dove gray raptor Bed liner and spraying it on. I am just not sure about it. I don't want to regret this a few years from now if it's starts peeling off, etc...

Please post some pics if you have done it? How long as it lasted, etc .. thanks!!

 

[peakbus]

Rumor has it that it adds a fair bit of weight to an average vehicle. I also wonder if all that texture would diminish what little fuel economy that we have.

 

[Frochevy]

Rumor has it that it adds a fair bit of weight to an average vehicle. I also wonder if all that texture would diminish what little fuel economy that we have.

You have great points here! I have heard about the weight difference, but I hadn't thought about the fuel mileage. Especially from a texture/ aerodynamic stand point...

 

[peakbus]

Maybe the texture wouldn't matter to the bread-loaf shape we drive. Maybe it would make it better- must be a reason for gold ball dimples

 

[musigenesis]

Maybe the texture wouldn't matter to the bread-loaf shape we drive. Maybe it would make it better- must be a reason for gold ball dimples

Mythbusters put the golf ball dimples on a car and went from 26 mpg to 29.5 mpg. YMMV (literally).

I think the texture would make the bus get pretty dirty in no time and cleaning it would probably be impossible. Your bus would look like the Dumb and Dumber car.

 

[BarnYardCamp]

I know a guy who has a pick up with a massive front bumper/cow catcher painted with rhino-liner...it has held up very well...over 3 years.

 

[Simplicity-SKO]

Lots of videos on YouTube to watch. This one is a skoolie.

Per MPG, considering the weight of the bus and non-aerodynamic shape, I don't think it would be that much of an issue.

 

[rossvtaylor]

Check out the YouTube videos on this subject from the Lacroix Cruisers (Ivan and Sylvie). They used a bed liner product on a couple of their buses. And we've used the Raptor Liner brand on an ambulance...which worked well and I have no complaints at all. My next bed liner sprays will be the Durabak non-textured, and I recommend watching some of the videos about that product too.

I do have to shake my head at concerns about weight, though. If you use 2 gallons, at 8 pounds per gallon wet, that's just 16 pounds...even if none of the liquid weight evaporates. On a 30,000 pound bus I can't see how that would matter.

 

[cadillackid]

I love bedliner , I’ve used it on various parts of my busses Ie floor plates, doghouse covers etc , I think it would be bad ass on the exterior of a bus

 

[TJones-SKO]

I am considering the raptor liner or other bed liner. The raptor can be thinned and sprayed through an HPLV gun which can give a less lumpy sand paper like texture. Proper paint prep is still important with the bed liner. I like that Upol which is the company the makes raptor has a 2k epoxy primer that is designed to work with the bed liner. I see the advantage of the bed liner is its durability as well as the matt finish will hide minor body defects. The paint application wouldn't have to be as perfect as a base / clear system as the texture would hide alot of imperfections.

Ted

 

[rossvtaylor]

I am considering the raptor liner or other bed liner. The raptor can be thinned and sprayed through an HPLV gun which can give a less lumpy sand paper like texture.

Hey Ted, you should look into the non-textured Durabak product line. The fantastic Project Farm guy reviewed lots of bed liner products and the Durabak performed really well. For what it's worth, apparently the US Navy uses Durabak somewhere. There are some good YouTube videos of the non-textured "smooth" version on vehicles and it looks like something I want to try on my new truck.

 

[Mr4btTahoe]

I used it on my Mercedes 300SD and love how it looks but it was expensive for a full size car. To do a bus, you're talking several thousand dollars in materials easily... and the prep work is extensive to get the stuff to stick properly and hold up long term.


I wouldn't do it on a but personally... but if it's the look you're after, go for it.

 

[The Wolff]

I did my bus in raptor liner holding up great didn’t notice any weight issue with it at all

 

[cai70]

I used Raptor Liner on a weekender van. I love the look and is holding up great after 2 years of daily driving. I used their tint and spray system for the simplicity. Just dump the hardener and tint into the bottle, then screw it on spray gun. Great! You can actually adjust the amount of texture.

 

[shorthair-SKO]

Rumor has it that it adds a fair bit of weight to an average vehicle. I also wonder if all that texture would diminish what little fuel economy that we have.

Plus the texture will make it very hard to keep clean.

 

[kidharris]

Maybe the texture wouldn't matter to the bread-loaf shape we drive. Maybe it would make it better- must be a reason for gold ball dimples

I read, along time ago, that golf ball dimples helped to steady the ball in flight and was instrumental in the design of certain British aerial dive bomb designs to blowup bridges in WWII.

 

[kidharris]

Mythbusters put the golf ball dimples on a car and went from 26 mpg to 29.5 mpg. YMMV (literally).

I think the texture would make the bus get pretty dirty in no time and cleaning it would probably be impossible. Your bus would look like the Dumb and Dumber car.

Mythbusters? Seriously? Someone probably aired up the tires and they concluded that it was the dimples that improved the mpg.

 

[TJones-SKO]

Hey Ted, you should look into the non-textured Durabak product line. The fantastic Project Farm guy reviewed lots of bed liner products and the Durabak performed really well. For what it's worth, apparently the US Navy uses Durabak somewhere. There are some good YouTube videos of the non-textured "smooth" version on vehicles and it looks like something I want to try on my new truck.

Thanks Ross,

The Durabak looks like a good product. The smooth product looks interesting. I wonder how well it would hide imperfections in the application or be recoated if damaged. I see they also have an epoxy primer for their system.

I do enjoy the project farm tests. His test definitely tested the film strength of the bed liner liners. I think he may have gotten better results out of the products had he used either a self etching primer or an epoxy primer and scuffed the primer prior to applying the bed liner. It seemed the failure always occurred at the metal so a better primer may have given better results.

I think the best results would be from using a product system that has the epoxy primer and bed liner topcoat. These systems have an application window where you can spray the top coat onto the primer without having to scuff the primer. I would think this would allow more chemical bonding between the two coats with the primer not being fully cured.

Also I just saw Project Farm recently posted a rust converter comparison.

Ted

 

[Frochevy]

Thanks to everyone for all of the replies and discussion!! For some reason, I wasn't getting a notification when the replies were coming through and finally did this morning!

Just got caught up on all the posts. After talking with my wife, she was hoping for more of a gloss gray. I'm leaning towards a single stage urethane paint from Eastwood in destroyer gray. Whatever I do, I have to hurry up and make up my mind as I'm planning to have a bunch of help over labor day weekend to sand and prep the bus for paint! I have to get something on order soon.

Thanks again for all of the input and pictures!

 

[Doktari]

A friend painted his bus with metal roof paint. It was cheap and I thought it looked good enough for a old bus built on a budget. Farms need to paint old equipment and metal roofs. Industrial equipment paint is fairly cheap and durable. I’d save lots of money and go that route after I discovered how expensive bed liner is.