Coating Color - For the Truck & Camper - Continued...... & Some Additional Info!
Well......, it looks like I'm going to have to disappoint my audience 😁.
Here is the inspiration for the coating color I chose, my Beach Cruisers 😎🤙!
I wanted to go with the lightest grey I could, without it being and/or appearing white. After months of looking at every grey vehicle on the highway, basically driving anywhere, (stalking a few cars/trucks to getter a closer look-seriously) and an extensive online black-hole-spiral-search, the light bulb finally went on. "Why don't I just coat the truck and camper the same color as my beach cruisers?" They are a perfect reference to see what the truck and camper would look like in light grey, with all black accent colors.
"SOLD, to the man who is about to be financially broke from coating his truck and camper!" 🤣🤪
So here we go .............
I'll try and keep the process of explaining my journey of 1. painting just the camper (to match the white factory truck/cab), or 2. coating both the truck and camper, short and sweet. Although, know it was a PITA x 2 and not a simple task or journey. OK, it will most likely not be short and sweet, but I'll try my darndest!
I will also be speaking in what I might call, generally-specific terms. I’m going to make generalizations in an attempt to simplify things and provide what may be the most important information one may need to know if they find themselves in a similar decision-making process/journey. I am not a professional painter or coater. I’m just a normal guy/consumer trying to make informed decisions while sharing the information as I go
🤓. "Don't kill the messenger!"
The price to coat both the truck and camper was the same price, or at most $1-2K more, than to paint just the camper (to match the white color on the factory truck/cab). I was surprised by this, but I guess it made sense given all of the extra sanding and buffing required for painting as opposed to coating. It also made the decision to coat both the truck and camper, as opposed to painting just the camper, simple. Coating was also a better choice, IMHO, on an expedition vehicle.
Finding a Coating shop that was: 1. Capable of completing a project of this size, 2. Confident that they could handle the scope of the project and 3. Wanted to take a project like this on, was not easy. There are a lot of shops out there that will give you the initial (Salesmen Yes) “Oh, of course, we can do anything”. The same shops who you will then call 2-3 times and never get an actual bid from, or those who never get back to you-basically the shops that can’t simply tell you they are not qualified to do a project of this size/scope.
Of the limited shops that you do get a price from, very few will be able to actually shoot the coating in a consistent thickness and texture over the entirety of the project. I looked at the coating jobs done by many shops and most of them did not look good and/or professional. They simply could not shoot a consistent thickness and texture, nor blend areas if needed.
Raprtor, Monsta, etc. Liner vs. RHINO, LINEX, etc. Coating: Many professional coating specific shops do not and will not shoot Raptor, Monsta, etc. Liner products. These are more DIY products and as one professional explained it, “They are more like a hardened paint as opposed to an industrial coating, two completely different products. The Liners use epoxy, or something similar, to give them their strength/hardness and Coatings are plastic” This was helpful because when I actually started looking at 2, 3, 5-year-old 4x4/commercial vehicles that had Raptor/Monsta equivalent Liners and RHINO/LINEX Coatings, (on the exterior areas that get the most abuse) I could see a distinct difference. The Coatings held up and the Liners had many scrapes and chips.
The few (actually one or two) shops that could produce a consistent thickness and texture over the entirety of the project and met the 1. Capable, 2. Confident and 3. Wanted to criteria, were professional Coating Shops (not paint shops that also shot Liner products). This ruled out Raptor, Monsta, etc. Liner products for me, as the professional Coating shops I was considering wouldn’t shoot them. This then put me in the RHINO vs. LINEX debate. My research, and what most people told me was “If you can afford the slight additional cost of LINEX, choose that.”
Of the final (only two) professional Coating shops I was considering, one of them finally recommended the other shop I was considering, the LINEX shop I eventually chose. He was honest with me and said he knew he wouldn’t be able to produce the results I wanted and he always sends this specialty type of work to the particular LINEX shop previously noted.
Know that this process involved contacting about 40-50 shops throughout Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California. I can’t tell you how many professional RHINO, LINEX, and other various brands of coating, shops gave me the initial and consistent “Yes we can do it/Do anything” routine, but never produced an estimate, or got back to me. Some of these were also the “best of the best shops” that “shoot full trucks every week and do all of the unique and large projects other shops won’t touch”. I even had a contract and was in the schedule with two separate Liner/Coating shops, and they just vanished (ghosted me) a week or two prior to the start date.
This journey sucked and represents all of the things you think are going to be easy, or “should not be that hard”, but surprisingly are. Please know that the number of professional coating shops and/or paint shops that will take on a project like this are few. Of those few shops that are willing to take the project on, the number that can actually do a quality/professional job is even FEWER. And once you find the one or two options, it will not be cheap, or at least will not be what you initially though it would or should cost. That is the other part of the journey that never stops on projects/builds like this. EVERYTHING WILL COST MORE THAN YOU THINK! EVERYTHING!!!!
Happy Sunday Funday Folks 😙!
