Introducing O'Billy - our new Type-II Ambulance
- Thread starter mike.marcacci
- Start date
mike.marcacci
Adventurer
Thanks! You are definitely correct RE the grit. I prefer the texture I achieved with the black, but at this point I'm going for consistency among all grey.
The grey is more viscous than the black was – I'm not sure if the tint altered the viscosity of the liner, or if the tintable always shoots differently than the black. If I had a do-over I would probably thin the grey before shooting it. That said, once we have all the panels done (with all the nooks filled out) we're planning to come back over van with all the doors shut to ensure even texture across the panels; I may thin it a bit for that last coat.
The grey is more viscous than the black was – I'm not sure if the tint altered the viscosity of the liner, or if the tintable always shoots differently than the black. If I had a do-over I would probably thin the grey before shooting it. That said, once we have all the panels done (with all the nooks filled out) we're planning to come back over van with all the doors shut to ensure even texture across the panels; I may thin it a bit for that last coat.
Backcountry Pursuit
Risk Taker
That looks great!
I've been doing a little reading on Raptor Bedliner since you posted this. How many psi did you shoot with? Looks like lower psi is rougher and higher psi is smoother. I've seen 40 on the low end and 70 on the high end on other forums. Did you experiment with different psi settings for different textures? I'd like to go a little smoother for my personal taste, but yours looks awesome.
I am going to need to to do something to my van since it is white and now has 6 silver doors I scavenged off a parts van. I'm adding power windows, locks, mirrors and it just seemed easier to bolt on new doors with that stuff installed. Plus they are in way better condition. Anyways, my one concern with going to one of these bedliners is the roughness holding dirt and never really looking clean. How do you suppose that is going to be to keep clean?
I was also looking at the Monstaliner roll on option. What were the determining factors to go with the Raptor over others? It looks to be one of the more affordable options and gets a lot of praise across the interwebs. Interested to hear your thoughts.
I've been doing a little reading on Raptor Bedliner since you posted this. How many psi did you shoot with? Looks like lower psi is rougher and higher psi is smoother. I've seen 40 on the low end and 70 on the high end on other forums. Did you experiment with different psi settings for different textures? I'd like to go a little smoother for my personal taste, but yours looks awesome.
I am going to need to to do something to my van since it is white and now has 6 silver doors I scavenged off a parts van. I'm adding power windows, locks, mirrors and it just seemed easier to bolt on new doors with that stuff installed. Plus they are in way better condition. Anyways, my one concern with going to one of these bedliners is the roughness holding dirt and never really looking clean. How do you suppose that is going to be to keep clean?
I was also looking at the Monstaliner roll on option. What were the determining factors to go with the Raptor over others? It looks to be one of the more affordable options and gets a lot of praise across the interwebs. Interested to hear your thoughts.
mike.marcacci
Adventurer
My intention was to achieve a fine, but quite gritty finish: I played with the pressure/distance with the black until I settled on something ~60 PSI (I'll check next time I run it) and I've left it set there since. Higher pressure will definitely put it down finer. I will also say that the texture varies based a lot on technique: the further back the gun the finer the spray; the thinner your coats grittier it stays. I think that perhaps another reason my 2 colors differ in texture (besides a possible viscosity difference) is that the primer I used was very similar in color to the grey, and I likely added a bit more on the first coat trying to adjust for lower visual feedback.
The shutz gun is not the most precise tool. That said, I'd take it any day over a roller given my desired result. While I've heard great things about Monstaliner, the only roll-on jobs I've seen are Herculiner, and they've all (obviously) looked awful.
The quality of the U-Pol products is really there: at one point we ran out of the U-Pol primer and ran to O'Reilly's in a pinch... The dupli-color stuff they sold was such dog ******** by comparison that we stopped, waited, and sanded most of it off. Now that the black rocker panels have had a week to cure to full hardness, we were able to rest the edges of the doors on the driveway (albeit gently) with zero concern. We originally tested it on our grille a few months back, and fell in love with the product then.
I also have nothing against Monstaliner. If you're looking to roll on a liner, they're almost certainly the way to go.
The shutz gun is not the most precise tool. That said, I'd take it any day over a roller given my desired result. While I've heard great things about Monstaliner, the only roll-on jobs I've seen are Herculiner, and they've all (obviously) looked awful.
The quality of the U-Pol products is really there: at one point we ran out of the U-Pol primer and ran to O'Reilly's in a pinch... The dupli-color stuff they sold was such dog ******** by comparison that we stopped, waited, and sanded most of it off. Now that the black rocker panels have had a week to cure to full hardness, we were able to rest the edges of the doors on the driveway (albeit gently) with zero concern. We originally tested it on our grille a few months back, and fell in love with the product then.
I also have nothing against Monstaliner. If you're looking to roll on a liner, they're almost certainly the way to go.
mike.marcacci
Adventurer
Realized I didn't answer your question about cleaning: you are definitely right, the fully hardened liner is hard to scrub down and eats towels. Our plan is really to not clean it 
We'll be on the road for over a year, frequently on dirt, and I doubt we'll even attempt to wash it more than 5 or 6 times
We'll be on the road for over a year, frequently on dirt, and I doubt we'll even attempt to wash it more than 5 or 6 times
Backcountry Pursuit
Risk Taker
Now that you have it like this, I think the black, gray, white scheme looks pretty dang awesome. I've seen in other threads where folks have painted white vehicles a darker color, and then painted the roof back to white again because of how much hotter it got inside with the darker color. It may be worth taking some temp readings inside along with ambient weather data before you paint the fiberglass to see in hard numbers just how much the color changes the temp inside the vehicle. Food for thought anyways.
Backcountry Pursuit
Risk Taker
Realized I didn't answer your question about cleaning: you are definitely right, the fully hardened liner is hard to scrub down and eats towels. Our plan is really to not clean it
Yeah, I don't wash my vehicles much either. Every now and then I like to get em shined up though. I just think back to a Line-X bed that was done in my Tundra before I bought it and in the six years I owned it, I never really was able to get it clean. Not that the bed mattered that much...
Did you get the complete kit and use the shutz gun that came with it or did you buy a better one? I've got a great compressor and I'm not afraid to shoot paint, but the roller just seemed easier. I may change my course on the exterior of my build after seeing what you accomplished with this.
lockedwheels
Adventurer
Looks great. My type II kinda resembles yours. Except my bottom is black the middle is white and the high top is grey haha!!! Yours looks awesome!!
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mike.marcacci
Adventurer
This is an awesome idea, and we'll be sure to do it. We haven't yet insulated the space between the roof and ceiling, so that space would be a perfect place to get an "inside" reading that isn't too susceptible to air flow from windows being open, etc. I guess I'll snag two of these to record the ambient difference over a couple days.
mike.marcacci
Adventurer
For a while there it was actually cheaper on Amazon to order the kit with the gun than without it, so I have 4 of their guns
They're probably not the best out there, but my painting experience is pretty limited and they felt reasonably easy to control.
mike.marcacci
Adventurer
We primed all areas where metal was exposed or nearly exposed and everywhere that was complex in shape. For the larger areas that still had a good base of paint after pretty aggressive sanding, we sprayed directly over the old stuff. We used 5 cans of U-Pol primer, half a can of plasti-dip garbage (and then we removed it), and a can and a half or rustoleum etching primer when we ran out of U-Pol's.
This is random, but i drive past your van most mornings on my way to work and I just happened to pull up this page and made the connection! your van is awesome! the new paint job looks awesome, definitely gonna look rad when you're all done. I recently purchased a 2011 e350 and have been looking a lot lately to finalize my plan for the inside. Can't wait to see it when it's all done