Spray in Pickup Bed Liner Under Cargo Box

[guest]

I have mentioned in other posts about the restoration of the bottom of the cargo box on my D truck, but it turned out so well, I want to re-cap what I did:

My truck had LOTS of rust on the bottom of the cargo box but the wood was in good shape. I had the bottom sand blasted and primed and then I purchases a couple of buckets of the stuff they use to do spray in pickup bed liners. This stuff is TOUGH. I mean really tough. I covered the wood and the steel beams with it. It stuck to everything fine. It looks about as cool as the bottom of the cargo box on a truck can look. I am anxious to see how it holds up to the elements and all that road spray. It's hard to imagine ANYTHING getting through that stuff.

Warning: it's a VERY messy job. You are rubbing up against the dirtiest parts of your truck and working with what is basically tar.

The bed liner stuff is thick enough that I could fill in some crevices that seemed to have the most corrosion before the sandblasting. It was also thick enough to seal the seams between the beams on the wood flooring.

I also taped off the plumbing on my air tanks, sanded off the rust that the sandblasting didn't get and coated them in the bed liner material.

I also put quarter wheel fairings on the front of my rear duals and used some flashing coated in the bed liner material to cover the bottom of the cargo box directly over the wheels.

Here is the total cost of the project:

Sandblasting and priming: $250 (great deal)
Pickup bed liner: $150
ABS quarter wheel fairings: $100
A lot of my own time: $0

Total: $500

 

[TJ959]

I sealed the inside floor of my box with a two part epoxy coating. It worked real good for about 4 months but now I'm getting cracks between the boards. Maybe I should try that liner stuff underneath too. Right now I'm contemplating lining the floor with diamond plate steel. That should head off the cracking problem but I'm worried about the weight it would add.

 

[davekc]

I have diamond plate 5 feet into the box. That is where towmotors do the most damage to your floor. This will add 50 to 100 lbs depending on the gage of steel and how far in the box you are going.
Rolled steel is another option if you have the joys of using a pallet jack. It can be scored so items roll on it but is slip resistant when wet.

Davekc
owner
21 years

 

[LDB]

The floor of my box has some gouges in it from idiots sliding stuff in/out. I've thought about having some sort of steel flooring put in the next one the full length of the box.

Leo
truck 4958
73 KE5FJG

Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[guest]

Why not use a good Silicone caulk for in between the cracks and then maybe go back over it with the epoxy?

Another idea for the inside floor of the cargo box would be to use the spray in pickup bedliner material. One neat thing about it is that it is paintable. You could apply it to the floor, then sand it a little to smooth it out a bit, then paint it a color more similar to the wood (or whatever color you wanted).

Hmmmmmm......

 

[TJ959]

Hmmmm is right. The stuff seems a little flexible. So it would flex with the weight of the lift trucks and maybe not crack like that brittle epoxy. It gets harder and harder to have a decent looking truck as they get older but I'm not ready to invest in a newer one until I see some money worth the investment coming in. So instead I'll just stand back and throw smaller amounts of money at this one.

 

[davekc]

Two things

The first is, be careful using steel for the whole floor. Biggest reasons are weight unless you go to aluminum (expensive) and depending on your carrier, you won't be able to haul alot of hazmat. Especially steel drums unless they are on skids. Many places don't use skids for drums.

The second is spaces between the wood on your floor. You will need just a little because of heat and humidity. As that increases, the floor will swell. That is why you are likely seeing cracking. If you take that expansion away, your floor will develop some warping. Kinda the same principle as a wood deck.If there are large cracks, I wood use a silicone compound in these joints. That would allow for movement.

Davekc

 

[The Gibster]

I agree with Dave completely on the cracks in the floor and expansion. Growing up on the Chesapeake Bay many a neighbor had built a flat bottom, heavy wood boat for pulling stripers from their nets. And there were always cracks, or seams showing when they went in the water for the first time in the spring.

The boat would about half sink but the cracks would seal up completely and naturally. Bail out the water and it was tight as a drum. And those non-boaters who tried to fill in the cracks kept the wood from sealing completely, and were always wondering why they couldn't keep it from sinking.

Who would of thunk it?

 

[LDB]

Yes, I should have said aluminum both for weight and rust reasons. I'm just debating doing something to the next one to keep the floor from getting gouged up and looking bad so quickly. The aluminum would potentially make it even easier to keep swept out too. That and light colored paint on the plywood would make a very nice interior.

I wonder how it would be to put the bedliner on the side walls up to the bottom of the 3rd row of etrack and paint from there up? If it's painted all the way to the floor it will look bad in no time from forks and pallets. Well, more to think about.

Leo
truck 4958
73 KE5FJG

Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[guest]

I think that doing the pickup bed liner on the floor and a little way up the wall would look great and should wear very well. I would caulk everything you can on the floor to give you as smooth a surface as possible to work with.

Think about it, with a setup like that you could just hose the back of your truck out when it gets dirty.