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Thread: applying bed liner

  1. #1
    Senior Member kobra01's Avatar
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    applying bed liner

    My build has bed liner applied to the underside of the body and foot boxes. I'm going to apply bed liner to the front and rear wheel wells. Has anyone apply bed liner under the car like the exposed aluminum areas around the seat plates, the bottom of the seat plates or the 4" frames. Would this be a bad idea or a complete waste of time?

    Thanks,

    Ken
    MK4 Roadster # 8548, Ford Performance X427, TKO 600, 8.8 3 Link, Paint by Jeff Miller, Suspension setup by Frank Maslowski I.E.427

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    Cool

    I've put bed liner under the body and on any exposed aluminum under the car. It won't hurt and I feel keeps it quieter. All my panels were scuffed, zinc chromate primed, painted on the inside and had bed liner put on the outside. I'm happy and it wasn't too much extra work.


    Phoenixmsb

  3. #3
    Senior Member edwardb's Avatar
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    With heat/sound insulation (your brand of choice) and carpet on the inside of the cockpit, not sure I see any benefit of bed liner or insulation on the underside. I've driven thousands of miles with only powder coat on the underside. Still looks brand new and I don't recall ever hearing anything hit or make noise. Wheel wells are a different story. Bed liner or insulation of some kind is mandatory IMO on the underside of the body and highly desirable on the tire facing side of the splash guards. I don't see any benefit to the rest though. Don't know why you'd put anything on the 4-inch chassis tubes other than the factory supplied powder coat that most order with their kit.
    Build 1: Mk3 Roadster #5125. Sold 11/08/2014. Build 2: Mk4 Roadster #7750. Sold 04/10/2017. Build Thread
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  4. #4
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    I did spray can bed liner on the underside of the floor pans. It was more for continuity of everything being black on underside of the car. If you want to do it, just do it and don't worry about a waste of time. As someone told me once, "What's it going to matter if the car gets done a day earlier".

    As for the wheel wells, I have put several layers of the roll on bed liner on the body, and also rolled on several coats on the aluminum facing the tires. I have also put sound deadening material on the backside of the same panel to try to minimize the "ping" that I imagine rocks are going to make hitting it. I haven't driven mine with these panels installed, so I can't tell you how well it does yet.

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  5. #5
    Not a waxer Jeff Kleiner's Avatar
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    I use it in the wheelwells but be aware that coarse bedliner material on the underside aluminum panels and chassis members is going to be virtually impossible to clean.

    Jeff

  6. #6
    Senior Member Scott Zackowski's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Kleiner View Post
    I use it in the wheelwells but be aware that coarse bedliner material on the underside aluminum panels and chassis members is going to be virtually impossible to clean.

    Jeff
    Questions:

    1) If bedliner is coarse and not very cleanable and used to coat the underside of the fiberglass body, does it become unsightly over time in the exposed engine bay areas?

    2) What prep is needed to apply bedliner to underside fiberglass and wheelwell aluminum?

  7. #7
    Senior Member kobra01's Avatar
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    Thanks guys, all good suggestions. My decision is nothing under the car. And thanks Jeff that made my decision easy.
    MK4 Roadster # 8548, Ford Performance X427, TKO 600, 8.8 3 Link, Paint by Jeff Miller, Suspension setup by Frank Maslowski I.E.427

  8. #8
    Senior Member edwardb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Zackowski View Post
    Questions:

    1) If bedliner is coarse and not very cleanable and used to coat the underside of the fiberglass body, does it become unsightly over time in the exposed engine bay areas?

    2) What prep is needed to apply bedliner to underside fiberglass and wheelwell aluminum?
    1. Not really. You might want to hit it with some car wash soap and a hose or whatever every once in awhile. But no big deal at all. As long as you're talking about the portions of the actual fiberglass body that are barely visible from the engine compartment. And not actual aluminum panels in the engine compartment.

    2. Nothing special. Make sure stuff is clean and maybe hit both lightly with a sanding block and 180 or so grit paper. But probably optional and not critical. The stuff aggressively sticks to everything. Your clothes, your hands, the floor where you spill it, forget about cleaning out brushes and rollers.
    Build 1: Mk3 Roadster #5125. Sold 11/08/2014. Build 2: Mk4 Roadster #7750. Sold 04/10/2017. Build Thread
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  9. #9
    Senior Member BEAR-AvHistory's Avatar
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    Have all "weather" facing sheets done with bed liner. Have no dirt retention problems @ 8,000 miles. Internal engine compartment sides are left natural.
    Kevin
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  10. #10
    Senior Member Dave Howard's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Zackowski View Post
    Questions:

    1) If bedliner is coarse and not very cleanable and used to coat the underside of the fiberglass body, does it become unsightly over time in the exposed engine bay areas?

    2) What prep is needed to apply bedliner to underside fiberglass and wheelwell aluminum?
    The main objective with applying bedliner to the wheel wells is to provide some protection to the fibreglass from material kicked up from your tires. A gallon of bedliner goes a long way. I started out with the thought of only doing the areas around the wheel wells. It was easier to apply at least one coat on the entire underside of the body. IT CAN NOT BE SEEN... except in the wheel wells. Its impossible t see the underside of the body in the engine compartment. You can see the underside of the sides of the body between the rear of the front wheels and the footboxes, and I think the bedliner looks much better than the raw fibre glass.
    Prep work on the under body was a very quick going over with a belt sander to remove sharp low spots. Quick means less than 5 minutes. Blow off the dust and slap on the bedliner with a large brush. Shouldn't take more than 60-90 minutes.
    Jeff makes a good point about cleaning. But...If you going to drive the car a thousand miles a year on and off the trailer at car shows, it never sees a wet road, is never driving through a swarm of shad flies or on the highway during caterpillar season, chances are the car will never get very dirty. Personal, I use Spray Nine in the wheel wells once in a while and a little help with a pressure washer. Shad flies are the worst. Especially when they bake onto the front of you side pipes.

  11. #11
    Senior Member Scott Zackowski's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by edwardb View Post
    1. Not really. You might want to hit it with some car wash soap and a hose or whatever every once in awhile. But no big deal at all. As long as you're talking about the portions of the actual fiberglass body that are barely visible from the engine compartment. And not actual aluminum panels in the engine compartment.

    2. Nothing special. Make sure stuff is clean and maybe hit both lightly with a sanding block and 180 or so grit paper. But probably optional and not critical. The stuff aggressively sticks to everything. Your clothes, your hands, the floor where you spill it, forget about cleaning out brushes and rollers.
    Thanks Guys!

    That answers my questions.

  12. #12
    riebelt's Avatar
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    Another tip to help protect the paint. I get the opportunity to see how Superformance and BackDraft finish their cars. I'm always looking for great ideas when finishing these cars out. One thing that I have seen is the use of sound deadener on the upper side of the wheel wells, or better stated the underside of the fiberglass fender. It's not fully covered, it's in the line of fire of the gravel and stone. What they use is similar to the QuadMat product that is available from vendor Dennis Clark. It is the sound deadener with the 1/4" foam applied to that. This is strategically positioned so that any stones that get thrown into it will bounce off and not damage the paint from the underside. What they then do to protect the foam is spray undercoating or bed liner on top of that. I've seen these cars come in with many miles on them expecting to see this application shredded from road gravel. Surprise, it looks great. Just passing along an idea to help protect our hard labored and expensive paint.

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