Truck Update pt II

The blog environment is, fundamentally, still superior to facebook. The blog allows the telling of story with incorporated props like website links and photos. This is the evolving story of the 1988 S10 pickup.

The truck came with a terrible plastic be liner that was warped and generally tacky in all ways. I immediately removed it from my truck and my life, to the good will of my sensibilities.

Underneith, it looked like this:



That's actually not true... At first it was dirty but then i washed and lightly sanded it. The sanding was in preparation for a home-application spray in bed liner. See, the fancy spray in bed liners cost like $400 - $600 dollars, which is damn near as much as i paid for the truck. Your typical DIY kit is something of a roll-on job that's not much more than a thick paint with some rubber chunks, known to easily peel up and fade in the sun. Then i found Raptor Liner (RAWR!)



The Raptor kit is a two-part with a proper hardener, meaning it will cure like the paint on a car. Plus it comes with a little spray gun to hook up to your compressor.

Applying it could make for a whole sub-story, but just know it involved much tape and a lot of black speckles covering the items in the garage. Once applied it took a few days to fully set up and then it seemed to be champion.



I only applied to liner to the gate and floor and forward wall, while using a semi-gloss paint on the side walls. The Raptor Liner seemed to be tough as nails until today when I loaded into the truck a heavy box with screws sticking out of the bottom. This may be an unfair test but the material seemed to chip off in larger than necessary pieces. The freezing temperature may have had an adverse effect but i also suspect poor surface-prep. (could have used a heavier sanding and maybe a primer?) Either way, for the price, it would make a good material to spray, for example, inside a race car or on the bottom of an off-roader.








An besides, it still looks better than the rest of the truck. Plus, i picked up a VERY green steel box with a locking lid for storage. Added benefit: its heavy as hell (making it hard to steal and adding traction in the snow) The next step will be to weld up those holes in the box, ensuring something that resembles weather-resistance.