I've started the Herculiner project......damn the prep work!!! It's wearing me out, but I know how important it is. I'll post before and after pics when I'm done........

Here we go........




Gettin there....




Starting to see the metal.....




Shew..........




Lotta elbow grease.....




Will start first coat of Herculiner on Tuesday or Wednesday

Do you have to prime it to do a spray in job? I thought most of the roll on applications you just prep and clean with a degreaser.

No it is not "a have to", but I wanted to paint the inside a little to freshen it up sides since I am not going to herculine the entire tub. I read that if you put down a rust resistant primer paint, the herculiner will adhere better. Guess I'll find out. It was to d@$n much work to take a chance, especially since the previous owner had already half arse attempted to put some kind of liner down as you can see in first pics. I was afraid to take a chance on herculiner not binding to it....

Anyone on the forum ever use Grizzly Grip? From their website it looks like a good product. Comes in about 25 colors, with uv protection. Rolls on.

Sorry, not meaning to hijack your thread... You guys can move it if you want.

I haven't heard of the Grizzly grip liner. I believe that Herculine now offers a few different colors for your jeepn' pleasure. I believe the colors are black, grey, white and I think there is one more.

Ive already done this, I bought the kit. All I did was mask off everything and hit what I was going to cover with the red scratch pad, then roll on. No primer no bear metal.

Sounds great. Got any pictures of finished product?

What about the Dupli-Color stuff? I have seen this around in addition to the Herucliner. They even have some in aerosol cans that looks easier than rolling it on. Anybody tried this?

First coat of rolled Herculiner....

Should get on final coat tomorrow.......

how thick was the Herculiner after the final coat?

and finally the second coat........














Will do touch ups tomorrow if needed and installing seats Thursday.....

Did you do all the stuff under the dash?

I did all the body under the dash, firewall and kick panels....

Anybody know where to get a set of floor plugs?

I bought a set off ebay for like $12, came in a bag, we used the rustoleum truck bed finish on our YJ. Put 4 coats, two on a friday and two more on sat, we just divided the mix in half. Had to clean out the drain holes though with a hand made reamer.

Thx so much for posting this and being so thorough with the pics. It looks GREAT. I bet you're thrilled with the results!

Yes, I'm pleased. I was reluctant to start this, but I'm glad now that I did.

Before



After

One word of advice, don't crawl around on that stuff, will make your knees a bloody mess and destroy pants material as if the belt loop ripper was not a pia...

I am thinking about herculing the inside and am also debating doing the front end (grill, front fender noses, and hood). Has anybody had any experience putting this stuff on other parts of their Jeep. My '91 has some deep scatches where the previous owner ran through a fence and scarred up the hood. This would be a cheaper and longer lasting fix...I think. Any advice?

No advice on how to DO this, persay, but a Jeep owner here in town had it done to protect it from rocks etc while wheeling and it actually looks pretty nice!

What he said............

It looks great. Now I am really anxious to do mine...thanks


As far as applying it to other parts of the jeep, go for it. I have seen it used several times along the bottom of truck bodies as a chip guard. It isn't any different than putting it in the bed. There is the same paint on the body that there is in the bed.

What I learned.....

Do's:

1) Take your time. If you don't have time to do it right the first time. Wait until you have the time!!

2) If there is already some type of liner already down, use a propane torch, keep it moving, when you see the old liner start to bubble, its ready to scrape off. Do small sections at a time being careful not to overheat.

3) Remove everything from tub of Jeep. It makes it much easier to work, a lot less taping and less aggravation. However, if the factory star bolts are stubborn or stripped, leave them alone. Tape them good and move on. It would be a real pain to break on off and then have to remove.

4) A wire brush on a drill works great when stripping rust and paint.

5) Remove ALL rust!!

6) If you think it “might” need more prepping, it does!!

7) I rolled up some masking tape and filled in threaded holes in tub to keep Herculiner out of threads.

8) Use a vacuum to remove as much from tub as you can.

9) Once you are ready to start building up, wipe down with Acetone and then use a good rust eliminator. This will help in fighting rust in the future and also help bond Herculiner to tub.

10) After you apply rust eliminator, wipe again with Acetone.

11) Use a good quality masking tape and carefully tape off areas that you do not want Herculiner applied to. Take the time here to do a good job or you WILL regret it!! Once you start dabbing the corners and seams with the Herculine supplied brush, the end of the brush will start to fan out. Herculiner will then start to hit places you did not mean for it to. That’s why taping is so important!!

12) If you are going to do entire tub, start with the fire wall first!!

13) Then dab around all seams, corners and any hardware that you could not remove.

14) After dabbing, use Herculine supplied roller. Apply evenly throughout tub being careful to roll out any runs. If you miss one and you find it later, its too late.

15) Follow instructions from Herculine for applying second coat as far as waiting time. If you don’t give first coat sufficient time to set, the second coat will simply smear first coat and you haven’t gained anything.

16) Use this drying time between coats to check for runs. Sometimes the run will develop later than you think. So go back and check.

17) You can also use this drying time to check for places you missed. I found that when I was taking pictures for WF and used the flash on my digital camera, the “light spots” really came out on pic. I also noticed that I missed some places where roll bar bolted to floor, so I was able to go back and put a little more Herculiner on tub.

18) Soon after second coat, you need to start removing tape from trim and threaded holes. If you find an area where tape is stubborn, use a utility knife and carefully trim tape off.

19) Again, follow Herculine instructions for drying time before reinstalling seats, etc., back into tub.




Don’ts:

1) Do not use same roller for both coats. Herculine supplies a second roller, use it!! I actually bought another brush like the one provided by Herculine so I could dab the corners and seams again without using the same brush from first coat. (The original brush was in no condition to "touch up" anything on second go around).

2) Do not rub your nose.

3) Do not cut corners. If you do you will regret it and it will show in the final product. Its way too much work for you not to enjoy the end result.

4) Do not get frustrated and continue to work. Take a break and go back later. You will be glad you did.

5) I did not worry about the large plug holes and didn’t have any issues reinstalling plugs.



F.Y.I…...

It’s all in the prep work. Everything you leave that you shouldn’t have, will show up later and bite you!!

Clothing…..

Wear long sleeves, long pants and latex gloves. Make sure these are not your good clothes. Once you are through, clothes are too.

Looks professionally done, NICE JOB! If you don't mind me asking, how much time and money did you spend on the whole project?

Cost:

$89 for a gallon of Herculiner
$8 for a quart of Acetone
$3.95/ can of Krylon Rust Eliminator, used 2 cans
$1/ roll ok masking tape, used one roll
$4.79 for second 1.5 inch brush (optional)
$2 for a small pack of Latex gloves

You should be able to purchase all necessary materials for around $110

I already had the drill, sanding and steel brush attachments, propane torch and scraper. These are items that you could hopefully borrow from someone.

It took me probably 10 - 12 working hours. Most of this time was eaten up removing the old liner from tub. This was very time consuming. If someone is dealing with a painted tub and it is their first time, I would think you could knock off 3+ working hours.

Now that I have had the experience of Herculining, combined with what I learned about sanding vs steel brush and propane, I really believe I could do one in 7 -8 working hours and be thorough at the same time. There was definitely a learning curve.

Great writeup!!! I will definitely reference this post if I decide to do it.

Me too! Thanks for the info.

Thaks for the vote of confidence. This is the first project like this I've taken on. Thaks to the availability of the forum, I was able to do a lot of reading before I began. I could not have done it without the research...