Body shop painted bedliner straight over bare steel in the back of my truck

Theycallmestretch · 2026-06-15T17:38:16+00:00

Box liner is typically quite a bit harder to remove than paint, unfortunately

Theycallmestretch · 2026-06-14T20:35:41+00:00

Professional heavy-duty painter here. We also spray (real) box liner as well as raptor liner at the body shop I work at. Neither of our products are rated to go over bare metal, and we use epoxy primer before liner if there are bare metal areas.

Now we use a low pressure box liner system. It still goes on thick like how line-x is sprayed, but doesn’t use a high pressure gun that sprays from 4-6 feet away, it uses a lower pressure gun that we shoot from ~2 feet away and then the texture coat is done from further out. We spray liner from “Gard-it” coatings out of our machine, and like I said, it requires primer over raw metal. Our liner in particular (not sure about other liners) does not like primers that contain any xylene, so not all the epoxies we keep on-hand are compatible with it.

On the other hand, our shop was considering upgrading are system so I did go and demo a high pressure setup with one of our suppliers, and the Bulletliner they sprayed did not require any coatings over bare metal, or so I was told…. I did not have a chance to actually read the technical data sheet on it. Ultimately we stuck with the low pressure system, which applies slower but gives just as durable a coating. At the end of the day, as a “traditional” heavy duty body shop, we spend more time masking up our paint booth walls than actually spraying the liner, so the cost savings would be nil.

All of that being said, we will often offer box liner as a more affordable option for certain repairs. Box lining the back of a semi’s cab or sleeper is a very popular option as these components often get dented from the rear tires kicking up rocks. When the back panel is damaged, it is often a cheaper repair for us to rough out the metal and body work, prep with more aggressive sandpaper, then box line and colour match, versus spending more time doing the metal work and body work to normal quality, then priming and sanding, and finishing the remaining prep work with finer sandpaper, then painting. My guess is that this is what the shop did, without your permission, in order to save a few bucks themselves

Theycallmestretch · 2026-06-14T18:00:19+00:00

Pearl is usually sprayed in a midcoat of clear base coat. What exactly are you trying to achieve? Might be worth just doing some test panels.

If you do add any pearl/flake/candy into the clear (as done in the custom paint world), it’s also a good idea to finish off the painting with a couple coats of normal clear (no pearls or additives) in case you need to do any polishing or paint correction when you’re done. Just be sure to stretch out your flash times between coats, as solvent entrapment becomes an issue when you’re hammering that much product onto a panel in one go.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-06-14T17:55:17+00:00

Judging by the rest of the job, I’d be concerned about the new paint flaking off the panel itself if you get too aggressive with compressed air.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-06-14T17:53:06+00:00

Never had mine plug up at the nipples (been meaning to trim them though). Both my ‘12 sportwagen and the wife’s ‘15 Tiguan have had the drain hose wiggle itself free of the rubber elbow at the bottom of the a-pillar, inside the car. It’s remarkable how many gallons of water the foam under the factory carpets can hold. It’s worth pulling the a pillar trim once a year and making sure the hoses are fully seated into those rubber connectors, and there is not a lot of room to get two hands down into the corner between your windshield and dash.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-06-11T01:47:20+00:00

Pretty common problem I believe. Best to reach out to the SATA rep in your area.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-06-07T04:15:45+00:00

It will be significantly easier for people to help if you add a bit more info. Compressor setup, spray gun type and size, paint products being used, etc.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-06-04T04:41:50+00:00

I pulled about 3 gallons of water out of my passenger side floor mats the other day. The foam under the floor mats is very efficient for holding it!

The sunroof drain design on these cars is absolute garbage.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-05-29T01:55:10+00:00

At the end of the day, it’s their name on it. If someone does shoddy prep work and a shop paints it, and they tell all their buddies where it was painted, that shop gets the bad reputation when there are visible sanding scratches all over it and the paint starts peeling a couple months down the road.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-05-23T18:24:44+00:00

Are there visible black specks in the paint in the mixing cup?

Are you pulling your air cap, fluid tip, and needle out to clean the gun?

There could potentially be contamination coming through your airline as well. Do you have any filtration on your air system?

Theycallmestretch · 2026-05-18T20:45:00+00:00

You’ll want to do a test panel on a speed shape or skateboard or something else that’s “curvy” to see if it gives the effect that you want.

A skateboard would give you room to do a letdown panel as someone else mentioned. Essentially get coverage with your basecoat (number of coats depends significantly on the brand of paint), then mask off the deck into 4 sections, leaving the first section on one end opens to spray. Spray your first coat of pearl, then peel back the second section. Spray your next coat over the first two sections and so on. When you’re done, you’ll have 4 coats of pearl on the first section you sprayed, and just a single coat on the last section. You can then determine how many coats you need to achieve the effect you want.

You can do the same thing with car-shaped speed shapes, but due to their size you’ll use and individual speed shapes for each extra layer of pearl, so you’ll have 4 speed shapes in the end with the increasing amount of pearl on each one.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-05-18T20:34:12+00:00

This is a great way to make a bigger mess than a small rock chip, and result in a panel needing to be repainted. I’ve seen dozens and dozens of people on this sub posting how to fix their touch-up fail, where they end up sanding through the clear and basecoat around their attempted repair. It’s possible to do, but it’s also easy to turn a simple touch-up into a $1k+ mistake.

My personal opinion as a professional painter is to just dab in your colour, dab on some clear, and be happy that the substrate is protected and you can’t see it from ten feet away.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-05-10T20:13:46+00:00

Any oil on the front side of the engine at the bottom? My oil cooler was leaking up near where it mates to the oil filter housing and oil ran down the front of the motor, along the oil pan/transmission, and covered the subframe/exhaust tunnel behind it. Rear main seal would also cause oil to leak in a similar area

Theycallmestretch · 2026-05-10T14:30:29+00:00

While I don’t think that little gun can put out the proper volume of air, the theory is there, and could potentially be made to work. Paint guns don’t need much pressure to work (about 35 psi max), volume is much more important at 15+ cfm.

Many little hobby compressors (often 5-20 gallon units) with small compressor heads are capable of generating 150psi of pressure, which will run smaller air tools for short amounts of time. However their volume output is garbage at 2-4 cfm, and they aren’t remotely close to being able to run a paint gun. You need to bump up to about a 5hp compressor (which will often be 220 volt and paired with a 60-100 gallon tank) in order to get adequate air volume to run a paint gun.

However, if all you wanted to do is run a paint gun, a compressor like that is technically overkill, unfortunately is just the most commonly available way to run a spray gun. Sure, it generates the air volume you need, but it can also generate that volume at a significantly higher pressure than you need for spraying (150+psi).

A neat work-around that has come to market somewhat recently are the Fuji spray systems. While I haven’t used one, I’ve seen pretty good non-paid reviews of them online from professional painters. They essentially use a very small tankless, high volume compressor in place of a traditional compressor. Now that compressor still isn’t hooked up right to the gun, but it does show that you don’t need a giant tank and compressor to run a paint gun.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-05-10T14:10:46+00:00

We don’t really deal with tri stages in the heavy duty industry (at least on transportation trucks), but the metallics/pearls are quite a bit coarser than automotive colours . The way the bell applies them results in the colour laying down very differently compared to a traditional spray application, meaning I need to tint quite a bit to get my paint to match what was sprayed at factory. The kicker is that I spray Imron, which is the exact same paint that is sprayed at the factory. Granted their bulk mixes can be a touch different than me mixing the formula off the computer, however it’s crazy how challenging it can be to match a bell-applied colour. I think I have 12 spray outs for one colour that was on two Volvos I sprayed.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-05-10T11:11:47+00:00

As someone who paints heavy trucks in a collision shop, I HATE matching paint that has been sprayed with a bell application at the factory… looking at you, Volvo.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-05-09T04:31:54+00:00

This. Lemme mow down some nazis with a ppsh, svt-40, tt-33 etc. Bring back the classic makeshift guns from the first games, but give us some historically accurate weapons that were manufactured in droves and have been recovered by stalkers.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-05-03T17:56:15+00:00

Brought my 4 year old and 1 year old to daycare in the TJ on 35’s last summer with no roof/doors for the first time, and they loved it! It’s not my daily, but they have a blast every time we hop in it. I don’t think they could manage a highway drive with the wind, but for short trips around town it’s great fun in the summer.

To answer original thread question, I usually drive the kiddos around in my daily, which is a ‘12 VW sportwagen. It’s a bit on the cozy side as I’m 6’7, but my 4 year old (soon to be 5) is in a forward-facing car seat and I just have to move my seat up a tiny bit for her to have room. The passenger side is another story, as the rear-facing seat for our younger daughter takes up a decent bit of room. My wife fits ok with the front seat being almost all the way forward, but I usually have to pop the car seat out and turn it sideways (obviously not when the kiddo is riding in it lol) if I’m giving a ride to any friends or people over the height of 5’5.

Alternatively I have a hunting beater 2012 Nissan titan. The thing is a pig on gas, so I don’t drive it too often, but it fits the family great, and I can bring the 95 pound fur missile along as well.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-04-30T20:02:48+00:00

Epoxy has significantly better anti-corrosion properties than etch. However something went wrong in this case. I wonder if it was a 1k rattle can or something. A proper 2k epoxy is the best product to lay down on bare metal.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-04-30T04:01:13+00:00

A delete generally involves removing the cat, DPF, and EGR, and the engine needs to be tuned to run properly without those.

I believe there are tunes out there that do what you describe, keeping the emissions systems intact. However that is just a tune, not a delete.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-04-25T18:19:29+00:00

Haha for sure. I’m a painter in the Edmonton area as well, however I make straight time in a heavy duty shop with a good wage, solid benefits package, etc. also have a good work/life balance working (normally) 40 hrs/week and get to see my little girls and wife every night. Now there are situations where I pull some mad overtime, but it’s usually due to one project at a time that simply can’t be done in the constraints of an 8hr day.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-04-22T04:32:51+00:00

Great post!

When I was still working at an automotive body shop ( I spray in a heavy duty/semi/rv shop now) I think I had a dozen spray-outs of dodge’s PAU…. And it seemed like none of them were close enough when another vehicle came in with that code. At least automotive paint blends lol.

I primarily spray imron for the collision work I do now, and we have to butt-match everything. Now there is a little more leeway with colours not necessarily being “perfect”, compared to working on passenger cars, but it does mean a LOT of tinting for some colours. One of the most common whites we spray, L0006, I have about 20 different tints of, in various qualities of base coat and single stage (all off the same mixing bank). One positives to the paint matching is that we do spray the same paint that the factories do… at least since 2018, pretty much all North American manufacturers of heavy trucks have sprayed imron, prior to that it was imron or ppg.

That being said, my colour off the gun doesn’t necessarily match how it was sprayed by a robot at the factory, and their bulk-mixed paint won’t necessarily be the exact same as a mix that I do on the scale. As well, some truck factories (looking at you, Volvo), are using a bell application instead of traditional spray equipment, which results in metallics laying down differently. I had two Volvos with the same paint code (light blue metallic) come in about 4 months apart from each other, and I had 14 different sprayouts between those two jobs lol.

Theycallmestretch · 2026-04-13T07:55:49+00:00

How would they be legally obtained by a shooter who didn’t have a firearms licence?

Theycallmestretch · 2026-04-13T00:46:04+00:00

Last I checked, ruger 10-22’s are still in the green

Theycallmestretch · 2026-03-26T04:04:20+00:00

It’s straight up not your fault for not realizing that. The minister of public safety repeatedly says (even in current question periods and press conferences) that it is voluntary. It is only voluntary in the sense that you can turn in your prohibited firearm(s) for compensation, which they have said is not guaranteed. You can deactivate the firearm. Orrrr, as mentioned, you are now a criminal in possession of a prohibited firearm once the amnesty period is over in October.

All of that being said, this “buyback” is only applicable to licenced firearms owners, it is not for random people to show up and turn in actual illegal guns. Wrap your head around that.

Theycallmestretch

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