Noob needs help - DIY Bed Liner, also MPG
 

Hi everyone,

Been poking around, seems like a really cool, supportive community. I hope some of you might be able to help me out. I did a search for this and couldn't find anything; forgive me if I didn't dig deep enough.

First off, my rig: 1980 20R, 134k miles (!), owned by a mechanic for 29 years, then a surfer for 3. The mechanic put a 5 speed in it, probably from around an '86. It's my daily driver. Starts great, runs great, and with the windows down it's better than air conditioning. My first truck, and I love it. My mom (who's 70 next year) said it fit me better than any other car I've ever had - I'm 32, and took that as a compliment.

Second, my knowledge base: I'm a handy guy and understand a fair amount of how things work, but auto mechanical knowledge is pretty limited. I've changed my own oil and would happily change a starter or brakes. I'm not afraid to get dirty and will follow a manual carefully. However, I have very limited tools and nowhere to lift the truck or really work on it extensively.

The bed has some fairly large rust spots. Nothing has rusted through, but I'm worried it's just going to get worse. Having never had to deal with a truck bed before, I'm unsure what the best way to handle this is. Also, I'm a professional musician, so I'm on a pretty serious budget. I was thinking of sanding it down, slapping on some rustolium, then laying down a DIY bed liner, but I'm not sure if that's the best option, and if it is, I have no idea what the best liner option is and how to get the best bang for my buck. So, first question: anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with/stop the rust in my bed? Second question: should I put in a DIY bedliner? If so, which one do you recommend, assuming I'm trying to keep cost down?

Here's my tack-on question: I'm getting around 16 mpg, combined city/hwy. Any little things I can do to try and boost that a bit? Or should I just suck it up until I can afford a complete engine overhaul? I've had it suggested I get a compression check, but it seems all that will do is tell me how it's doing - if the compression isn't great, there's not a ton I can do about that, right?

Thanks for hanging in on a long post from a total newbie. And advice is welcomed, and sarcastic remarks are appreciated - it's my favorite kind of humor.

-Mark

P.S. One of my singing groups (I'm a classical singer) did a photo shoot recently, and a few shots were in my rig. I'll come back tomorrow and post one of them!

Not a fan of the DIY bedliners. They eventually come up in sheets. I'd sand down the rust spots and just put some Rustomleum on it. If you use a primer don't leave it uncoated as primer absorbs moisture and will just promote rust more.

Might be best to think about doing a tune-up if you don't know when the last one was done.

Welcome to Yotatech :D

:wabbit2:

I agree with waskillywabbit, I am not a big fan of the DIY Bed Liners either. I have a Degree in Auto Body Repair and i have done a couple of the DIY Spray in bed Liners. They came out pretty good but they are not very durable and it is a lot of work. i recommend you save your money and get it done by a Professional.

X3, Sand the rust and prep it good and then throw a blanket of rustomleum on it. I,m not a fan of either DIY bed liners or plastic ones. I also love my cold AC :laugh:

Welcome to Yotatech

I would sand it down then go over the rust with a product called OSPHO link here www.OSPHO.com you can buy it at ACE, Home Depot, etc. i've used it and it works great. Just follow the instructions on the bottle and paint over after words. It is fairly cheap and will last you a good amount of time. Good Luck!

I sell Al's liner on the side here locally so have some decent experience with that particular bed liner. and if you do the prep work right I've never had any problems. It also is normally put down at 3/16ths thick. I'll post some photos of mine and a bronco that have had some wear soon. I would definitely clean it of rust with naval jelly or something similar then use some POR 15 or something on it. If you trapped moisture in there with bedliner or any paint it would accelerate the problem.

Wow, everyone, thank you for the help! Wabbit and Mike, I think you've convinced me not to go with a DIY liner - I've looked at Al's Liners before, Ant, and while I'm sure it's a great product, I suspect it's probably too much work for me to reliably do to get it right. I'll plan on sanding it down and make my choice between Rustolium and Ospho at that point. I don't think it's moisture trapped under paint; I suspect it's just age and sitting outside. And Ksti - it was 88 here in San Diego today, which is really really hot for us. AC worked great :).

As promised, here is the photo of my a capella jazz group in our fancy duds posing with my rig. I think she wears dressed up pretty good.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...TruckPhoto.jpg

Thanks again for all the help - any other thoughts are welcome, as are any thoughts on mpg. I'll tune her up this week and post any results. Thanks!

hey bud just wanted to say nice truck but i just put in a herculiner diy bedliner you can get a gallon of it for about a hundred bucks in black. I have only had it on for about a two weeks but so far i love it. What i did was get one of the wire bushes you put in a drill and used that to scuff of the bed really good a few spots on the bed rails were rusted so i just used that to get it down to bar metal. I blew the whole thing out with an air hose scuffed it some more and blew it out again. After that i went to lowes and got a gallon of xyolene I think thats what its called. I wiped the bed down with that two or three times to make sure I got all of the paint particles and other junk and stuff out. Let that dry taped up where i didn't want the bed liner to go and bushed on the corners and rolled on the floor. I let that dry for a few hours basically baked it in the sun. After about 5 or 6 hours put the second coat on let that bake in the sun for the rest of the day then just let it sit for about two days and so far looks great. The truck looks so much better and it was nice to be able to add just a little something to the truck. I can put up a few pics if you would like. Again haven't had it on very long and haven't loaded anything in the bed to see how well it stands up but it works for me.