Took my pickup to the car wash last week, and a couple days later I noticed the paint on the driver's side rocker panels was chipping off. After looking closer, I realized the paint had been chipped off and (poorly) painted back over by the previous owner. I looked around on here for some ideas and came across the Herculiner Rocker Panels thread, so I took some pictures & did a quick photoshop to see what it might look like. I think I like it! I have a 4-day weekend next week for Thanksgiving, so I'm planning on doing it then. Here are some pictures of the damage, and a before & after (photoshop) pic. Thoughts?

I had another idea I'm going to kick around before I do this: If I could get some type of adhesive 'TOYOTA' sticker that would stretch about the length of the cab but be short enough to only cover the rocker panels, how freakin' cool would it be to do 2 coats of Herculiner, put the adhesive on, and do 2 more coats? It would create a ghost 'TOYOTA' image in the rocker panels! Going to have to look into this a bit before I do the work.

 

to make the Herculiner stick make sure you spend the time to adequately prepare the surface..poorly done it doesn't bond well at all...First time I did it, it sucked...and looked like i did it half ass..

 

Should look good once its done, looking forward to see how it comes out.

 

I did the same thing on my old Dodge Ram. This product is awful! It looked great for about a month and then color faded really bad and looked terrible. I didnt do a good enough job of wire brushing the bed so it peeled after a while. In my opinion use another product... Hurculiner sucks! good luck

 

P.S. It looked great when I first put it on, dark black... then became more of a faded grey very quickly.

 

dammit...i already bought a quart,i was gonna do mine too.

 

I don't have any pictures but my son did it to his 85 Hilux. The black on white is a good contrast. We'll see if it fades over time. My opinion is that wouldn't matter because the liner was put on for a purpose, not effect. I expect it to be abused as it is designed for.

 

It doesnt really serve a purpose when it peels off... I dont mean to be a "Debbie Downer" about this, its just that I spend a lot of time with my project and was very disappointed with the outcome over time. I hope you have better results than I did.

 

I'll be doing this very same thing on mine pretty soon. I don't think one should knock the product and in the very same sentence admit that they didn't prep the surface adequately. They also have a UV topcoat to keep it from fading. I was quoted $800 from LineX to do this, so doing it yourself for $50 and knowing you did it right sounded like a MUCH better idea to me.

 

You get what you pay for. Good luck with your project... post some pics on how it turns out

 

A couple posts in the other Herculiner thread mentioned cleaning it with Diesel fuel to make it shine again. There were a few other tips, but I'll have to go back and re-read it since I don't remember. If I wasn't on my phone I'd link it here. Will do that later in case anyone is interested. What do you recommend for prep? Anything beyond the directions for the product itself, or just make sure you spend the time necessary? Will definitely be posting Before & Afters!

 

Oh I forgot to mention; about 2 days after I decided to do this, I drove by the Roseville Auto Mall and they had a '12 Tacoma TRD, Phite with bedliner (probably Line-X or similar) on the rocker panels. Oh my gosh I almost cried, it was SO beautiful! I'll try and get a picture to show you guys. Its freakin' GORGEOUS!

 

(Need an 'Edit' button on the mobile site) - *White*, not Phite.

 

Now tell me this isn't one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen... (Sorry for the crappy pic it's on a road with nowhere decent to stop for long enough to get a good shot).

 

Hey man, You should look into Al's Bed Liner... its available at 4 wheel pars off el camino. Its a pretty bad ass product and is UV resistant. It also comes in a variety of colors ( obviously you want black ). i've never used it before, but its what others usually use when doing their entire vehicle. I think it runs about 100 bucks a gallon and comes with a spray and a roller. I'd give it a try if I were you!

just be sure to sand/prep the area and apply.

 

I'll check that out, thanks! Everything I've read on here about folks doing their rocker panels suggests that a quart is more than enough. I'll look into the Al's stuff!

I definitely plan to sand the crap out of the area. I don't want it to peel off a month later because I was too lazy to prep it correctly!!

*EDIT* - It looks like the Al's stuff doesn't have as rough of a texture, which sounds preferable over Herculiner. You can get a rubber chip additive if you want more aggressive texture, but for Rocker Panels I think a bit less texture would be better. Thanks for the heads-up on that!

 

Here's a link to it. They're actually on sale right now.

http://www.4wheelparts.com/Car-Care-...t_pn=ALSALS-BL

 

I saw this done on a 1st gen 4runner at Yosemite once - it was white - the contrast looked great!

 

Yeah I'm thinking the black on white is going to look pretty cool. Here's another question: I can't decide if I should go to the bottom of the Reveal above the rocker panels, or maybe 2"-3" below it. Here's a couple Photochops. Thoughts?

 

Well I finally got her all masked off & sanded today. Herculiner is going on tomorrow! Will be sure to post some After pics!