The fiberglass fibers are increasingly beginning to show through, and I'd like to protect the top against further damage. What are people's favorite approaches to this?

I don't want to repaint the whole assembly, as then it'd make the rest of the faded truck look even worse if the top becomes too nice or too dark. Maybe some charcoal-colored coating? Not sure.

Open to suggestions!



Sun-beaten top

 

Repaint the whole truck?

 

The specifics of the original layup are going to be very hard to find!

the outer layer is your paint/pigment. Beneath this is a poly-vinyil-coat, under this is the gel coat. After that you get to the structure which is impregnated fiberglass.

Once this fiberglass is exposed it's a labor of love to even semi restore, you will not be able to restore the OEM texture 100%. What you can do is seal the impregnated glass in a 100% epoxy coating , this gives you back the gel coat. I'm not aware of any spray on PVC to restore the subsurface. On top of your seal you can apply your color of choice, however if it's this far "gone" you are going to wind up with a smooth surface and not the OEM faux leather texture (is, smooth finish vs textured)

A popular fix to this is a spray on like rhino® or line-x® which gives you a texture which is different than OEM but is not as much labor as the smoothie appearance (but you should still probably apply a new gel coat before hand)


Sorry man once the glass is exposed it's not restorable and its really down to loss mitigation.

 

It's looking more and more like a bedliner coating is the best option at this point. Now the question is: which have people used and been happy with?

My front runner coating is this one: , Rust-Oleum 248914 Truck Bed Coating Spray, 15 oz, Black.
Better/other options? From I read, the Line-X is a professionally applied thing that I can expect to be around $500 (likely more in my area), which is notably over the budget for this truck.

Past that, the plan is to wash thoroughly, dry, rough the surface where necessary with Scotchbrite pad, wipe clean with a damp rag or mineral-spirits-followed-by-alcohol, and then spray on the bed liner coating.

 

I'm on same boat (truck).
I don't care much about the texture. The coating on side of the cap is OK and over-spray from touching up the body indicates my Spraymax single-step rattle can job would work well. (https://www.spraymax.com/en/products/)

Corner of my top has exposed fiberglas, so I'm also looking for best option- durable, effective, low-cost protection for the fiberglas.
Would bedliner be more durable than regular paint? If it is AND IF I can find bedliner in red, I'm considering painting the side with Spraymax spraycan, then feathering with bediner on top.

 

Bedliner in red?

Here your options are:
"Read my lips" and "Lady in red"
http://www.monstaliner.com/forms/monstaliner_colors.htm

and here you can get "Red flame" (it sounds more masculine )
https://www.raptorcoatings.com/us/en...r#.Xxooz-exVPY

 

You shouldn't need to scotchbright any of it, it's not a hard polishes surface from.the factory or at this point where you have raw fiberglass exposed.

Iirc the kid sprayed mine. It's all worn off the horizontal surfaces for the most part. You won't get very good thickness with the spray. Get the rolling stuff by the gallo, you'll get better results, use multiple coats to build up a good coating.

That's probably going to run you close to or over half the line-x estimate once you get a good UV resistant sealer on top.

 

Q/A

No bedliner typically doesn't have any decent UV protection built in or a good sealant. This means you get yellowing/bleaching from UV. If I power wash mine it looks "OK" for a few days then starts to fade rapidly.

If it wasn't cracked and trashed from the roll over I would.. (See my first post!) Get several layers of an epoxy based paint sprayed to reseal the glass and add a good UV resistant clear coat or a commercial bed liner product applied.

 

Since the cap is fiberglas, I searched for paint for fiberglas and found "Wet Edge Topside Paint" used for top decks of fiberglas boats exposed to water, foot traffic and UV rays. here. I plan to use it on top corner and horizontal surface that gets rough use, and use my Spraymax paint code 3D7 for aesthetics on the more visible sides. How would I know if the two finishes would be compatible where they meet? Maybe it does not matter if one is already dry before the other section is applied?

 

"HIGH GLOSS" -- are you sure that's what you want? Too shiny for me.

 

It is not what Blueman :
Other option after the fiberglass repair: They removed the original hard top texture and they painted like the rest of the body, it looks better than the original.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...4runner-4x4-9/

 

I decided to go with the Rustoleum truck bed coating (black), and am pretty happy with the initial result. I do expect it to sun-fade over time, but even then I expect it to be better than it was as most of the horizontal gel-coat was gone. On the previously smooth surfaces (sides), it's now a bit sandpaper-like, but that helps balance against the rough finish where the gel-coat is missing.

My expectation is that it will sun-fade and need to be re-done every few years, but time will tell.

As for prep, I washed it with a standard car-washing soap, scrubbing aggressively with a plastic-bristle gong brush.



Before

After