Prepping for Paint
Once the sliders arrived we prepped them for paint and primer using a scotchbrite pad and some simple green. The clean metal provides a tacky surface for the primer and paint to stick to. Following up with Dupli-Color foaming prep cleaner that had an oddly pleasant citrus smell. The fumes from the cleaner aren’t bad but huffing enough of it in a closed space would probably be like the time Curious George opened the bottle of ether. With that done we moved the sliders outside with painters tarps down and hoisted the sliders on a couple sets of jackstands. Two cans of primer provided enough to coat the bare metal on both sides and created tackier surface for the bedliner to adhere to.
We ordered the sliders bare metal as it decreased our ship to us delivery date which was important with the looming Phoenix summer approaching. If you haven’t had the experience of wrenching on a vehicle in a 100+ degree garage we highly suggest you avoid it if possible. To protect the slider and create a tackier surface with the ability to touch up damage ourselves we went with Duplicolor Premium Truck Bed Coating. This is not to be confused with Duplicolor’s other product called Bed Armor.
Why the two different products; we are unsure but the internet is always right and we read about more favorable reviews on the Premium Truck Bed Coating. As an added benefit the Truck Bed Coating has the more user friendly trigger delivery .vs a push button that gets fatiguing after lengthy application sessions. To fully prepare our sliders before applying the bedliner we also purchased Dupli-Color’s multipurpose foaming prep cleaner and their 2n1 multi purpose filler sandable primer.
Toyota Tacoma Rock Sliders
Things were going great and the bedliner was going on well with light coats and after it had enough time to dry we flipped the sliders over to apply on the other side and tragedy struck. One of the nozzles on the bedliner can was mangled and it sprayed bedliner out in blobs on the already wet layer that was down. The result was a mess and a lesson to always test spray first before spraying the object your painting. The blobs were wiped off leaving the primer exposed underneath. Luckily the damage was only on one slider towards the back kickout and while we let every four letter word fly twice this step actually proved to be a good lesson for how to touch up future damage.
4 comments
I wonder if the dimple die would be better if it were punched the other way? Giving you some potential extra grip when stepping?
Neat upgrade. I love the aspect of no more door dings, that alone makes them worth every dollar spent!
As it is the configuration works because the bed liner is tacky enough as long as you’ve got some tread on your shoes. I’ve seen your idea incorporated on other types of steps or metal stairs to create an anti-slip surface.
I always had the worst luck with spray cans, either spraying too close and getting runs or too far and the paint would dry before it hit the surface. I did some research and, once I found out about heating the cans up in hot water before spraying, it became much easier to get good results.
My friend swears by this and gets great results.