I've put it off for so long, that I'm starting to have a few small holes from rust in the bed -- maybe dime sized? just a couple. My question is will line x fill or go over these?? If not what needs to be done to have the liner installed properly? If it does go over the holes, will they keep rusting from the underside and get bigger??

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

 

i had some rust in my bed once i took that plastic linder out. the line-x guy told me i need to have paint or at least primer on it before he can do it

 

im actually facing this same issue. what im planning to do is cut 1 inch of metal beyond the edges of the rust, wire brush the entire underside, then lay some fiberglass cloth over the holes. grind it down to level it off then use a herculiner kit. I dont use my bed like a bed so the fiberglass wont be a problem. not to mention the hole i have is in the front of the bed near the cab.

also i will be using a "rust killer" product available from tractor supply and a 1.6 gallon hand sprayer. wire brush the underside spray the rust killer and 72 hours later unload about 14 cans of duplicolor truck bed coating. Should solve my problems for about 5-6 years. (the rust killer is in the paint department near the paint solvents and caulk)

the sprayer was 10$ and the gallon jug of rust killer was 22$ so for under 40$ with about 3 hours of work i should be able to do what Ziebart wants 400$ to do.
here is the sprayer and rust kutter.

 

yea all i did was grind the rust down to the shiny metal, prime it and put white paint over top of that. didnt have to be pretty since line-x is going right on to it

 

I really like the rust cutter idea -- how are you planning to really get under the bed and scrape off the rust?? Most of the time i've spent under my truck has been on the engine side, and I can't really picture what it looks like under the bed.. Is it a straightforward thing?

So I think what I will end up doing is cutting out the rust holes, and having someone weld sheet metal over them, then having the liner sprayed in. THen I will definatly be doing the rust cutter treatment. I would love to get another 5 years out of my truck, and these VT winters (and summers as they salt my dirt road) are really working against me.

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it.

 

after several visits to body shops i was told in many cases to fix my hole the bed would have to be removed. most shops didnt even want to talk about it as it is not seemingly an "easy" fix. the ones that did offer to fix it were quoting me upwards of 500$.

the rust kutter is easy, you dont even need to scrape or sand the rust off. it needs rust for it to work. Just peel off any large flakes you see and spray away. I just got done spraying my truck a few minutes ago, the 1 gallon lasted me about 4 trips around the truck. with the sprayer i used that gallon lasted a LONNNNGGG time. One thing to bear in mind about the rust kutter is that it stops the oxidation process. it wont remove the rusted metal, it just stops it from getting worse. In a day or two i can start spraying the truck bed coating underneath. the bottle says you can do a coat every hour or just unload the whole bottle (what i did) then wait about 72 hours to paint.

 

Wow, that's a little bit nuts.. I just want someone to weld a like a 4x4" piece of scrap over 2 holes. I can't imagine it be more than 50 bucks. Maybe I should go to a metal shop.

So let me just clarify -- your spraying the rust kutter, then doing the duplicator bed coating on the underneath of the bed, right? THen you are also going to paint the underneath - or am I getting this wrong. Did you end up wire brushing the underside of the truck before you sprayed the kutter on, or did you just remove the big flakes?

Thanks for the help!

 

there werent any big flakes except around the hole. they came off pretty easily. I sprayed the rust kutter this morning and will prolly be spraying the truck bed coating tomorrow. I used an entire gallon on my truck, but i sprayed every accessable inch of metal underneath the truck. i even sprayed the rear end and the square stock supports under the bed. Pretty much it turned everything black with some white spots here and there. it kinda looks like salt on black boots.

All i am going to do with this project is spray the rust kutter, let it work for a day and spray about 6 cans of truck bed coating underneath.
heres what the coating looks like when i sprayed my lower valance.


as for the body work my rust hole is about 4 inches long and 2 inches wide. because of the design of the bed its tough to just weld in a piece. beds arent smooth so your best bet would be to take a portable cutter to a junk yard (or ask them to cut it for you) and cut out a piece that you need from a wrecked pickup, almost any truck bed will do. lay it over top of the area you cut out. the donor piece will need to be atleast an inch larger than the hole you cut for it to work. if you look closely at the bed -underneath- there are actually seams where the bed is held together. If the rust is in the seams you will have to cut out large portions of it to be sure you got the rust out. think of rust like cancer for metal and this rust cutter like chemotherapy.

some side notes on the rust kutter. Wear eye and face protection. a dust mask and "shop class" saftey goggles at least. this stuff is pretty rank smelling and probibaly is not very healthy for you to breathe. the sprayer i got made it pretty easy to reach anything i needed without crawling underneath the truck.

i'll post up some pics on how things look tomorrow.

 

if it were me id grind the rust off. and put some masking tape over the holes and get er sprayed

 

Man, why go budget like that?? Atleast step it up to duct tape and hot glue

 

hi everybody,

i didn't do any rust proofing before line X and now my tailgate has rust coming through the line X. Its not something that is absolutely killing me but do you think there is a way to cure it?

thanks for any ideas

John