I am very interested in Herculining my aluminum diamond plated toolbox as well as my side steps. Anyone have any experience with Herculiner.

Is there any thing I should be aware of or and extra steps that may be beneficial before using Herculiner?

 

I have used Herculiner on two different truck beds now. The second one I knew things I didnt with the first. Herculiner is a GREAT product. Prep is the key, a good prep job is 95% of the whole job. Follow the instructions just like they say and it will work great. You should wipe everthing down with acetone once its scuffed, and the kit doesnt come with that. You also wanna wear clothes that you can throw away or dont care if they are stained black. Wear rubber gloves. Let it set in the right temp for the amount of time it says. I plan to take my plastic bed liner out this summer and do the Herculiner.

 

i have been wanting to use that stuff in my bed too. i was wondering how many cans does it take to do a 8 foot bed and the bed rails and i want it kinda thick?

 

i did my 6.6 bed with a little more than half a gallon so one gallon should deffintly cover the entire bed. As stated above prep is everything, i sanded my bed down to bare metal then wiped it down with acetone and then went to town with the herculiner. One coat was great and never peeled then the following summer i hit it with a second coat and its great saved myself about 500 dollars. The only thing is it fades quickly, If you care you could paint over it with rustoleum black to help the fading but i would say go for it.

 

Look into U-pol Raptor, from the research I've done it seems better than herculiner. It has a UV protectant and you can spray it on.

 

How well does this stuff hold up on plastic? I have some Expy running boards that I want more traction on. Would this stuff stick?

Also, does it do well on vertical surfaces? Like doing my rocker panel?

 

I did the entire inside of my 8' BassTracker fishing boat and it's held up great. I've done numerous trucks with Herculiner, and if you prep well, it will last

 

According to Herculiner's specifications, it's 72% solids. That means that for every gallon, 72% is actual bediner and the rest (28%) is solvents that evaporate away. Taking that into account, here's a modified formula you can use:

Square feet x mils /576 = gallons of herculiner needed.

Note that 125 mils is 1/8".

So, say you have 10 square feet and you want to have a 1/8" coating:

10 x 125/576 = 2.17 gallons of herculiner.

An 8 ft bed truck has roughly 92 square feet, if you want 1/8" everywhere, you will need about 20 gallons.

Obviously, you are not going to buy 20 gallons, that's why most do-it-yourself bedliners that are a gallon or two gets you a slip resistant surface, but not really a "bedliner".