New owner of a 1997 Subaru Sambar with 4500 original miles on it, just waiting on the registration to get here and then we'll be on the road for real! Have changed distributor cap rotor plugs wires fuel filter oil filter air filter wiper blades side view mirrors so far. Plan on getting the bed rhino lined or something equivalent, and possibly painting it world rally cross Subaru blue and having the rims painted the same gold color that the rally car uses, but that's down the road. Excited to be part of the community!
Welcome, Drew. Are you planning to line the bed yourself? I'm using a product called Herculiner in the bed of my Suzuki. It's available from Lowe's and Tractor Supply. I've done the sides and tailgate but I'm still patching some rust in the bed. I can't yet vouch for the durability of the product, but it certainly looks good. I'll post photos here soon when I'm finished. Kevin in Wilmington, NC
Thank you for the welcome Kevin, not quite sure if I'm going to do it myself or I'm going to have somebody professionally do it, I've used the off-the-shelf bedliner before and it's just not as thick and durable as when you have somebody spray it on, like rhino line or bullet liner, I'll get quotes from the professionals to see how much they want and if it fits into my budget I'll do that if not I'll get the one off Amazon
I have had some experience with herculiner. We sometimes use it on aluminum gas tanks in boats to help with corrosion prevention. Unfortunately when there is a gas leak, it peals the liner right off. So I’m not sure about durability, but not very good with chemicals.
Thanks for the info. I've already started with the Herculiner so I'll continue with that and hope for the best. Other than maybe the chainsaw leaking gas on it, I wouldn't expect it to be exposed to chemicals. Time will tell. Kevin in NC
I had some big drops of Herculiner stuck to the bed when I used it as a workbench coating the sides and tailgate. This morning, I put some 89 octane, non-ethanol gasoline on a few of them and sure enough, it softens the Herculiner. Left alone for a couple of hours, it hardens back up. Oh well, too late... I already spent the hundred bucks for the kit so I'll go ahead and finish it. I'll just have to be careful when I'm hauling a gas can, chainsaw, etc in the back. Kevin in NC
What we noticed, just last week, on an aluminum fuel tank we painted with herculiner about 9 months ago, it had a small leak at the filler hose. ( nice sentence structure). Where the gas got on the liner it got almost brittle and peels right off. So yeah, be careful. I checked on Line-x and they wanted $1000 to do my truck. I’ll pass. I’d rather use herculiner and have to redo it multiple times.
I used Raptor Liner 2K and was very pleased on both vehicles with the outcome. Just scuff up the surface with an orbital sander, use adhesive promoter and then spray away.
I even did my chrome bumpers and steps on my F-150 and they’ve held up great over 2 years. The direction to shoot from 18” away sounds counter intuitive, but that’s the right distance to get the material to lay smoothly.
That stuff is garbage. Use raptor liner. Get it off Amazon. It's actually amazing. Comparable to a factory bed liner.
That’s what I did. I checked everywhere and Amazon has the best price. I used 1 can of adhesion promoter and 5 cans of 2K on my mini. Watch and inspect your spray patterns as it’s easy to leave a light spot here/there. Scuff, adhesion promoter, shoot from 18”.
I may redo my bumpers with this stuff. The plastidip on the bumpers doesn't deal well with scrapes, tends to be too soft. @CVP33 How do the F150 steps deal with being stepped on and so forth? Looks good from the pics.
What a coincidence…..I plasti-dipt my bumpers first and had issues within 6 mos. Raptor liner is WAAAAAYYYYYY better and the steps have held up well.
Thanks for the advice, but too late. I already did the bed with the Herculiner. I'll use it as is and if/when it fails, I'll do something different. Kevin in NC
@CVP33 I'm going to do my bumpers (front and back) with Raptor liner. Is the 2 can kit of 2K enough or should I splurge for the 4 can kit?
