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$11 Bed Lined TJ Grill

7K views 31 replies 17 participants last post by  rossd14 
#1 ·
So I'd been rolling around the idea of lining my grill for a few reasons. 1, it was a bit dinged up from road debris & radioactive Florida mosquitos. 2, I kinda wanted it to match the bed lined front fenders the previous owner had done. And 3, I just wanted to be different.

So plan A was to just do flat primer/paint. But then I realized I'll be applying 6-8 coats of flat black, then just as much if not more clearcoat. Y'know since the grill gets beat up everyday. So I decided to go with bed liner.

$10.XX for the liner @ Oreilly's, $.75 for the newspaper, $11.00 for the craft brew, I already had the blue tape.


Here's how she started before disassembly and masking


I took out the headlight bezels, and took off the sway bar cover, to find this.


Wire brush, sand paper, & Rustoleum "Rust Reformer", I'm back on track


I covered up the headlights, did a small amount of masking, and went at it with an entire sheet of 180 grit.


It really shocked me how thin the factory paint and primer really were, and how quickly I made it down to bare metal.


I then windexed the grill to get the bulk of the powder off. Then I used rubbing alcohol to clean it all, until I stopped getting powder blue off. Then, apply newspaper!


When you're taping, take your time. I found my self hurrying, and started over. The better job you do taping, the better this is gonna turn out. I'll spare you all my spraying methods, because honestly, I'm pretty bad at it. Shake can for 2 mins, hold 4-6 inches away, blah blah blah...

1 coat, wow... this sh*t is thick.


3 coats, wow... this sh*t is sticky.


5-8 coats, I lost count. Probably stoned on fumes by now, halfway though 6 pack too. Can is empty, I guess I'm done spraying.


Because of the thickness of this stuff, it takes a while to set up. It's got the consistency of roofing tar, kind of. But this is a good thing. I took a nylon/plastic bristle brush and tapped the bristles over my mistakes. Pretty much masked them right in the spayed texture. I think I actually smiled, it worked so well. Well, that and the fumes...


I let it sit for awile, 20-30 mins, let the dogs out, cleaned some tools up. Then I began peeling. You'll see here where I stopped masking.






So there it is. I'm a little anxious to get this baby out in the sun today. I feel it's gonna show all my mistakes better than the florescent lights in the garage did. I'm a bit hungover this morning, I blame the fumes, not my drinking:cheers:

Oh, and my gf is screaming at me that if I'm gonna do this stuff, I need to wear a mask. I've blown bed liner out of my nose 3 times already. Might wanna wear a mask. Hope this helps. Happy Jeeping!
 
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#10 ·
Indeed. That's usually the case. Being from Maryland(close enough to DE), Dogfish is a staple in my diet. If you haven't already, check out "Flying Dog", specifically their "Raging B*tch IPA". It's outta Frederick Maryland. It's basically brain sex...

Oh, and thank you very much!
 
#17 ·
Thank ya much. They're TrailGear rocker guards, and Rugged Ridge corner armor. The rockers are a matte finish, and the corners are gloss. I'm thinking about bedlining all of them to match not only themselves, but the grill/fenders. That would look nice...:D

Oh, and she's for sale!!!
 
#18 ·
Nice rig and nice write up. Thinking about this myself.
BTW - got myself a set of TG rocksliders also but not in yet. Can't decide if I want to put the gasket between them and the body. Did you use a gasket or not? What would you recommend?
Thanks
 
#22 ·
Thank you guys. Bad news, a buyer is coming to pick it up Thursday afternoon. Good news, I'm gonna pay off a substantial amount of debt. I'm gonna miss it. Kinda glad he's taking it outta state, that way I don't have to see it rolling around town. From what I understand it'll have a nice new home in the mountains of West Virginia. Well suited if ya ask me.
 
#24 ·
Thanks for the idea, it worked out great for me.

Just a note, the oreillys stuff you suggested is the shiznit!! I ran out of the can I had and decided to use the rustoleum bedliner I had on hand and it was nowhere near as thick and awesome as the oreillys. Needles to say, I ground off the rustoleum when she dried, and went with the good stuff.

Thanks again for the tip,

Dave Zee
 

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#31 ·
Thanks for the idea, it worked out great for me.

Just a note, the oreillys stuff you suggested is the shiznit!! I ran out of the can I had and decided to use the rustoleum bedliner I had on hand and it was nowhere near as thick and awesome as the oreillys. Needles to say, I ground off the rustoleum when she dried, and went with the good stuff.

Thanks again for the tip,

Dave Zee
you make that bumper? it looks awesome!
 
#28 ·
Yes. I had the carpet ripped out in mine, bed lined entirely. It was great, I'd clean it with a bucket and a scrub brush. And yes, WEAR A MASK.

Really glad this is helping everyone so much. Thanks again for the compliments.
 
#29 ·
Couple of things:

1) I have used brush/roll in liner in the past, and that duplicolor spray looks MUCH better than the texture I got. It looks really good.

2) Your masking paid off - the lines looks very good and very clean. Well done!

3) I like the clover. I had been thinking of a way to get some Ink with my kids' names in it, and yours just greatly inspired me. :)
 
#30 ·
Thank you much. When I was masking the first time around, I caught myself rushing. So I ripped it all off & started again. Be sure to line behind the grill, too. That takes a little finger work(that's what she said). I used the entire can on the grill alone. I figured it couldn't be "too thick", but it could definitely be too thin.

Thanks! My brother and I got these Thanksgiving day back about 10 years ago. Same tattoo, same spot. It actually came off of a Flogging Molly album cover. Needles to say we forewent the "FLOGGING MOLLY" text. Glad it inspired you!

 
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