MY 1989 JEEP YJ RESTORATION JOURNEY

TASK THREE - TUB LINER

I knew early on that I didn't want to replace the old, dirty carpet with new carpet.  For one carpet holds on to dog hair and sand forever and since we like to take Teddy to the dog beach we needed an alternative.  I wanted something that could be hosed off with little effort without the sand scratching it up.  I really liked the idea of having a spray in bed liner installed but the price was out of my budget so I settled for a D.I.Y. roll on Bed Liner.  The following is the process I used.

This is the brand I used mostly out of necessity and impatience.  I had researched and found other brands with better reps but everywhere I went to locally either didn't sell it or were all out of stock.  

The pros to this brand were that they also sold an aerosol version which not only made those hard to reach areas easier but will also make touchups and maintenance easy. It was also less expensive than some of the other brands.

The cons however was that it seamed a bit thinner than I expected.  This however can be remedied with more coats I suppose and to be fair I have never used any of the other brands so I guess I can't give a fair comparison.  All in all I think it came out pretty good.

The first step is to remove the old dingy carpet.  It comes up pretty easily as it is mainly held onto with Velcro and what ever is attached to the Jeep from above the carpet (i.e. the Seats).  I used a utility knife to break up the carpet into manageable sections.

Here is what it looked like after the carpet was removed...

I then cleaned out the garbage before continuing on...

The next step was to remove everything that attached to the floor except the roll bar (too much work).  This includes seats, seatbelts, (a console if you have one) any footman loops you have.  This took the better part of a day and most of a can of PB Blaster.  After you get all the hardware off don't forget the drain plugs also.  After all what good is a hoseable tub if you have no place for the water to drain.

The next step was to wash and degrease the tub.  I used zep formula 505 Heavy duty cleaner and degreaser for the degreasing part.  

It worked so well I sprayed a bunch on the door panels and did a little bit of a wipe down.  Looks like if I spend a little time on them I can have them looking good as new.  I can probably get them pretty clean when I take them off (passenger side doesn't always shut the first time so I need to look inside anyway).

After a thorough cleaning I began scuffing the tub.  First with the scuff pad to knock off the shine and then with some 220 sandpaper on any rough spots or minor rust areas.  

After another cleaning and wipe down I let it sit overnight to make sure it was nice and dry...but of course this is south Florida so it rained over night.  The next morning I sopped up the majority of the water and let the hot morning sun finish it off while I plugged the bolt holes that I wanted to keep and tape & paper around the edges and roll bars.

However I forgot to take a picture before I started painting...

I started by using an aerosol can to get the hard to reach areas and the corners.  This seemed a lot easier than if I would have used the paint brush that came with the kit.  After that I rolled on my first coat of liner.  

This should be a thin layer just to get a good coat.  Here is how it looked after the first coat...this is also the point that I realized I forgot to sand the tailgate.

You need to let the first coat dry for an hour before you can get back in and continue working so I figured this would be a great time to work on the bumpers and spare tire mount.  A little sand paper and a can of Rustoleum later and I think they came out great.  ...oh yeah and a rotted wind breaker works great as a drop cloth for small projects.

(I know I put the bumpers on upside down but it was too hot that day to change them so the stayed that way for a few days.)

Here is my "finished" look after a few more coats.  I will probably use the little bit I had left to put an extra layer on the high traffic areas.  I saved some to make sure I had enough to do the tailgate but saved more than I needed.

This is a real easy project it just takes time but the payoff is incredible.  Save yourself some money and do it yourself for an easy upgrade that cost under a $100 and that was also including cleaner, sandpaper, and scuff pads. 

Update...

Some people asked me about running the electrical wires without a carpet to hide it under...here is what I did...

I protected the wires with split loom sleeve...

And tucked it under the lip of the tub.  You can't even see it.