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Line-X the hell out of everything?

K

K5dreamer

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Ok, so my truck is smashed up and the body is rusty as hell. there are spots in the front floorboards, and rear bed area that you can see the road through, the passenger side rocker panel is nearly non-existant, the front wheel well liners have big holes in the back side, and the rear wheel wells on the quarter panels have big, nasty bondo spots that are rusting through. oh and the tailgate is indeed cracked on both sides and rusting.

point being... at this point, im questioning the logic of spending money to repair this body, and may look at finding a 73-75, low rust body to swap in its place. So heres my deal. before i mount the body, im most likely going to want to line-x the whole underside, and the inside of the tub. but why stop there? instead of painting my axles when i build em up, figured id line-x those as well, so they are easier to clean off and keep lookin good. hell maybe the trans and tcase as well. of course id hook up coolers for these as ive heard even painting these, let alone line-x coating them, causes more heat build up and possible damage. this would ultimately be the NV4500/NP205/203 setup.

thoughts? cautionary tales? stories about bein nekked? and most important.... anyone know about one of those 73-75 bodies with limited cancer available on the cheap??
 
Talk to colby about a swap like this. Believe he has a full vert body on his 80's frame.

As far as Line-Xing it goes, I'd say go for it. Not going to be cheap though. However if you could take the whole body off and have it on a rotisserie or something it'd be a great way to protect it forever. You'd also have to make sure they got the stuff in EVERYWHERE including the backs of the rockers and the like.

I'd almost consider doing what 73k5 did and get a fiberglass body. He even had his Line-X'd afterward. That sucker won't ever rust out for sure!
 
are you going to take this to a linex place or pick up some stuff to do it yourself. this will be PRICEY but other than that it will protect you alot better.
 
I was debating doing it myself. i used to do undercoating at a chevy dealership as my first job way back in the day. figure if i get the sprayer and the stuff, ive got a good steady hand. dont have a rotissery though.

I did remember the fiberglass body bit, but not looking to spend THAT much money. i enjoy having both my kidneys. the body alone was like $4500 right? if not more? didnt think it would be too expensive if i did the actual spraying myself, but i havent priced out anything yet, i knew it would be majorly expensive to pay to have it done.

really, the most daunting part price wise, will be transport. i live on the east coast, so a low rust, or rust free mid 70's anything is a laughable prospect. so ill probably wind up having to go out west. and either going out to pick it up, or having it shipped, is gonna be the expensive part.

At this point im debating just pulling the 6.2 out of the BIGGRIZ and just gettin something else. but i feel sick everytime i roll that thought around cuz i LOVE the big lug. and despite it all, it drives just fine. still hauled loads of wood up to the roof out to the cabin and drove back.
 
Line x is only good until you scratch it. Then you are screwed, it rusts really fast. Any bed liner for that matter.

I would do line x on the underbody but not on axles or t-cases or anything else. Hard to touch up yourself. Can be expensive to repair and if its DIY stuff it sometimes is very hard to get it to stick to itself
 
The Linex would not be great on anything that had a chance of getting scratched. Plus you'd have to remove every bit of grease or oil from the body to have the coating stick.

I've heard that those oil spray coatings are the best rust prevention coatings on the underside of the body and frame. I haven't had it done (or needed it) so I can't speak from experience. But if you look at anything under the truck that's had oil on it, you'll notice the oil keeps it pretty well protected.
 
$8500?!?!?! :eek1:

christ on a stick, yeah, thats a no go.

Im really surprised about the line-x being easy to scratch, i thought that preventing scratches and rust was the whole point of the bedliners? maybe im thinking of rhino liner, or something like that, thats designed to take a beating. I thought they were using Line-x to bomb proof rooms, maybe it was something else.

what about POR-15 as a preventative coating, rather than a rust cover up? dont they advertize that by coating a pipe, and beating it with a hammer, and the coating dosnt flake or chip off? gotta look at how god auwful expensive that would be.
 
K5dreamer said:
Im really surprised about the line-x being easy to scratch, i thought that preventing scratches and rust was the whole point of the bedliners?
Click to expand...

It's not that they scratch easier than any other urethane/epoxy type coating. But it does scratch or peel if a rock impacts it, a wrench slips and gouges it, or if the underlying metal is dented after it's applied. Lots of the bedliners require a base coat of primer or paint and cannot be applied over bare steel so you have to rely on the base coatings ability to adhere as well.

There's probably nothing wrong with applying those coatings to the frame, it's just that there are much less costly solutions if all you are trying to do is prevent corrosion. In addition, repairing any scratches is tougher unless you can spray the stuff yourself. Linex cost about $800 in California to coat a 6 foot truck bed. It's going to be upwards of a few grand to apply it to the complete undercarriage of a truck including the axles. Applying it to only the underside of the body makes more sense as long as you can clean and prep it well enough.
 
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