Plasti-Dip or Bedliner for the lower body panels?

[Tom P]

My truck has been around the block a few times and the lower rocker panels are starting to show some wear and tear. My truck is a dually and the fiberglass fenders are spider cracked something fierce. I want to do some type of coating on the bottom quarter of the truck. There's a little bit of rust to fix but nothing I can't take care of. I just heard about this plasti dip stuff from one of the younger guys at work, but my original plan was to roll on some bedliner down below. Not looking for anything professional or perfect at all. It was a cheap truck and I'm trying to stop a bad thing from getting worse. Plasti dip looks to be a faster and cheaper option, while bedliner looks to be a more robust option. The bedliner in the bed needs to be redone as well so it would probably be a "do it all at once" shot.

Any opinions from those who have done either or?

 

[Chewy1576]

I was seriously considering covering my entire K2500 in Raptor Liner. It's supposed to be pretty easy to apply and pretty durable.

 

[Tom P]

I was seriously considering covering my entire K2500 in Raptor Liner. It's supposed to be pretty easy to apply and pretty durable.

A buddy of mine did that to his Jeep. I'm not a fan of doing the whole truck but the rockers need some attention. Its never going to be an off road truck but the tires do a pretty good job of throwing rocks

 

[Chewy1576]

I was going to do the whole truck because it needs an entire paint job anyway, and don't want to pay a body shop a few thousand dollars to do it. I figured for around $600, I could do the entire truck in my driveway. It's tintable so I was going to try to match the factory light blue color and do the bed, fender wells, and undercoating in black.

 

[RedLeader289]

plasti-dip is quick but doesn't hold up, rocks will chip it. If you're wanting to do a coating then go with the bedliner, although if moisture gets behind it the panel will rot away and you won't notice it until it's too late.

They make adhesive stainless steel panels that are cut to fit the bottom portion of our truck bodies, seen 'em on a few different trucks, that'd probably work best (and for about the same price).

 

[Tom P]

plasti-dip is quick but doesn't hold up, rocks will chip it. If you're wanting to do a coating then go with the bedliner, although if moisture gets behind it the panel will rot away and you won't notice it until it's too late.

They make adhesive stainless steel panels that are cut to fit the bottom portion of our truck bodies, seen 'em on a few different trucks, that'd probably work best (and for about the same price).

I've seen those too but never considered them. Might be worth looking into...

 

[95C1500]

Definitely not plastdip. It won't hold up.

 

[Tachyon]

My truck has been around the block a few times and the lower rocker panels are starting to show some wear and tear. My truck is a dually and the fiberglass fenders are spider cracked something fierce. I want to do some type of coating on the bottom quarter of the truck. There's a little bit of rust to fix but nothing I can't take care of. I just heard about this plasti dip stuff from one of the younger guys at work, but my original plan was to roll on some bedliner down below. Not looking for anything professional or perfect at all. It was a cheap truck and I'm trying to stop a bad thing from getting worse. Plasti dip looks to be a faster and cheaper option, while bedliner looks to be a more robust option. The bedliner in the bed needs to be redone as well so it would probably be a "do it all at once" shot.

Any opinions from those who have done either or?

I took my truck's lower panels down to bare metal, metal prepped them, and covered them with several coats or P0R-15 following their instructions to the letter. I would also recommend following that up with bedliner or even spray can undercoat to protect it from UV. Did that three years ago now and so far not a spot of rust has appeared.

 

[joep88cheyenne]

If you are going to clean and redo the bed, then it makes financial sense to do the one and done. Definitely go and take down to good metal and work from there. Don't need a chuck of rocker panel leaving the comfort of your truck suddenly for the front end/tires or what ever on a vehicle near you.

 

[Tachyon]

plasti-dip is quick but doesn't hold up, rocks will chip it. If you're wanting to do a coating then go with the bedliner, although if moisture gets behind it the panel will rot away and you won't notice it until it's too late.

They make adhesive stainless steel panels that are cut to fit the bottom portion of our truck bodies, seen 'em on a few different trucks, that'd probably work best (and for about the same price).

The trouble with those is that they just cover up the sheet metal so you can't see any rust going on behind it, plus they trap and hold moisture, causing rust.
They're great if you live in Phoenix. Not so much in Portland or Minneapolis or anywhere else wet or snowy.