Pickup bed liners

[oldmossback]

Has anyone considered or tried using liquid bed liner as a protectant on non galvanized tanks?...........of course they'd be very black tanks........

 

[captain]

ZRC Galvilite

 

[elmer fudd]

While it sound like a pretty good idea the one thing I'd be worried about would be water getting in under the finish in one damaged spot and then migrating and rusting out the tank.

I just got a pair of LP72's really cheap and they had that really thick almost rubbery paint on them that manufacturers seemed to like in the early to mid 70s. One tank is still good, but on the other one there were some small rusty holes in the paint under the boot. I got out a screw driver and started scraping the paint away to determine the damage and what I found out was that water had gotten in and the paint had delaminated and the tank was basically toast. As I scraped the paint off big, thick flakes of rust came off with it. I took a wire wheel to it afterward just to make sure things really were as bad as they looked and indeed they were. The pits were big and deep. The paint did a damn good job of concealing the damage however. The only thing giving it away was that the finish was a bit lumpy rather than smooth.

I'd be afraid of the same thing with a tank treated with truck bed liner.

 

[oldmossback]

I was wondering about that..........I have not heard any info on truck beds after they are coated and if water got under the liner...it is pretty tuff stuff, tuff'er than that plastic paint on my twins now.......but I don't know the history of bed liner survivability.......I have a set of USD 38's that have the plastic paint, where it is stamped for hydros etc, it is rusty but I do not have bad spots like you described......I was thinking of a sort of permanet boot with the bed liner.........or coating the whole tank to the upper curve at the neck.........but really wanted some history concerning bed liner material......guess there is no history available........I suppose I'll follow Captain's suggestion.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I had the opportunity to pick up a set of double 72s, USD with the original paint, and have not followed up on it. I remember those tanks as being painted on bare metal, which was a real problem. But if the tanks are first galvanized, then painted, that's a different story. The galvanizing protects them under the paint. I have one Scubapro tank that is that way, and it's in good shape.

SeaRat

 

[elmer fudd]

Well, I've got one tank now that's going to need refinishing. I scraped a lot of paint off of both tanks to be sure they didn't both have issues. Tank bed liner would probably be an easy finish to apply. One other issue might be how well visual inspection stickers would adhere to it. It's not usually a smooth finish, is it?

 

[Luis H]

The bond that zinc creates with steel doesn’t break down with oxidation. Any coating can be scratched, but the zinc will continue to protect the steel even if there is a scratch and salt water has direct access to a spot of bare steel.

Rust will not migrate under any of the zinc paints. ZRC, as Captain recommended, happens to be the one with the highest zinc content, and therefore probably the best. But, IMO any of the cold galvanizing paints will outperform any of the other coatings when it comes to protecting against rust/ oxidation.

Even the smallest pin hole on any coating can compromise its protection when it is exposed to salt water under pressure, down a few atmospheres. You don’t take a bed liner down to 100 ft of salt water. The salt water that can infiltrate (at 45 psig) a small crevice is very difficult to rinse out when you get back to the surface.

Salt water will just work its way to the steel and rust will pry the coating away from the steel.


I have tanks that I used cold galvanizing zinc paint on them about 35 years ago and they are still holding fine. They haven’t seen heavy use so they don’t have a lot of scratches, but even were they have been scratched they are holding OK.

The only mistake I regret is covering the zinc paint with another coat of paint. I thought it would protect the zinc coat, but it makes a bit harder to touch up the zinc coat. IMO, touching up the zinc coat as needed provides the best protection.

 

[kingairpilot]

I'll second what Elmer said. On my old truck, nothing would stick to the RhinoLining in the bed. It made for easy clean up, but there where a few decals that I wanted to put on the front of the bed but it was a "No-Go" item.

I think I'll go for the cold galvenize finish on the doubles I got from Old Mossback...whenever the LDS gets em back from the hydro shop (usually shortly after she gets around to sending them in)

ka

 

[oldmossback]

I'll second what Elmer said. On my old truck, nothing would stick to the RhinoLining in the bed. It made for easy clean up, but there where a few decals that I wanted to put on the front of the bed but it was a "No-Go" item.

I think I'll go for the cold galvenize finish on the doubles I got from Old Mossback...whenever the LDS gets em back from the hydro shop (usually shortly after she gets around to sending them in)

ka

KA,
I think those are galvanized under the paint.........but I don't fully remember.

 

[horsediver1]

I don't believe any operation would even certify a Hydro if bed liner was placed over the tank. Neither operation in my area stated they would.