"Herculining" Your Jeep's Tub

By James Hasler

 

If you do much reading at all of the four wheeling magazines, you have probably heard of people using the spray in or "Do-It-Yourself" bed liners on their Jeeps. These liners are essentially a tough, textured, rubbery compound that is applied to the inside (or possibly outside) of your Jeep or pick-up bed. This protects the bed from things such as rust, scrapes or chemicals.

There are two different types of these liners. The professionally installed spray-in liners such as Rhino Liner or Line-X and the Do-It Yourself liners such as Herculiner or Durabak. The spray-in liners cost around 400-600 bucks since a lot of prep work is involved but they seem to have a more consistent, less sand papery texture and can be sprayed on very thick. Herculiner and Durabak is around $100 a gallon but the texture is a bit more rough and it will not be as thick as the spray-in liners. All of the liners come in a variety of colors, but I think the Rhino Lining can actually be color matched to your vehicle.

I went with Herculiner as I have heard good things about it and for $100, I thought it was worth it. It comes with a Gallon of Herculiner, two rollers, a brush and a piece of medium grit synthetic steel wool. I got the black as I've got the Darth Vader thing going...hehe. (Here's a link to the pictures of the tan Durabak that Andrew used in his tub.)

Anyway, the key to a good, durable finish with any of these products is to do the prep work right. As you can see after I removed my carpets, my YJ needed A LOT of prep work...

Both of the front foot wells were rusting so obviously moisture was being trapped under the carpets.

I removed the seatbelts, seats and center console as well as any bolts.

I first sweeped all of the large objects (leaves, rocks, small animals) out of the tub and then hosed it down after removing the drain plugs. Wow it's looking much better!!

Next up, I used the synthetic steel wool (buy some more!) to dull the paint where ever the Herculiner was going to be used. This is extremely important!! You then use M.E.K., Acetone or Xylene to wipe down the same surfaces. I could not find Xylene anywhere and I've been told MEK is extremely hazardous, so I used Acetone. Finally, mask off all areas that you don't want the Herc to stick to and protect the threads of all of the bolt holes. I wadded up masking tabe to fill the holes.

This process took a good 5-6 hours so be prepared. Taking the seats out may not even be trivial if some of the bolts are rusted. After letting the Acetone dry, begin to lay on the Herc! Since I didn't have any Xylene to thin the Herc if it thickened, I was afraid to use the rollers as pouring it into a pan will cause it to dry out earlier. So, I did the whole job, 3 full coats, with just the supplied brush. I'd recommend getting a spare brush. Here's the finished product.

Here's how the texture came out. It's somewhat rough so kneeling on it might be a bit painful after a while.

I also did my door jam as I'm always kicking it as I get in and out.

So, that's that! I let it dry over night and put the seats in the next day! So far, I'm very happy with how it turned out and it should be much easier to clean after a good day of wheeling!!

UPDATE!!

I've gotten some questions about whether or not I feel more heat or notice more noise with the carpets removed. First off, you could still put your carpets back in and know that your tub is more protected. However, my Jeep sits outside and my carpets were trashed. I am happy to report, however, that I drove around for about 1/2 hour and the floor boards were not really hot (a 1" body lift might have been helping that) and I could not tell that it was noisier. Tnis might change when I put my soft top back up, but I have a feeling that the Herculiner is a decent noise barrier...it does have a lot of rubber in it, afterall...