Marching on toward getting the tub swapped. I have finished the bottom of my new tub. I raptor lined the bottom. Thought being, it would seal up the joints and stuff that trap water and cause our TJ's to rust. Even my tub, that was from "down south" (Virigina, according to the build sheet)
First, I degreased the thing with a borrowed electric powerwasher and some simplegreen.
After it dried for a day or so, I scrubbed the primer/Paint with a red sctochbrite pad. Having it upside down like I did allowed me to get into the wheelwells and really get some light on it to look for rust. Glad I did. Rust was present on probably 80% of the spot welds, and most of the seams. I also noticed quite a few spots where the paint adhesion was pretty terrible. I call them wrinkle worms...kinda where the corrosion starts to form in crystals and makes the paint lift and wrinkle in a random pattern. Thankfully, its only surface rust at this point and it cleaned up well. I had one of the rear seat bracket reinforcements off because rust was between the layers.
So, all the gray areas here is self-etching primer, applied over bare metal. That's where I had to grind/sand the surface rust off. I contemplated sandblasting it at this point...but I REALLY didn't want to deal with trying to get all the blast media back out before I painted. Plus, I'd have to trailer it around in a michigan winter, bare steel and all...NOPE. To much risk.
Today I did the raptor liner. That was pretty easy to apply and it looks pretty phenomenal as an undercoating. I'm really happy with how it turned out.
All masked up.
All done and unmasked
Some detail shots to show the texture
I did the wheel wells because I don't run the liners. I'm a big fan of keeping that exposed and clean, vs covered up and hiding rust. Its not as "clean" looking design wise, but Its also not bad. The only thing you really see is the seatbelt mount.
Now the real fun begins....Tearing apart my running a driving jeep! I have about 500 baggies to put stuff in and label it so I remember where it all goes a month from now when I'm re-assembling this tub on my jeep.
