I recently replaced my floor pans and was looking for opinions on what to put on it. I was planning on using bed liner (dupli-color from Advanced Auto), but it's kinda pricey and the reviews are about 50/50. if it'll keep me from having to go through another floor project it'd be well worth it. So what's your thoughts, bed liner, paint, roofing tar (bit smelly but done it before...lol), alum-a-coat, rubberized undercoat, etc.? It's a 1996 xj sport with 196,000 so I'm not spending $400 for Rhino lining.

maybe I should just split the rear main and let the oil keep it lubed up so it won't rust....

 

Hey neighbor! Lewisberry here. Look at it this way. It lasted what, 16 years till they went Fred Flintsone right? Undercoat the bottom and toss your carpet down, unless your leaking inside. In that case drill some holes and just hammer finish it.. It should be rusting from the outside in not the inside out... Right?

 

Best bet is a few coats of rust inhibitor paint on both sides of the panel and then something hard (resistant to chipping from rocks, cinders, etc.) such as under-coat, bed liner, etc. Even just paint will do a good job but you may have to touch it up every year or so (especially after winter) as stones, and especially rock-salt and cinders used in winter will tend to chip it (particularly right behind the wheels).

 

problem is, they do rust from the inside out. caused by wet, salty feet during winter attributing to wet carpets and most of all, wet underpad that literally never dries.
best thing to do is pull the carpets out if its a wheeler. if it's still your daily driver, then coat both sides, inside with a rubberized coating and put your carpet back down.

 

It's gonna be our teenage boy's first vehicle, I was hoping to not put the carpet back in because of the how mushy they get trapping the moister right on the new floor. I would imagine that with out the carpet it'll have a bit more road noise, but he can just crank up the CASSETTE player that's in it...

 

If you want to leave the carpet out, it is probably best to bed-line (or coat with a similar durable material) the inside of the floor and toss in some rubber mats, shoes/boots will scratch/wear off the paint quickly.


It will be a little more noisy but not too much, the XJ doesn't exactly have much sound "insulation" to begin with, just the thin jute pad under the carpet.

 

I would lightly sand them with 100-200 grit sand paper, clean everything well and then brush on some POR15 (do it outdoors and wear mask)
http://www.por15.com/POR-15-Rust-Pre...aint_c_11.html

then once that dries I would roll in a good quality bed liner in what ever color you want. I use durabak
http://durabakcompany.com/colorchart.htm

I would do inside and under carriage.