Raptor Liner a Whole 4WD – Everything You Need to Know.

Find out everything you need to know about painting your entire 4WD vehicle with raptor liner in this 8 part blog post.

• What is Raptor Liner?
• Why we chose raptor liner?
• How to achieve a professional result?
• How much Raptor paint is needed?
• Handy tips about applying raptor liner to an entire vehicle.
• Why you should and shouldn't consider raptor liner for your 4WD?
• Was it worth it or a big mistake?
• YouTube video - Whole 4WD painted in Raptor Bed Liner.

Part 1 - What is Raptor liner?

My first response when Adam told me we were overhauling the paintwork with bed liner was "What is it?”

I'd never heard of it.

Raptor bed liner is a urethane coating that provides surfaces with a protective barrier that can withstand tough situations. It was originally developed as a spray on truck bed liner as an alternative to plastic and rubber tub liners.

Raptor liner has many advantages:

1. Water resistant
2. Protects surfaces from rust
3. Scratch and stain resistant
4. UV stable
5. Easy to clean, simply hose off
6. Flexible, so it can handle impacts without cracking
7. Less expensive and faster than powder coating or automotive paint
8. Easy to repair

After watching many, many You Tube videos and researching the Raptor Website tutorials I reached a conclusion;

The idea of spraying the entire vehicle with bed liner is actually quite perfect for the way we choose to live and play with our 4WD.

Part 2 - Why We Chose Raptor Liner?

I'm going to start by saying that I know spraying an entire vehicle with Raptor liner paint isn't for everyone and that you need to be part mental, a little brave and part genius to pull off an overhaul like this.

The decision to try Raptor liner didn't come easily. And I will need to go back about 6 months prior and explain some things before we get to the bit about finally ordering the kit and going ahead.

You see, there were serious talks about selling the Amarok and upgrading to a new model.

After touring full time with our Amarok for the past few years, it was safe to say the girl needed some lovin' - inside and out.

Adam and I went back and forth, weighing up the pro's and con's to keeping our 2.0L or selling to purchase the V6.

Here's an idea of what our pro's and con's list looked like; maybe this list can help you too if you're at a crossroads of whether or not to keep or sell your current 4WD.

KEEP THE CAR

PRO'S

1. Reliable engine
2. Professionally tuned already
3. Bull bar fitted
4. Bilstein upgraded suspension
5. Genuine VW Tow bar installed
6. Save a ton of money
7. Owned since new
8. Fuel efficient
9. Can potentially be our eldest child's first car in four years time.

CON'S

1. Panel damage on side and rear from 4WDing, driver's door damaged from the "Bunnings Incident" and bonnet damaged from the "mango falling from tree incident in Cooktown
2. Need to replace some major components, including steering rack & pinion and the power steering pump.
3. Need to remove the damaged canvas canopy

So you can see that we were up against a pretty significant overhaul. And here's the clincher; no one would buy the vehicle in its un-repaired condition. We would need to fix the issues before selling the car to someone else.

Then we asked ourselves; if we made her beautiful again. inside and out, why sell her?

Which brings me to the pro's and con's of buying a new V6 (or any new car for that matter)

BUY A NEW CAR

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PRO'S

1. A new freakn' car (love that feeling!)
2. Increased engine power and performance
3. Increased GVM and GCM - important considerations as we plan to add a roof top tinny and still tow our caravan.
4. New car warranty.
5. DID I MENTION MORE POWER? LOVE THAT FEELING!

CON'S

1. Big money outlay & affects cash flow (whether buying outright or financing)
2. Need to invest in offroad tyres almost immediately
3. Needs tow bar fitted
4. Needs electronic brake controller fitted
5. Requires bullbar to be fitted

So, as you can see, we had a lot to think about and now you know where our head space was at.

The costs were estimated and the saving up was in progress when BAM!

A tree just jumped out and scraped nearly the entire length of the passenger side of the Amarok.

Then BAM! a different tree just reached out of nowhere and knocked the tailgate. Unbelievable, I know! (It was a very fun weekend by the way)

Suddenly, the car was so embarrassing to drive, I couldn't even bring myself to drop the kids off outside the school's front gate.

You can see in the image below the extent of the damage just on one side.

A decision needed to be made so Adam ordered two Raptor Tintable kits (each kit contains 4 bottles and hardener ) Adam also ordered Color Spec Base Coat - a professional automotive tint in our Amarok's original colour - Starlight Blue.

Part 3 - How to achieve a professional result?

The steps we used to spray an entire vehicle included;

• Remove all fixtures - bull bar, tailgate, tail lights, blinkers, handles, weather seals, internal door trims, side mirrors, roof rack strips, mud flaps, all doors and the bonnet.

• Repair all dents with 3M Platinum Plus Filler
• Sand entire vehicle - this is to facilitate adhesion of the paint

• Apply adhesion promoter
• Spray acid etch primer on any exposed metal and difficult to sand areas

• Wipe down everywhere with Digger's Wax & Grease Remover
• Blow excess dust particles with compressed air
• Use painters tape and paper to cover all areas not to be sprayed

• Use professional gun to apply two coats of raptor liner

The steps are pretty straightforward but man, it was so incredibly time consuming to do the prep work. I think in part, it took a long time because of all the panel damage that needed repairing and because we took everything we could off the vehicle.

The inside of the door jams were given the treatment too, which some YouTube videos show they didn't go to that extent. If you want a professional result, I recommend doing it. Maybe we went a little over the top but the results are outstanding.

I estimate it took 80-100 hours of our combined time (3 people over two weekends) to complete the entire vehicle. If you don't have extensive panel damage, a straightforward entire vehicle spray with two people should only take two full days of work.

Part 4 - How much Raptor paint is needed?

A Tintable Raptor Kit includes x4 litres bottles of Raptor and hardener. For the Amarok, we used two kits and there wasn’t enough to spray the Ute tub. We’ve ordered a Black Raptor Kit to spray the Ute tub, the bonnet and custom rock sliders/ side steps.

Part 5 - Handy tips about applying Raptor Liner to an entire vehicle.

There were a few things we learnt along the way that can affect the outcome of the spray job. And there a few more things yet to learn, which I'll touch base on at the end of this blog.

Firstly, you'll want to invest in the Raptor Vari-nozzle application gun if you want to easily adjust the flow and volume of paint. Our car is sprayed in the "smooth sandpaper" look and this was achieved using the professional gun.

Secondly, applying a metallic tint is a bit trickier to get right than using a non metallic based tint. So take that into consideration when choosing your colour.

Thirdly, you want to make sure the vehicle does not get wet within the first 3-4 days. Ideally, you should leave the vehicle under cover and away from rain and water for at least 72 hours. So factor that in before you begin.

Finally, practice getting the flow and texture to your satisfaction before committing to the car. Adam used our old tailgate to practice ( we had bought a new one from the wreckers to save time on repairs) You could use a very large piece of cardboard or similar.

Part 6 - Why you should and shouldn't consider raptor liner for your 4wd?

Like I said earlier, in Part 1 of this blog, spraying an entire vehicle with raptor liner is not for everyone.

Here's why;

1. You need to erase the notion of having a smooth high gloss finish
2. The result is a smooth or rough sandpaper look and feel
3. If you change your mind, it's a lot of prep work to respray back to a standard automotive paint
4. Some people can't get their heads around the fact that Raptor liner was originally designed a a ute bed tray liner.
5. If you don't do a lot of bush bashing or your paintwork is in great condition, there's honestly no need for it.

You should consider raptor liner for your entire 4WD if your vehicle needs a respray due to;

• peeling
• cracking
• extensive scratches
• extensive panel damage that needs repair / replacement

And you;

• love the "aggressive" look
• are looking for a cost effective way to respray your entire car
• want to reduce the amount of time you spend washing the car.

Part 7 - Was it worth it or a big mistake?

It was worth it because we both love the way it looks.

But it could potentially be a big mistake.

At the date of publication, the raptor liner has been on the car for 35 days.

While it’s still early days, the Raptor liner seems to have not worked out the way it was promised as it’s quite easy to scratch on some of the panels. It’s also quite porous as we have a stain on the bull bar that we haven’t found a way to remove yet. We're unsure if the issues are due to a faulty batch or the way it was applied.

Despite this, Adam ordered the black kit to spray the ute tub, bonnet and rock sliders, so lets all hope for a better result.

We have just touched base this week with Raptor Coatings Australia to try and troubleshoot the issues.

In conclusion, raptor bed liner has made our well mannered girl transform into looking like an absolutely beast of a car. The high gloss look is long gone and has been replaced with a head turning vehicle in town. Whether people are turning their heads because they hate the way it looks or love it, we will never know.

The important things is, all of the damage has been repaired to a high standard and the Raptor liner has enabled a cost effective way to solve the problem. While it looks as though some rectification works might need to be done, it’s still far less expensive than regular automotive paint.

UPDATE ! Find out how it’s all going after six months!

More information available at:

U-POL Raptor Australia

Any questions about our experience?

Comment below or email us: contact@lappingoz.com.au