Coating the van involved hours of masking before I reached the spray stage. This black RAPTOR kit is one of my coating purchases, alongside the exterior project where I compared the results of different bedliners.
My van with masking around the exterior areas prepared for coating.
The item in my kit
I bought U-POL RAPTOR Black Bedliner Kit as part of my camper van equipment.
Coating the van involved hours of masking before I reached the spray stage. This black RAPTOR kit is one of my coating purchases, alongside the exterior project where I compared the results of different bedliners.
Where it fits my build
I taped the boundaries and covered the areas that would not be painted with plastic sheeting. I then sanded the exposed areas with an orbital sander and 60-grit abrasive, blew away the dust with a compressor, and cleaned and degreased the surfaces.
I mixed clear bedliner with white tint and sprayed the van. After it dried, I removed the masking. The tape and sheeting stage alone took around eight hours, and the finished edges still needed some touch-up.
The side of the van during the white-bedliner project.
My build notes
The most useful detail in my diary is the result, including the problems. Rust-Oleum pooled and dripped in places, and trying to repair one area with a paintbrush made it worse. I wrote that I would use a foam roller for touch-ups and preferred the more consistent finish I had obtained with RAPTOR.
Masking, preparation and application method each became a substantial part of the exterior-coating job.
Alternative products
Two alternatives to compare
Rust-Oleum offers a canned truck-bed coating. Herculiner changes to a roll-on kit, making preparation and application format central differences.
Rust-Oleum Black Truck Bed Coating
This black truck-bed coating is supplied in quart cans for coating work. It forms a textured finish and offers a different application format from an aerosol can.
