Painting hardtop underside black (with bedliner spray)

[fightingmajor]

I wonder how well the flex seal paint would work on this.

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[Howi]

Guys looking to do this mod on the front panels only at first, Amazon have plasti dip black;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plasti-Dip...XYKJ23HY7NEQN&qid=1567008042&s=gateway&sr=8-1

In your experience what sort of coverage do these give? How many for 2 coats just on the fronts?

 

[cosmokenney]

I'm thinking this might be the way to go.....LOL

Yeah baby... yeah!

 

[cosmokenney]

It makes a huge difference when driving.

How do you mean? I.e. noise? Or?

BTW anyone worried about the Duplicolor rattle can bed liner, I've had it on my dirt bike/utility trailer rails for a few years. I think I put on 4 coats. It goes on easy and is surprisingly bullet proof. There's one piece that I custom built to hold the front wheels. I can take that piece off for hauling large items -- and I can literally throw it on the ground in the rocks on my side-yard and it doesn't want to chip.
The only thing about this stuff is that it takes 72 hours at a minimum to dry. If you do paint your top do it when you'll have a week to let it dry before putting it back on the jeep.

 

[Rubi-Zero]

What I meant by that, is that I personally find it distracting looking at the rear view mirror out the back window or over the shoulder and seeing the white panels of the top. With it painted black, for me it is easier to view straight out the window because everything else disappears so to speak. It looks 10 times better black and more finished.

I would 100% do this again if I get another hardtop, but for now, I am loving the ease of the soft top.

 

[Woodynj]

Guys looking to do this mod on the front panels only at first, Amazon have plasti dip black;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plasti-Dip...XYKJ23HY7NEQN&qid=1567008042&s=gateway&sr=8-1

In your experience what sort of coverage do these give? How many for 2 coats just on the fronts?

I have not painted my top yet but have painted other parts so not sure on total cans you will need. You need 5 plus coats to do it right. The first couple coats are very light. Plus if you don’t put enough coats in it can be impossible to remove down the road.

If I had to guess it would be 6-8 cans for the whole top.

 

[americanlegend]

Yes I removed them from the freedom panles because they rotate and wanted to make sure I got a clean layer without having to keep rotating their positions. I wish I had a picture of the freedom panels masked up with the hardware removed

On the hardtop I masked off everything that wasn’t easy to remove.

It really wasn’t a hard process just took a little bit of time.

Rubi, how did you take the hardware off? Drill/socket wrench?

 

[Max_Jeep]

So back when I first got my Rubicon in 07, I hated the inside being white. So I wanted to share this here, because I am sure there are a few that hate the inside white. I cant believe Jeep still send them out like this. To me it was distracting while driving, looking out the back windows with the top on. Plus, it just looked bad to me. So I pulled the top and hung it from the ceiling in the garage. I decided that I was going to paint it black but didn't want it to flake off so after looking around for a solution I went with Dupli color truck bed liner in a can.

I picked it up at advance auto for $8 a can. You will need at least 6 to finish it but I think I ended up picking up 1-2 cans more to do a few touch up spots. You can roll it on as well , but I chose this way instead. To start off I sanded with 250 grit and knocked the shine down to give the dupli color truck bed liner something to grab. This took a little bit of time, my arms got tired but I wanted it to turn out so I kept at it. Once I finished, I cleaned up the dust ,then masked it all off . This takes some time as well. Once I got to this step, I wiped it down with some alcohol to remove any grease or dirt. Make sure to wear a mask to keep from breathing the vapors, next is to spray it down with the truck bed liner. I loved the results and with it being truck bed liner it held up very nice on the inside of the top for years without problems. This bed liner is very fine grit so I thought it looked very good for the inside of the top.

This is how it turned out.

Dang, wrong section, Mods feel free to move this

Hello,
I have very silly question...
Does this finish smell toxins at hot weather conditions?

 

[Max_Jeep]

This is basic thermal science. There is no controversy in my statement and a philosophical argument does not make the issue go away. What happens is the top gets hot from the sun. That heat transfers to the inside surface easily through the plastic because there is no insulation. The inside surface is very hot. That hot surface emits infrared and spreads the heat to everything else. There is a reason it is white inside unfortunately. Black surfaces are excellent emitters of IR, white are poor ones, which is an advantage for uninsulated interiors like ours.

That's why their factory headlines black

 

[Rubi-Zero]

Hello,
I have very silly question...
Does this finish smell toxins at hot weather conditions?

Only when the paint is fresh and still is releasing gasses, but once it has gassed out there is no smell.

 

[jim00]

Thanks! I wish the interior pics looked a little better, but that’s the best I could do with just my phone and the sun glaring in.

But it really did turn out nice. I’d do it again.

@TheRealTVGuy Looks great! Did you do any surface prep?

 

[Bullwinkle]

So back when I first got my Rubicon in 07, I hated the inside being white. So I wanted to share this here, because I am sure there are a few that hate the inside white. I cant believe Jeep still send them out like this. To me it was distracting while driving, looking out the back windows with the top on. Plus, it just looked bad to me. So I pulled the top and hung it from the ceiling in the garage. I decided that I was going to paint it black but didn't want it to flake off so after looking around for a solution I went with Dupli color truck bed liner in a can.

I picked it up at advance auto for $8 a can. You will need at least 6 to finish it but I think I ended up picking up 1-2 cans more to do a few touch up spots. You can roll it on as well , but I chose this way instead. To start off I sanded with 250 grit and knocked the shine down to give the dupli color truck bed liner something to grab. This took a little bit of time, my arms got tired but I wanted it to turn out so I kept at it. Once I finished, I cleaned up the dust ,then masked it all off . This takes some time as well. Once I got to this step, I wiped it down with some alcohol to remove any grease or dirt. Make sure to wear a mask to keep from breathing the vapors, next is to spray it down with the truck bed liner. I loved the results and with it being truck bed liner it held up very nice on the inside of the top for years without problems. This bed liner is very fine grit so I thought it looked very good for the inside of the top.

This is how it turned out.

Dang, wrong section, Mods feel free to move this

Looks really good, does it change the inside temp much?

 

[TheRealTVGuy]

@TheRealTVGuy Looks great! Did you do any surface prep?

Thanks! Because of the texture of the top and the nature of the Plasti-Dip, no prep was necessary other than masking off the glass and areas where the HotHeads panels were going to go. One note: my original order included the rear side window trim panels. I didn’t mask that area properly and the overspray of plasti-dip caused the panels to not adhere properly. Prep is key!

As a matter of fact, I just saw that HotHeads was offering the panels in blue for a limited time, so I ordered a set for my 4xe and will be doing the whole thing again!

 

[Rubi-Zero]

Looks really good, does it change the inside temp much?

No.

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