Applying Truck Bed Coating to lower doors and van body

[NaoVan]

I'm so glad that this thread was resurrected. It was exactly what i have been wondering about with my van. I have a 1998 ford f150 econoline. Has the super nifty running boards. Super useless! They are so narrow you have to turn your foot sideways to use them to step out, which I think just sets you up to break your ankle! Also, my van is already so low, these runners make it even worse. YoTerryh, how gross was it under your wheel flare areas? that's the part i wonder about? I'm not sure if a lot of people coat that high up, but i'm pretty sure by van will look ugly under there, if not from paint fading or holes, then from scratches and rust. what is your plan for that area?
I also have questions about tires size. I have lots of questions. What actually got me started on really wanting to take my running boards off was how low my van was. ( i'm used to my big farm truck with loads of clearance) The exisiting tires are 15" . Tire shop said i couldn't go bigger because they wouldn't fit. So... i have to take off all the skirting stuff... after i do that how big can i go with out a lift? If i'm already finding the van a bit 'sailboat' like... what's a lift going to do? Do i need to address the sway first? If it's low in the back, but nothing is wrong with it should i get new springs? leveling kit?
Does anyone want to, or have the patience to kinda of mentor me a bit here?

[Grampswrx]

Naovan- everyone here is a mentor!

You can do a leveling kit if you want. You can do a lift if you want.

What you should start with is telling us more about your rig. Start your own thread and let us know what you have and we will give opinions on what you should do with it.

[YoTerryh]

Originally Posted by NaoVan

YoTerryh, how gross was it under your wheel flare areas? that's the part i wonder about? I'm not sure if a lot of people coat that high up, but i'm pretty sure by van will look ugly under there, if not from paint fading or holes, then from scratches and rust. what is your plan for that area?

It was a bit discolored after removing the running boards, but not really that bad. You can kinda tell from the attached photo. My plan was, and still is, to cut the fender flares off from the running boards and reuse them, then paint the lower quarter panel with bedliner, including covering the fender flares. I'm hesitant to cut them myself and haven't found anyone to do it for me, but I admit I've been busy with other, more fun stuff this summer. In the meantime, the appearance is not bad and not super obvious unless you are inspecting at close range.

[Grampswrx]

I cut my fiberglass flares with a fine tooth hack saw and then was going to dremel them down to look right. Would have been easy, but I didn’t think they added enough of the look I wanted to make it worth the work. I had tapered the rhino liner up over the fenders and back down, following some painted pinstripes from the manufacturer, so the flares kind of got lost.

I was shocked how easy it was to trim them.

You can barely see the rhino going up and over in this pic.

[BrianW]

I have a 98 E250 2WD SMB. My suspension upgrades over the past few years include installing a full front suspension and brakes from a 2012 van (easy bolt on swap), new rear leaf springs ($650 installed, nothing fancy but really helped), rear swaybar from an E450 ($30 at junkyard), and Bilstein shocks all around. Van drives great with these upgrades at both 80mph on highways and twisty mountain roads. Total cost for all of this was probably less than $3k.

[Orv]

Originally Posted by BenJJ

I sprayed my grill and front bumper with raptor liner. It was super easy and so far I haven't had any problems with peeling or chipping. My grill was the gray plastic though and not chrome so that might change your approach.

I did the gray plastic "grill" pieces on my Chevrolet Volt with flat black spray-on Plastidip. I initially did it just to see if I liked the look before I did something more permanent, but it's held up so well I haven't had to redo it yet. That was over a year ago and it's been through carwashes many times since. I cleaned the plastic first but didn't rough it up or anything.