Paint vs Line-X

[B350]

I'm in a pickle and would like to get a few opinions. After having some rust areas around fender wells and rocker panels addressed I decided to Line-X those areas of my van. Upon seeing the finished result I was not only disappointed in how the lining looked, especially around the fender wells but, worse was the fact that the tape pulled my paint off and the lining, adhering to the paint, is pulling the paint off the body. This proves that the paint work done a while back on the van lacked proper prep work resulting in less that sufficient paint adhesion to the body. Now I have a van that looks like crap without recourse to the painter and botched Line-X and paint. Line-X should not be sprayed any higher, nor do I want it to, because there will be the same consequences with poor paint adhesion.

2 options that I seem to have are:
1. Line-X the whole thing. But it will not get the door jambs or any other recessed areas without a lot of additional labor.
2. Complete repaint. This way there will be no issue with unmatched paint.

Both will cost me 4 times what I set out to spend... I'm leaning towards paint where I could go any color and have door jambs and all areas covered.
Any other creative ideas?

[BrianW]

Maybe consider Plastidip? I haven't used it myself but have seen a few cars locally that are completely done with it. You could just do the rockers or whatever you want. It's DIY and easily removed if you don't like it. Pretty cheap, too.

[9pb9]

some sort of trim tape to cover the line where the two finishes meet?

[shenrie]

man, that really sucks, sorry to see your situation

a little confused from the pix. is that how the van looks now, or is there linex on all the rockers? if the linex is still on, could you use some sort of industrial adhesive to hold down the edges where its curled?

plastidip is not really an option imho. just not strong enough for what it sounds like your trying to do. its a very light duty coating. i plastidipped my front bumper and the edges near the tire are peeling away from what the tire constantly throws at it.

[BroncoHauler]

Sounds to me like the root cause is the poor prep job before the paint was applied. If that's the case, I think you're going to have the same result with any paint or coating you apply over it. One way or another you have to deal with the base layer, or just live with it.


Herb

[B350]

shenrie- What you see is the result of the Line-X being pulled off the van already. There is still some black Line-X left where it was not yet pulled off the van.

Regarding plastidip, I agree with you, it is too light weight and not the best solution where the paint is the inherent issue here. And, I do want to keep the van for another 200K miles.

Have any of you had their entire van painted or lined? If so, what were the costs? I got one quote for paint for $4000. Line-X has not come back with a full vehicle lining quote yet.
A major disappointment being I set out to just Line-X the lower portion for a total of $1100.

[BrianW]

I got a quote a year or so ago to have my entire EB van repainted, same color (white) by a local place that has a very good painting reputation and does things right. It was in the $3500-3700 range. That's same color and didn't include the PH top, but did include a lot of prep work due to the painted lines on the side of my SMB. The job would be "lifetime" guaranteed for things like peeling and whatnot.

I got cheaper prices (MAACO for example), but when questioned the other places clearly weren't planning to do much prep work. Warranties were either non-existent or for 2-5 years (in the case of MAACO).

[witoke]

Damn. I just wrote a long reply that disappeared. The upshot is that as others have said, poor prep on the last paint job. Nothing will fix that unless you sand back to the first solidly adhered layer you find, be it metal or primer. Then prep appropriately and re-paint.

I did a test panel on my van to cover some gaudy hunting scenes and stripes about 6 months ago. Used Behr DeckOver paint. It has held up perfectly and seems really tough. Prep sanded with 220 over good paint, washed with solvent and rolled on the deck paint with a smooth foam roller. You get a lightly textured surface. Good thing is that it only costs $30/gal and is available in about 50 colors. It's definitely tougher than the existing paint. Might be a possible solution for your sills.

[ert01]

In my area, a paint job is totally out of my price range... I was looking to get one done last winter and my quotes ranged from $5k-$15K. I don't have that kind of money to drop on something that's purely visual.

I DO however have the money to make a run down to Baja and get a paint job done while I'm on vacation there... I'm considering it for Jan/Feb sometime. I haven't committed yet, but the prices are a lot easier to handle. I highly doubt it would be the same quality as a local job, but I don't need show quality paint... I just need something over the flaking Ford paint to prevent rust.

[B350]

ert01- I love your priorities. No doubt you can go on a number of great adventures for what you save with a baja paint job.