My backwoods bumper is starting to show some rust seeping thru the bedliner coating. I have several questions. First is bedliner water resistant because I think it was put on directly over bare metal? Second do you think I should strip down to metal and reapply OR just go over with additional coating of some type. It is not that bad now but I'd like to stop it before it gets out of hand.

 

I feel your pain. The flat deck on my truck was bed lined and is now rusting. All over. I don't think bedliner is meant to be put on bare metal.


Being that your bumper can be removed I would strip it down and have it primed and painted. Maybe you can find a place that could dump it in a stripping solution. That bedliner isn't easy to get off.


Nothing you spray on will help other than to cover up the rust stains. Its gotten underneath the bedliner.

 

I second removing the bumper to take care of it the right way. The truth is you don't know how far the rust is. Simply painting over it will just cover it up and even a rust converter will not necessarily reach all of the rust under the bed liner.

So, just painting over it now will potentially let the bumper ruin further underneath. If it was bare metal before the bedliner was applied it should have been etch primed before any bedliner primer was applied. After the two primers are applied, then the bedliner goes on. I would guess your bumper was not done this way.

 

I am having the same issue with my Backwoods bumper. To say the least, I am not impressed with how the bumpers are finished since this is happening already! Some day I will be tearing mine off and either selling it and replacing it with a bare metal bumper that will get LineXed or the current one will get stripped and coated correctly.

 

I have been told that PVC pipe primer (that purple stuff) will seep under bed liner and lift it right up.. I don't know if it works or not but a plumber buddy of mine said the stuff lifted his truck liner up like a rubber mat...