I would like some recommendations on a good first coat of primer for my new bed and running boards I purchased, and how do you paint inside the curl of the top of the bed? If going with roll on bedliner inside should that be first coat? This will be a daily driver.

Thanks,

Oscar

 

The upper roll is tricky to get to with paint, I use a foam brush and liberally apply KBS RustSeal product to the bare metal. This is similar to POR15 but cheaper and works great even when topcoated with "regular" paint. Prep the metal first, no need for a lot of scuffing but do spend some time cleaning the metal to ensure a good bond. I would coat the underside of the running boards as well...they are subject to rock/gravel damage and will last much longer with a coat of rust seal under the paint. As for the rest of the bed/boards use a quality 2K Direct To Metal (DTM) primer on the bare metal. If you are sure you want to use bedliner then by all means primer the metal FIRST.

 

I would scuff the coating that is on the new parts, if there is one, and then apply a good epoxy primer. If the parts do have a coating from the factory, usually a thin black coating, it's usually not that thick or adheres too well, it's just on the part to prevent it from rusting during storage. I like to take a scuff pad and really do a thorough scuffing, getting into every corner and stamped area.

I would strongly suggest doing the above to the entire part and then applying the bed liner over the epoxy primer. I'm not sure but can you paint over the bed liner you're going to use? If not, and you're going to keep it black, or whatever color it is, then I'd suggest painting the entire box first, leaving most of the area you're planning to cover in bed liner just in primer. Spray paint into the bed just past the line of where your bed liner is going to be then once the paint is cured tape off and apply your bed liner.