I used my 97 Econoline for whiteater rafting trips for many years. In-between river runs we would put the rafts directly on the roof of the van. About 15 years ago I had a shop paint the roof with a white coating typically used to paint the inside of a car trunk. This worked great but the sun eventually attacked it and it flaked off in chunks and disintigrated. I decided to recoat the roof with a urethane bedliner product. There are many youtube videos on these products that are very instructive. I sanded as much of the old coating as I could and cleaned up several rusty spots with self ectching primer. I did not need a perfectly clean surface, just something good enough another 5-10 years of service.

The prep work took a couple of days. I used Speedokote T-Rex spray on bedliner. About $150 for the 4 qt kit and another $130 for four exta quarts. I used about 5 1/2 quarts total. The urethane coating is hard and slick so it actually would not be an ideal bedliner. Spraying the coating is easy but you have to keep going and mix a new quart bottle (add catalyst) frequently.

It's been about a year and so far so good. I live in California so the roof does not see any weather extremes but the van does live outside. So far I would recommend this if you have an air compressor and a couple of days. Total cost was about $400.

PS: I fixed the paint chip by the windshied (and several others) with a can of custom mixed spray paint.


bedliner coating

bedliner coating

 

Did you do anything to the caulk along the rain gutter?

Sixto
07 E350 5.4 190K miles

 

Bedliner material in general is fairly forgiving in how its applied especially if its on an area where appearance isn't a big concern. Most I've seen applied DIY are brushed or rolled on making it a process those without large capacity air compressors and spray gear easily accomplish.

OP has produced a nice looking finish and I do hope this job lasts a good long time. While the California weather may not seem extreme the nearly constant sunshine has proven to be problematic unless steps are taken during application to reduce UV's effect on any automotive finish.

 

The rain gutters were in fairly good shape . There were a couple of places where the caulk was craked and one small rusty spot. I sanded most of the rust and applied rust neutralizer. I filled in the cracks with some type of house window caulk I had on hand. Maybe the extra layer of coating has protected the caulk better than the factory paint. Now there is even more.

The interesting thing about the original trunk-liner coating is that it flaked off becaue the underlying paint separated from the factory primer. I left a lot of the trunk-liner material on the roof. There are other parts of the van where the factory paint is releasing from the primer. I have tried to halt this by lighty sanding the edges and re-spraying with a rattle can base coat and clear coat.

 

Hopefully it'll hold up, I've seen it done here in the midwest, and the liner usually ends up getting micro cracks in it, thus letting in moisture underneath and then the rust through forms. That's the reason I don't like bed liner products.
I myself would have just sanded sanded down to bare metal and then primer, paint and and clear, but I don't carry things on top of my van. I really hope it lasts a good long time for ya. Keep us updated.

 

Gutter is not caulk, it is a 2 part seam sealer, don't go to home depot to get silicone for it, I'd trust the bedliner paint sprayed thick to fill the gutter over that, I have really considered this route, especially white, never the standard black, too hot in the summer, that looks great, looks like its even.