[Justintoxicated]

So I was towing a battery home and didn't have it strapped down like I should have. At some point the new battery fell over and leaked some acid out of one of the cell seals on the top that wasn't pushed in all the way. When I got home I hosed it off with water for about 20 minutes. When I got back from camping 2 days later I noticed that I had some bubbles in the liner, I hosed it down again and dumped a large box of backing soda all over the bed. A week later more bubbles appeared so I gave it the baking soda and water treatment again. I talked to some people who deal with acid and the like and did some online research and they suggested cutting open the bubbles so that I could flush them out.

But now my bed looks like ****. What is the best way to repair this? I think If I was to have the bed re-sprayed it would cost about $2100 or so, so that's probably not a very good option for an 11 year old truck with 96k on it. Is there some roll in liner that might look close to what I have? I don't want to invest a ton of time and money into this as I still have an axle leak I need to address as well.

Here's the pictures:

Initial Spill
IMG_20161007_144744 by glamisduner, on Flickr

The bubbles, cracking and discoloration after a week and the backing soda treatments:
IMG_20161015_124810 by glamisduner, on Flickr

3rd Baking Soda Treatment and reaction after a few hours:
IMG_20161015_154602 by glamisduner, on Flickr

Here's the bubbles I cut open to flush out the acid that might be underneath. I guess I will flush this then grind them down more with a wire wheel?
IMG_20161015_164912 by glamisduner, on Flickr
IMG_20161015_164937 by glamisduner, on Flickr
IMG_20161015_164958 by glamisduner, on Flickr
IMG_20161015_164933 by glamisduner, on Flickr

So My plan is to do a 4th baking soda flush, grind these down and open them up more, then patch it with something? But what can I use to patch this liner?

Theres several other areas that are mushy now (although not bubbled) not sure if I should try to cut and remove these too? Is there any hope or at this point am I just making it worse? This isn't the easiest stuff to cut out of the bed.

 

[Justintoxicated]

I'm also reading that I might be better off just buying a new truck bed? But If I'm going to go that far, I think I may as well just buy a new truck?

 

[JLG7820]

I had a spill like that years ago in the floor board of my k5 blazer. I had removed the carpets and had a spray liner in the floor boards. My battery tipped off the back seat and I didn't see it for a few days. It ate through the liner and I used baking soda and then coke a cola to clean and stop the corrosion. Some hillbilly at ace hard ware told me about the coke and it worked. I then bought a quart of the Bedliner and painted it in the bad spots and eventually after several coats of filling in it looked ok. Hope this helps.

 

[Justintoxicated]

I had a spill like that years ago in the floor board of my k5 blazer. I had removed the carpets and had a spray liner in the floor boards. My battery tipped off the back seat and I didn't see it for a few days. It ate through the liner and I used baking soda and then coke a cola to clean and stop the corrosion. Some hillbilly at ace hard ware told me about the coke and it worked. I then bought a quart of the Bedliner and painted it in the bad spots and eventually after several coats of filling in it looked ok. Hope this helps.

Which bedliner though? I don't know where to get factory nissan brand I'm not sure weather or not to remove the mushy area or leave them be at this point? I might call insurance but they might just tell me the truck is totaled if the fix is replacing the bed (since it's a 2005)

 

[JLG7820]

It was hurculiner from ace hard ware but I'm sure anything would be good

 

[Justintoxicated]

So after looking at everything again and before cutting off the 1 foot srtip of soft liner I realized that there were bubbles in the liner where the acid never touched. So I think the acid may not have caused the bubbles I was cutting out in the first place.

Rather I think it is just a problem with the factory liner. I know the 2005's were prone to bubbling issue I guess it just took some years for mine to surface. I decided not to cut into anymore of the bubbles as they were on the drivers side where no acid spilled. So I guess I really just cut up the bubbles in my liner without them necessarily being related to the acid spill (the acid damaged areas just ate the silicate like substance off the surface. But in fact int he picture I think I can see where it actually ran down the bed around the bubbles and other areas were not touched at all.

So whats next then? Wire wheel to clean those holes I cut then apply new liner?

I also found the soft mushy area became hard again when cooled down with water...I think it's just the crappy spray in liner but I don't really want to turn this into a bigger repair than I need to, so I'm thinking to just leave it alone and fix the areas that I cut the bubbles out of?

Looks like my options are $90 for 1 gallon of roll on, or 16oz aresol cans for $12 each. Any suggestions?
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d...296_2902&keyword=bed+liner&pt=N1832&ppt=C0339

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d...296_2902&keyword=bed+liner&pt=N1832&ppt=C0339

 

[Arachnid]

I would get a wheel and remove all the loose material, then roll on a new product. Herculiner makes a kit that I've heard works pretty well.

 

[Justintoxicated]

would a quart of this stuff get me close to OEM look? https://www.amazon.com/review/RM5AT...etail-glance&nodeID=15684181&store=automotive

I guess just use a bunch of coats in each hole after I hit it with a wire brush?

I would get a wheel and remove all the loose material, then roll on a new product. Herculiner makes a kit that I've heard works pretty well.

nothing against herculiner but from the pictures it does not look like the factory stuff at all. I'm thinking I should get something that is a close match. I'm thinking removing all the loose material would be too time consuming, (better to just have it professionally re-done). So for now I just want to remove the loose area around the holes as best as I can then apply a new product to fill the holes. So I'm looking for something that would work well for this purpose. If Herculiner will work better for this repair then I will get that. Really I have no idea what I am doing.

 

[HRTKD]

There is a video out on the internet of one of the big bed liner install places removing an OEM Ford bed liner. I don't know how long the whole thing took but the Ford bed liner came off it sheets. Granted, they were using power tools and we're not dealing with a brand new Ford bed liner.

Trying a brush on bed liner isn't going to hurt anything. It's worth a try. Walmart sells a gallon can of the Rustoleum brand.

 

[CVTitan05]

When i was at Line-X of Corona, i think they told me it was like $800 to re-shoot the entire bed. But it was a while ago, and my memory might be spotty... It might've been $1,800....

 

[Justintoxicated]

When i was at Line-X of Corona, i think they told me it was like $800 to re-shoot the entire bed. But it was a while ago, and my memory might be spotty... It might've been $1,800....

As much as I like my truck still, it's only worth about 9k I think. It has 96k miles, so investing 1k in a bed liner, fixing my axle leak, and a bunch of costmetic stuff just seems against the numbers. While I was looking at the bed, I noticed my clear coat is starting to flake on the roof too

Still keeping it running and maintenance but I also need a transmission flush colant flush etc. By the time I fix all this stuff it's 1/2 the value of the truck invested.

I guess I'll get a can of liner and try to touch it up. but I'm wondering if I should leave the hard foam like crap that is the base layer for the nissan liner as shown in the pics (lots of surface area) or wire wheel it down to bare metal?

 

[CVTitan05]

Either $2-3k in repairs/touch up, etc. for the truck to run for another 96k miles. or $30-$60k on a new truck. I see a no brainer.

 

[LaxDfns15]

I would leave the foam. Protects the bed from getting dented which in turn protects the liner from cracking due to the dents.

You can do what this guy did. Cheap in the long run except for the amount of manual labor he put into it.

http://www.titantalk.com/forums/detailing-truck-care/303065-diy-bed-liner-pictures.html