I just finished making some bed lids for a truck project.

I made the lids out of 1/8" aluminum, BUT the aluminum had several scratches in it that would take forever to get out [I know several ways to get the scratches out, but they are really time consuming, and this truck isn't going to be at that level of paint].

So I did try to paint the surface with basic Nason urethane single stage paint, and of course it looks awful. [using epoxy urethane primer first].

I would like to have a textured effect to, mask some of the deeper scratches, and make the lid surface look more uniform. FTR, I'm also thinking of something like a bed liner texture.

I thought about just shooting the lids with several really dry coats of paint, but I would like to know first if there is a better alternative. Oh, and I called my local auto paint store, and they don't sell any kind of paint that would have a textured effect.

Any ideas guys? Also, I couldn't find anything with a net search except for spray bomb type textured paints.

We've had to do many different faking textures over the years with furniture and even metal office fixtures. Easiest way to maintain an even texture surface is pretty much like what the custom ceiling guys do which is simply rolling with special texture rollers or even making "stomping"brushes. Here is a simple texture roller that can leave various levels of texture depending on how wet/thick your material is....http://www.homedepot.com/p/Wooster-9-in ... /204330283
You quite commonly see that same roller cut up into thirds and supplied with most truck bed roll kits. Another type of roller is a foam stone roller (also sold at Home Depot) and a more refined look, sea sponge roller. You can even add aggregate like play sand to bed liner to come up with some pretty unique surfaces. Stomping brushes are a round style long spiky fiber brush. You take pliers and start pulling out random fibers so you get varied squish patterns as you stomp your material. As you can tell I'm more of a fan of bed liner however you can slow down most single stage urethane epoxy materials enough to quickly go back and pattern the stuff as long as you aren't working too big of panels at one time. Our last project was using Al's Bedliner for our own cargo trailer. We wanted a custom gray colored non-slip surface for the floor and ramp. We used that textured roller I gave you a link for and combined that with an order of extra rubber nib. We caught a big sale over at Autoanything for that.

Darrel just about covered it. but check out Sems chip guard 3M also has it .
Jay D.

I ordered this stuff this afternoon after getting lucky on a net search.

I think you apply it, then paint over the textured part.

I will also give your suggestions a try, thanks.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-Sem-P ... SwfcVUIMdn

I use UPOL bed liner reduced from a 2.0 tip. Can use different tip sizes and reduced ratio to achieve other textures. I'll post a few pics tomorrow

What size tip/nozzle for an old Binks 2001 paint gun?

I need to get another tip for shooting heavy stuff.

M-train wrote:I ordered this stuff this afternoon after getting lucky on a net search.

I think you apply it, then paint over the textured part.

I will also give your suggestions a try, thanks.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-Sem-P ... SwfcVUIMdn

SEM Texture Coating works well and produces various textures depending on application technique. One use of many is for the suede finish on dash tops when doing restorations, instead using PPG DX1999. A jobber in your area is bound to have, or can acquire SEM.

Here are some UPOL samples that I have sprayed and tested alongside UPOL
I went anywhere from 30psi down to 10psi in 5psi increments.

SATA 2.0 RP

The bigger rougher texture was a UPOL gun

Hard to tell but the first three are very fine like you see on some OEM car plastic

nice ! ^^^^
Jay D.