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Questions

1. What is Al's Liner?
2. What is the difference between Al's Liner and other DIY Kits?
3. How does Al's Liner compare to the big name, franchise liners?
4. Is Al's Liner hazardous?
5. What will I need to spray Al's Liner?
6. What can I spray Al's Liner on?
7. What colors are available for Al's Liner and can I match Al's Liner to any color I want?
8. How durable is Al's Liner?
9. Is Al's a rust protector and/or does it prevent rust?
10. How long before I can use my new liner?
11. Does Al's Liner have a warranty?
12. How do I prepare the surface to spray?
13. Can I repair my liner if it gets damaged? If so, how would I go about it?
14. How many square feet does Al's Liner cover, and how deep would it be?
15. Can I mix sand into Al's Liner for more of a non skid surface?
16. Can Al's Liner be painted over?
17. Will Al's Liner hold up against gasoline, diesel fuel, or other petroleum based products (such as motor oil)?
18. What about bare metal, how do you prep it?

Answers

1. Al's Liner is a high build (1/32" to 1/8") polyurethane coating. It is engineered to take high levels of abuse, unlike paints that are just pretty.
2. Al's Liner is vastly superior to all DIY Kits in critical areas such as tensile strength, UV stability, and tear strength. It is not cheap epoxy or polyurethane with filler and solvents added to reduce cost.
3. With a few exceptions, Al's Liner represents a new generation of polyurethane linings. Most of the big name franchise liners use very old and out of date technologies. Al's Liner is more UV stable and tougher than Rhino, Line X and blows the doors off the liners like Reflex, Armorthane, etc. Since you control the application it's very probable that no one, even the pros, can match your Al's Liner application.
4. Al's Liner was engineered to be very safe to use. There not a safer coating on the market, but you must be responsible and avoid prolonged skin contact or inhalation. Your lungs were designed for clean air, not dust, smoke or chemicals. Spraying in a well ventilated room and wearing a good 1/2 face respirator with chemical cartridges is a wonderful start.
5. It could be sprayed with a number of guns, but we recommend using the Al's Liner Spray Gun. It's very inexpensive and requires no maintenance. It will last forever and was designed by Al's to give you great results.
6. Anything but hard plastic. Al's Liner works great on wood, fiberglass, and metal. Some surfaces may require scuffing and priming.
7. Al's Liner is available in Black, Grey, and Light Tan. You can use any automotive pigment including pearls or metal flakes to match any color. Call our technical support team to discuss custom coloring.
8. There is no coating that is more durable. There never has been and probably never will be. Al's Liner is the top of the food chain when it comes to spray-on polyurethane linings.
9. Al's Liner bonds directly to the substrate so no moisture or air can get in. If it rusts, it will have to come from the backside. Al's Liner is a little over qualified as an undercoating. No undercoating or rust prohibitor has the physical properties of Al's. They are not intended to have good physical properties.
10. Al's Liner is dry to the touch in 1 hour. Light duty use in 24 hours and heavy abuse in 72 hours.
11. We warranty Al's Liner to not deteriorate due to UV exposure or degrade in any way. The warranty does not cover physical damage and the application is up to you. If you do not mix it properly or prep the surface correctly, that falls under the applicator. Be sure to read the mix and spray instructions carefully.
12. Wood requires no preparation. Fiberglass and metal need to be scuffed with 36 grit or coarser medium. Sand blasting will give you a great surface. Wipe clean with a good solvent to eliminate surface contamination.
13. Al's Liner bonds very well to itself. Minor damage can be repaired with a brush. Major damage will probably need to be sprayed. Al's can also be used to repair other bed liners or as a top coat to extend and save your existing bed liner.
14. It's simple arithmetic. Al's is 85% solids so it will cover 22 sq ft. Per gallon at 1/16" thick, 44 sq ft. Per gallon at 1/32" thick (31 mils) or 88 sq ft. If you want more coverage, you will sacrifice protection.
15. Yes, but you might sacrifice toughness. Since Al's Liner is stronger than sand, consider changing spray techniques to obtain a rougher surface. Our tech support will be more than happy to help.
16. Yes. Use a polyurethane paint for best results.
17. There is no better polyurethane against petroleum. The only time there is an issue is if you know the products will pool and set on the liner for long periods of time. If pooling is going to take place, you are better off with an epoxy coating.
18. Scuff the metal with 36 grit or coarser media and/or blast then apply a light coat of etching primer. Spray on a light coat of Al's primer and spray.

Spray Techniques

Al's Liner can be applied in various fashions and can have the chemical ratio altered to achieve various textures. Below are our recommendations to achieve the textures and thickness you desire.

Application and Training Video

1. Reaching your desired thickness:
   
   Al’s Liner can be effective at various thickness, depending on your application you will not always want the 65 mil application most coating systems talk about. With one gallon of Al’s Liner you will get 20 to 25 mils thickness across a 60 SF area and 60 to 65 mils thickness across a 20 SF area. We have found that the easiest way to determine the depth of your coating, (without out using a mil gauge), is to simply measure out your area to be sprayed and then determine the amount of material needed using the guidelines above, for example. 20SF at 25 mils would require 1/3 gallon of Al’s Liner. Please remember it is simple to make your own mil gauge using a piece of thin sheet metal, cutting it to a point and marking the required depth. This will help novice applicators get the feel for applying an even coat of Al’s Liner.   
    
2. Achieving Different Textures (Air Flow and Trigger Control):
   
   This will fall into two sections, first being air flow settings and trigger control. When trying to vary the roughness of your texture, the simplest method is to play with your air flow and trigger. You can increase the air flow and reduce the pull on your trigger to break the material into smaller particles and get the rough grainy texture of sand paper. If you want to get an orange peel look or larger clumps that will smooth out during the curing process, reduce the air flow and pull the gun trigger farther to increase the size of the particles sprayed from the tip. You can adjust these settings to fine tune the texture and still maintain the vertical hang of the material.
   
   Achieving Different Textures (Reducing the Catalysis Mix):
   
   Another method used to vary textures is to reduce the amount of the Chemical Part C that is listed in the mix chart. The catalysis is what provides the vertical hang in our mixture; it also causes the material to thicken and produces the standard texture you will see. You can cut the Chemical Part C ratio in half and reduce the thickness and increase the cure time of the material allowing for a smoother finish. Using this method and the air flow and trigger methods you can achieve a virtually smooth finish. The down side to reducing Chemical Part C is that you will lose vertical hang and will begin to see sag in the material on vertical applications. To prevent sag, simply reduce the thickness of your applications and apply multiple layers to get the depth you are looking for. With a ½ ratio of Chemical side C we recommend applying no more than 20 mils at one time, allow to set for 10 to 15 minutes and spray the second layer. The material will bond to itself and allow you to get a 65 mil thickness is you so desire. For more tips and tricks to varying texture and thickness feel free to contact us at 800-999-6841.
    
3. Adding Metallic Flake or Aggregates to Al's Liner:
   
   Al's Liner excepts a large variety of additives, be it metallic flake for appearance or aggregates for non-skid and traction control. First let's look at Metallic Flakes: the easiest and most affective way to add metallic to your coatings is to spray your base coat with the color of your choice. Then mix a micro batch of natural material and add Ultra Fine Metallic, it is very important to only use Ultra Fine Metallic, an inexpensive place to get this type of flake, believe it or not, is Lure Kraft. They provide Ultra Fine Metallic for fishing lure makers. The amount of metallic mixed is up to you, you can go with a heavy mix and get a thick layer of metallic or lighten the load for a subtle flake over lay. Mix the micro batch and mist coat the entire area immediately after spraying the base coat. The thin mist coat will bond to the uncured base coat and dry clear to give you a brilliant metallic look. Now let's look at Aggregates: Al's Liner will accept virtually any aggregate, the most popular are sand or pebbles and of course rubber granules. The only restraint is making sure the size of the aggregate is small enough to be sprayed though the port of you Al's Liner Spray Gun. You can find a large variety of sizes and colors at your local TSC Stores or most Hardware Stores. Rubber load is commonly used on trailer gates and floors as well as decks and entry ways, it provides a non-skid additive and is not rough on bare feet or animals etc. Sand and gravel provide a similar non-skid additive but can be hard to the touch. Our recommendation for aggregate mixture would be a 25% mix, so if you are mixing 1 gallon of Al's, we recommend approximately 4 cups of rubber granules for more information of metallic or aggregates.

   Al's Cleaning Recommendations

   Al's Liner can be easily cleaned from the substrate and from the application gun. Below are our recommendations for cleaning spills, over spray and left over material in your spray gun.

4. Cleaning up over spray or spilled material:
   
   Al’s Liner can be cleaned in a couple of different ways. The easiest and recommended manner of cleaning up over spray or spilled material is to wipe the material up using denatured alcohol and any type of cloth that suits the surface you are wiping. This will remove the coating prior to it setting up and prevent you from having to scrape the dried material. If you have a spill or over spray on a finish surface, it should peel off once it has set up but be careful, Al's will adhere to scuffs and scratches that you might not see. We recommend getting the material off before it sets up.   
   
   Cleaning your Al's Liner Spray Gun:
   
   Cleaning your Al's Liner Spray Gun is as simple as it gets, once you have finished with your application, leave the air on and lock the trigger back, place the gun into a bucket or area that you can allow the left over material to blow out. Allow it to sit for a couple of minutes until the majority of the material has been blown out of the reservoir. Release the trigger and disconnect or shut off the air. Allow the gun to set up for 6 to 24 hours and then simply dismantle the gun and remove the hardened material. If you are continually spraying the same color, there is no need to clean the gun between batches, as long as you don't let the material harder between spraying. If you do need to switch colors and the gun has wet material left, pour some denatured alcohol in to the reservoir to break down the remaining material. Pour out the alcohol and dismantle the gun cleaning each part to insure no contamination of the new color.  
    

Spray Gun Break Down

pray

If you have other questions, please contact us and we will get you the support you need.  Email us or you can phone us at  (802) 645 9100.