How To Repaint A Tonneau Cover

Tonneau covers protect the bed of a truck and any items in it from objects that may damage them. A tonneau cover benefits you in many ways such as it improves fuel efficiency by providing more miles per gallon of gas because of its aerodynamic appearance. But your tonneau cover might just get faded because of UV rays coming from the direct sunlight.

Since a tonneau cover covers a large area, they might look ugly even with a small defect in painting. You don’t want anyone to see your truck like this ugly, do you? You can repaint your tonneau cover by following the instructions we are going to discuss below.

Tonneau covers come in both hard and soft materials and the processes for repainting them are slightly different from one another. Because soft tonneau covers are usually made of vinyl fabric and hard tonneau covers are made of aluminum. If you use the wrong procedure, it can damage your tonneau cover.

How to Repaint a Hard Tonneau Cover

You will need the following things to repaint your hard tonneau cover. Grab them before start re-painting the cover.

• 600-grit sandpaper
• 800-grit sandpaper
• A ratchet
• Color for paint (of your choice)
• Primer (A preparatory coating)

Procedure

Followings are the procedure of repainting a hard tonneau cover. Now, let’s get started from the beginning.

• Firstly, using a rachet open and unbolt the cover from the truck. You may need someone’s help to remove the cover from the truck and place it somewhere so that you can access every side of the tonneau cover.
• Now, using 600-grit sandpaper sand the cover while keeping continuous water flow over the sandpaper. It protects any dents and dirt from building upon the surface of the cover and scratching the cover. Deep scratches can be seen through new paintings.
• Using 800-grit sandpaper, sand the cover again to reduce the sanding scratches made with the 600-grit sandpaper. While sanding the cover make sure that the 800-grit sandpaper is wet for better results. Then, clean the cover and let it dry completely.
• If there are any remaining particles of dirt and dust, wipe them using a tack rag before painting. This is important because those particles may appear underneath dried paint.
• Use primer spray to make a thick coat over the cover and let it dry for 30 minutes. After the primer coating is dry, spray colors four to five times for creating thin coats over the primer coating. You should wait for 30 minutes after spraying once to let the paint dry and then start spraying again. You need to spray from 6 to 8 inches distance to prevent runs in the paint.

NowOnce the paint has dried for four to five hours, you can attach your tonneau cover to the truck bed again. It is also possible to make an aluminum tonneau cover yourself.

How to repaint a vinyl tonneau cover?

Are you worried about your tonneau cover that is made of vinyl fabric? Just don’t. Because you don’t need to paint a vinyl tonneau cover. You can make a vinyl tonneau cover look new by cleaning and conditioning. To do so, you will need to gather the following things.

• Vinyl conditioner
• A brush
• A Soap
• Water Hose
• Microfiber applicator pad, cloth, and towel

The procedure of cleaning and conditioning a vinyl tonneau cover

• Firstly, wash the cover by applying running water over the cover and remove any dirt or falling debris.
• Using a soft brush, wash the surface of the cover gently so that it doesn’t affect the finishing of the cover. You can use a car washing soap or any other soap for the cleaning solution.
• Now, wipe all the dirt from it and soak the water from it using a microfiber towel to make it dry completely. You can let the cover dry under the sunlight for one or two hours because a vinyl cover can soak up a little bit of water.
• Now, using a little microfiber applicator pad rub the surface of the cover until the part of the cover looks better. Microfiber applicator is a highly concentrated conditioner that can restore and protect faded plastic, vinyl, and other things.
• After this application process, let the product soak into the vinyl for 30 minutes.
• Now, use a microfiber cloth to remove the access conditioner to polish the surface. This is important to clean the access conditioner to achieve the final shine.

You’re done with this. If you need any help opening the cover, you can find out how to open a tonneau cover [here].

Conclusion

A tonneau cover enhances your truck’s overall appearance. If the tonneau cover looks ugly itself due to faded colour or scratches over the cover, the truck won’t look good. But we’ve got you covered here, after reading this article you can now repaint or make your tonneau cover look new at home. For further inquiry leave a comment below.

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Tonneau cover for GMC Canyon
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