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Bed Liner Material on Floor Pans?

1001001

Well Known Member
I'm considering applying truck bed liner material (paint-on kind, either spray or brush) to my floor pans (front and rear) in my RV-10 to help protect the floor and prevent any moisture that might get in the carpet--from snowy or wet shoes--from contributing to corrosion.

Also, the liner material should be tough enough to resist abrasion over the years.

My floor pans are already primed with S/W epoxy strontium chromate primer.

Anyone have experience and/or other thoughts about this? If you have done this, what products did you use and how did you apply them?
 
This might be a great thing for Professor Horton to feed to his fire breathing dragon.
 
This might be a great thing for Professor Horton to feed to his fire breathing dragon.

I don't expect to install it on the firewall, and will likely have a stainless applique on the belly as others have done, aft of the cowl.
 
Devils advocate here.
This stuff is known for cracking in the corners.
How's the moisture going to get back out if you get what ever in the crack and between the angles and floor?
Gonna take awhile.
Possible corrosion? Kinda like the guy who thought it was a good idea to put expanding foam under the floor pans he put over the angles. Caused a bit of a problem.
I'd rather put a piece of carpet or ?? down there. At least I I can remove it to dry up that brake fluid that leaked.
Art
 
Fire

Don't want to think about it but that skin is probably going to get a nice scorch if the engine starts belching fire owing to our cooling air outflow.

Anything that might produce a toxic cloud by that little scorch may be problematic...there is a lot of speculation here.

Some folks go with stainless steel for the bottom panel in that area. Probably stop the burn through but not the heat on the carpet.

For what it's worth I went a different route. There is a product with a ceramic fiber layer with stainless steel foil on one side and sometimes aluminum foil on the other. In hopes of buying a little more time in the case of a fire and getting some of the insulation qualities desired, I installed that stuff stainless steel side down on my floor panels.

Will it stop a fire bad enough to melt the stringers? No way. But if it's just a good scorch and maybe a burn through of just a little skin between the stringers then maybe?

Maybe keep the heat off the carpet for a little longer?
 
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Devils advocate here.
This stuff is known for cracking in the corners.
How's the moisture going to get back out if you get what ever in the crack and between the angles and floor?
Gonna take awhile.

Good point

...
I'd rather put a piece of carpet or ?? down there. At least I I can remove it to dry up that brake fluid that leaked.
Art

I do plan to put carpet down, but I'm concerned with the carpet holding moisture from shoes (snow, rain, etc.) against the metal floor pan.
 
I used skateboard grip tape on my wing walk, 500 hours and it looks like new. This should work great for your floor pans. available in almost any color, cut to fit, cheap and easilly removable.
 
Don't want to think about it but that skin is probably going to get a nice scorch if the engine starts belching fire owing to our cooling air outflow.

Anything that might produce a toxic cloud by that little scorch may be problematic...there is a lot of speculation here.

Some folks go with stainless steel for the bottom panel in that area. Probably stop the burn through but not the heat on the carpet.

For what it's worth I went a different route. There is a product with a ceramic fiber layer with stainless steel foil on one side and sometimes aluminum foil on the other. In hopes of buying a little more time in the case of a fire and getting some of the insulation qualities desired, I installed that stuff stainless steel side down on my floor panels.

Will it stop a fire bad enough to melt the stringers? No way. But if it's just a good scorch and maybe a burn through of just a little skin between the stringers then maybe?

Maybe keep the heat off the carpet for a little longer?


I'm not sure about the other RVs, but the -10 has a floor pan separated from the outside skin by several ribs in all footwell positions.

I am considering, but have not committed to, installing a stainless sheet under the floors behind the cowl, but I have a similar concern: what do you do about water that gets in between the aluminum skin and the stainless fire/heat shield? Especially if there is fiber insulation sandwiched between them? I plan to fly IFR a lot (can't get around flying in moisture around these parts), and am seriously concerned about that.
 
I'm not sure about the other RVs, but the -10 has a floor pan separated from the outside skin by several ribs in all footwell positions.

Well that's me being ignorant. Rather than deleting my post I'll just share that mine is a -7 with nothing beneath your feet but the stringers and outer aluminum skin.
 
I am considering, but have not committed to, installing a stainless sheet under the floors behind the cowl, but I have a similar concern: what do you do about water that gets in between the aluminum skin and the stainless fire/heat shield? Especially if there is fiber insulation sandwiched between them? I plan to fly IFR a lot (can't get around flying in moisture around these parts), and am seriously concerned about that.

I have carpets atop my insulation. If I need to pull out wet carpets I also pull out the insulation to dry.
 
I have carpets atop my insulation. If I need to pull out wet carpets I also pull out the insulation to dry.

I guess I'm not so much concerned about soaking wet carpets, as ones that get slightly moist.

Maybe if I were to apply a waterproofing layer to the bottom of the carpets so that the water stays in the carpet and can't contact the metal?
 
I’ve got a commercial truck bed liner sprayed in to my pickup truck bed, and I love it - except if it gets dirty. Because its rough, its impossible to get all the little stuff out except by hosing it out (which works great!). How will you hose out the floor of your airplane if it gets full of grit and dirt?

And then, of course, it is heavy, and you’d definitely want to do a flame test on ANY material you put in your airplane…..

Paul
 
I’ve got a commercial truck bed liner sprayed in to my pickup truck bed, and I love it - except if it gets dirty. Because its rough, its impossible to get all the little stuff out except by hosing it out (which works great!). How will you hose out the floor of your airplane if it gets full of grit and dirt?

And then, of course, it is heavy, and you’d definitely want to do a flame test on ANY material you put in your airplane…..

Paul

Also very good points.
 
Polyurethane

I'm painting my floors and also the rest of the interior using 2 pack industrial polyurethane in semi-gloss finish. It is relatively tough and hard wearing and can be applied in one or more coats. It's applied with a normal spray gun and can be spot repaired and touched up in future.
 
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