DIY Bedliner Question

[Mike J]

So while I was looking for a thread that another member here posted they had lost I ran across this. I wound up going with a spray in liner done by a local company. I haven't really abused it yet but I am happy with the job they did. I believe they said the liner they used is made by Dow Chemical though I am unsure of any brand name.

After I had the truck bed done I decided to have my old diamond plate box that had been on the old truck done. I didn't want to put a beat up box on a brand new truck. I thought about trying to polish it out but it was scratched & gouged pretty badly. They sprayed it for $100 & I have had several people comment on how good it looks. It was also a good bit cheaper than ponying up for a new box.

 

[Chief 101]

I would use a liner...that would allow you to slide stuff out rather than having to crawl on your knees to get stuff out...

 

[exavid]

I've had both Rhino and Line-x in two of my trucks. They both work well but the Line-X gives a lifetime warranty as long as you own the truck. They will also color match but I find the black good enough and don't want to pay the premium for the color match. The did a nice job getting rid of some 5th wheel hitch bolt holes in the bed of my F250. Just put a piece of tape over it, sprayed the bed liner on the bed and no more holes. Never even saw a dimple where they were. Still looking good after 10 years. One bonus was my 10' Lance camper sat better on the liner than on the smooth steel. Never shifted in heavy crosswinds like it did before the liner was installed. I've never seen a homemade job that looks as good. Not to mention if you manage to gunch up your home applied liner you'd have to fix it yourself.

 

[protoolman]

:roll: I work part time for a friend loading block pallets and building materials off all sorts. This is in the oil fields and lots of agricultural customers too. No spray in bedliners especially in the oil fields. Way too grippy. You can't slide anything in. With a forklift you can but it will.tear up the bedliner or.abrade whatever you're trying to slide in. Its way easier if you really use the bed of your truck to haul anything to leave it alone so you can slide things in and out. Number one bedliner on the heavy use commercial tonner pickups in the oilfield is 3/4" cdx plywood. I always wonder why people listen to bedliner ads saying the product is grippy. Why the heck would you want to make it impossible to slide heavy objects in and out of your pickup? But then my brother got the optional carpeted bed on his pickup :roll:

 

[redhawker]

Can't beat Line-X. Had Line-X in my old truck, a 2004 Ram and it was still in great shape when I traded it in about a month ago. First thing I did to the new Ram was get it Line-x'ed I actually found the old receipt for the Line-X in the old ram and it only cost about $30 more to have it done to the new truck 12 years later. It was right around $430 this time, well worth it.

 

[Bull Barrel]

A friend used to be a Vortex dealer. I have sprayed garage floors with it. That stuff is tough.

 

[Jeepnik]

I've had Line-X, Rhino, and now something call Wolf. Other than fading from black to sorta gray, all have held up well. I know Rhino has some colors, but I don't know if they will "match".

 

[Mobuck]

A few months back, I bought an older Chevy crew cab that had most of the paint missing from the floor of the bed. Not dented or dinged badly-just worn from having ladders and stuff dragged in and out.
Thursday, I spent most of the day applying Rustoleum Bedliner to the lower 1/2 of the interior of the bed and the floor. I'm still not at all impressed with the DIY bed protection products. I used Herculiner on my Jeep winch bumper and found it weathered and required an "overcoat" of spray paint.
The Rustoleum product turned out to be thin and runny which didn't allow for as thick a coating especially on the vertical surfaces as I was expecting. It took 2 hours of prep time for sanding, wiping down, and masking. I mixed "parts A & B" @ 3 pm and put a final coat on @ 8:30 pm. The instruction sheet indicated the "work time" would be 3-4 hours but the remaining product in the can was still fine to use (actually I was hoping it would stiffen up somewhat for the final coat) @ 5 1/2 hours. It did set up in the can sometime overnight and the coating "tacked up" within 20 minutes after being applied(that was the suggested re-application period-15 to 30 minutes). The final result is a glossy black with minimal surface texture and very little what I would call "surface grip". Basically, it's a slick painted surface.
It's on there. It looks better than the scarred paint and certainly will protect as well(considerably better-I hope) as paint. I don't intend to run this pickup for more that 3 years so certainly don't want to spend big bucks on a real bedliner application.

 

[Mike J]

Mobuck- I did wind up springing for a professionally done bedliner. Before I did though I tried a rattlecan product made by duplicolor. I used it one the inside of the old diamondplate box I had on my old truck. It ain't the best but it got rid of the aluminum dust that got on anything I put in the box from where my toolboxes, etc were "fretting" it.

I took the truck box to the bedliner place too. They sprayed the exterior of it with bedliner. I have gotten a lot of compliments on the box. Many have asked, "did you buy that box like that?" They seem surprised to learn I put a fresh coat of paint (so to speak on a 16 year old truck box. It was cheaper than buying a new box though & I wouldn't have put that box on a new truck the way it looked.

 

[BlkHawk73]

Had a customer come in this past week for a spare liner. Went out and spoke with him about it as i often do the prep if I'm not busy and occasionally spray the product. He seemed concerned about moisture from his bedmate. Huh? yup, he was getting it sprayed but still gong to use a rubber bedmat.
Maybe I shouldn't be surprised as in the past we've had customers that didn't want their plastic bedliner scratched so had cardboard under their cargo. ???? Another was upset the paint on the INSIDE of their dumpbody got scratched off. they're out there.

 

[Mobuck]

"Why the heck would you want to make it impossible to slide heavy objects in and out of your pickup? "
Well, I for one usually haul those types of loads on a trailer or flatbed after having a couple of bad experiences with Dufus and Dorkface loading pallets in a pickup bed. I need the surface to have a little traction so the stuff I put in the BACK of the box doesn't end up in the FRONT of the bed plus at my age, if I have to walk around in the bed, I don't want a slick surface. For my uses, a surface coating is easier to work with than a slide in liner. About 1/2 my trailers are gooseneck so unless I install a super tall ball, the slide in liner interferes with the GN hitch.