Are any of the commonly available in the socal area DIY bedliners worth a damn?

I will not be doing any heavy work in this truck. Just occasional plywood, and my mountain bike.

 

I've had the best luck with the Duplicolor Brand, available at Oreilly's. Had it in my truck bed once and on my Cummins tuck I have it on the rockers, it holds up well. Someone else asked this a month or two ago and a bunch of guys recommended one I hadn't heard of before, but their reviews were overwhelming, i'm sure they'll be along to fill you in. As always it's the prep work that'll make all the difference. And IMHO steer clear of Herculiner if you don't want it to fade. I had a '74 Suburban that I painted entirely with Herculiner, looks incredible the first week, then chalky gray after that.

 

The words "DIY roll on" AND "Bed Liners" should not be used together in the same sentence.

 

I used the aircraft stripper, a cleaner, and then 2 coats of self-etching primer on my aluminum john boat. Then I used about 6 rattle cans of the Rust-oleum brand spray on bedliner from Autozone. Its been a year now and its still shiny black and looks great after abusing it in some rough and rocky places....holds up great to tree branches too.

Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh3UMiiaalA

 

After watching the video I'm going to do this to my 06's bed that is worn out and dented like in the video. I'll get it done this weekend and take a bunch of pics to post the results. I figure it can't look worse than it already does.

 

I have used two of them. Rustoleum two part to finish the tub of an old cj-7 and misc. stuff on same project. I used Hurculiner (1 part polyurethane) on my new Dodge truck. They say prep is the most important thing. I found that it takes twice as much as the manufacturers say; but it works well. If I were rich, I would have someone else spray it in for me but then I probably wouldn't be on this forum.

 

Log Hog

Did your herculiner fade?

 

yes, the herculiner is fading. Everything fades in south Texas sunshine. Herculiner makes a renewal product that is supposed to restore original luster, haven't tried it. I have also seen the Professional spray in bedliners fade. The plastic slip in liners that I have used in the past have faded also. I was going to put a hard retractable cover on my bed, which would keep fading to a minimum but decided I needed groceries instead lol

 

They also make a UV protectant that's supposed to keep it from fading in the first place, I haven't used that either, if that works then it'd be a viable option. The PO of my '01 Cummins truck Herc'd the bed and it's of course faded but it's pretty tough stuff as far as protecting the bed, he didn't use enough to completely cover everything though

You can also use tire shine to bring back the black for a few weeks at a time, I use it on my rocker panels that are bedlinered and they look great, I just do it when I shine the tires.

 

Going with the Raptor Liner this weekend hopefully. We would have had it finished 2 weekends ago, but the wife got in a fight with an angle grinder It won, her finger lost!

 

Good Lord.

Hows the finger?

Or whats left of it?

 

Your wife knows what an angle grinder is? I'm jealous

Hopefully she's ok though. I caught a wire brush against the inside of my wrist where it's nice and tender once and realized how dangerous a simple looking tool can be.

 

Let us know about the Raptor liner. I have heard that most people feel you need 2X the recommended amount if you are accustomed to the look and thickness of Linex, or Rhino. But the cost is so low I am considering Raptor for my 66.

 

Her finger is doing better. It took off a bit of the nail near the base and chewed it up pretty good. She now avoids the angle grinder and gives it evil looks when ever she sees it, lol. She did pitch in some today and yesterday to help with the project....but she is avoiding any type of power tool!

Well, finished up today. It has taken me about 6 weeks of a little here, a little there. Yesterday I spent a solid 10 hours on the truck and finished getting everything back to bare metal, made and welded in a patch panel for the bed floor (I was proud seeing as I used nothing but a ball peen hammer and a 3" vise!). The bed was not perfect to start with. There were some areas I had to treat with rust treatment and some dents I was not really worried about. This is not a show truck and never will be. It will be used as it was intended, hauling around parts and whatever else might be needed.

Today I finished priming it with a self etching primer and sprayed in the liner. Overall I was quite impressed with the raptor liner for the money AND the results. It looks just like the professional jobs I have seen.

A couple of notes...for those with longer styleside beds like me, order a couple extra bottles of the liner as well as some more hardner. While I have everything covered, I started to realize that going with a real thick coat like I was doing at first was going to make me run out, lol. One extra bottle would have been nice, two would have been perfect.

Where gloves and don't try to tip the spray gun too far as the liner will come out of the hole in the top! Once that stuff gets on your hands it is a pain to get back off!

Mask off anything and everything you don't want to get this line on. It will get to places you did not expect. When it is wet, you can try to wipe it off, but it won't come off easily.

Now the pics

 

Nice job....