has anyone used the self applied bed liner called herculiner, if so how do you like it

 

simply put it's junk if you haul anything. my neighbor spent a whole day scuffing the bed of a brand new Ranger and one day spreading the stuff(after wiping it clean with thinner). it takes alot more than they say to get decent coverage, and starts to flake off in 6-8 months. never hauled anything but groceries and wore it out. you are better off getting one sprayed in with a warranty.

 

Herculiner is GREAT when properly applied to a properly prepared surface. I applied mine in early April and it's holding up very well. I do have a drop-in liner on top of it in the bed but there are no signs of wear. However, I only have herculiner on the tailgate and the are still no signs of wear. 5 qts allowed 2 coats on my long bed & tailgate.

'01 350 PSD CC 4X4 LARIAT / '00 LAND ROVER DISCO II CCP SRP ACE

 

If it's peeling off then it wasn't done right. I've had the Herculiner for quite a while now. It does give you a non skid surface. As far as protection I wouldn't rank it very high. For light duty use it's ok. For rough stuff I wouldn't recomend it. Because it is thin(no where near the 1/4" spray-ins are)it scratches and chips easilly right down to the metal. It took lots of prep work and some time to install the Herculiner. Looking back, I think I would get a spray in.

 

 

Thanks, think ill spend the extra $300.00 and get it done right!

 

I went to Farm & Fleet and got the thick rubber bed mat, and tailgate mat for about 85$. These mats are very durable for loading, stuff like washers, dryers, fridges, etc. etc., and clean easily. If my front and sides get scared up, I will use the bedliner spray for that later. JC Whitney has them also.

Bubba
2002 Ford SD F-250 XL

 

OK, I finished the Herculiner job over the weekend. In my case it took about four days, because I had so much work to do to prepare the surface. I had some rust where the old paint had been scratched through. That I had to scrape and sand, and then treat with Chesterton rust converter. Much of the bed had been painted over with some cheap stuff that was starting to peel, so I did a lot of hand scraping to get rid of that. I also discovered a brazed patch that was bondoed over, and there was a bent rail to straighten with the bottle jack, and a little sheet metal dent to fix. I washed it out with soap and water after the Chesterton, and when it dried, I put some rust-oleum primer on the rust.

I got the Herculiner kit at Pep Boys, and acetone to clean up. I asked for xylene, but they'd never heard of it. Big mistake: acetone doesn't work at all to clean the liner material. It's OK for cleaning the bed before you apply it, but I'm typing this with black fingers because nothing I've found has any effect on Herculiner. If you do this, do whatever it takes to get xylene. The stuff on my fingers, though, is some indication of how extremely tough this material is.

Masking is easier than for ordinary painting, because you only have to worry about roller splatter, not overspray. I masked it with the tailgate on, carrying one piece of tape all the way across the back, and then cut thru the tape to open the gate. That gets you a straight line. They say to take the gate off, but this is just a work truck, so I didn't bother. I was able to reach everything I had to with the brush.

The scotch pad was missing from my kit, but no problem because this is the kind of thing that really should be done with an orbital sander. I used 100 grit screen. The gallon can was dented, and impossible to open without damaging it so it couldn't be closed again. The opener that comes with the kit is garbage, it just bends. But I had another opener, a screwdriver, and a wonder bar, so I finally got into the stuff. All in all, it looks like I should have opened the box at Pep Boys first.

Mixing was not as bad as they say, you work it up and down with a stick, and there comes a point where suddenly the big clumps all dissolve. The roller that comes with the kit has no handle, just the bare steel end of the bail, so I cut a piece of wood and drilled it to fit. The big roller surprise is that the sponge roller cover material dissolves in the Herculiner, and about an hour into rollering, it starts to disintegrate in big clumps. For both coats, I was able to just barely finish as it started to come apart. But this is less of a problem for the finish than it might seem, because the particles of rubber in the mix match fairly well with the extra debris from the roller. I'm not sure about their brush, because I used an old bristle one of mine, and it wasn't affected at all. You can wrap the brush in plastic after the first coat, and it'll still be usable two hours later for the second coat. Thereafter, just toss it.

One thing you'll need that they don't tell you about is a big sheet of polyethylene or an expendable plastic tarp. Even after two hours, the first coat isn't really ready to walk on, so you have to protect it while you do the second coat. Another thing worth having is one of those rubber kitchen scrapers, the kind you use to get the last of the mayonnaise out of the jar. I bought two extra quarts instead of just one, and needed both of them. Between the three cans, that scraper probably saved me about $5 - $10 worth of the liner material. At $100 per gallon, it costs a bunch more than mayonnaise. A gallon and a half was just barely enough, I scraped all three cans clean.

All in all, there are two situations where Herculiner is ideal. One is for crummy old work trucks like mine, where appearance isn't too important. You get good rust protection in a usable bed for under $200 plus your labor. The other is for ultra high end show trucks where you want to do your own custom job, not settle for the same job that the same spray guy at the liner shop does on all the other trucks. It'll take a lot of experimentation and practice to get the effects you want, but despite the troublesome accessories, the material itself is wonderfully controllable. You'll just need a couple trucks to practice on and develop techniques first. In between those extremes, Herculiner is a good choice if you're willing to do the necessary prep work. If you'd rather just throw money at the problem, take it to one of the spray shops.

As for durability and friction, I can't say yet because it hasn't dried completely. In a couple weeks it may be fair to comment on that.



-- J.S.

 

> (after wiping it clean with thinner)

That could be the problem, if he used ordinary mineral spirits paint thinner. The instructions say to clean the surface with Acetone, Xylene, or MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone). Ordinary alkyd paint thinner contains some light oils, which is why it's called oil based paint. The oils act as a mold release agent, if you had enough oil on the bed, you could probably pull the Herculiner out complete in one piece.