What is your experience with DIY spray on bedliners? What type did you use? Is it hard or gummy? Has it faded, peeled up?
I need to know what is good and what is poor. Thanks for helping me make a choice.

 

My '77 ... I first cut some round 3/4" drain holes on side of floor near side walls, then after good cleaning ... I brushed in a gallon of Iron Armor from HF mostly on the floor and lower sides (my bed got a plate floor over OEM over 30 years ago), let it cure a few days, then I put a Pendaliner 83001SRX underlip type drop in liner, it has a nice grippy additive in the material now. Followed that with Pacer Rail Guard ribbed 3.25" wide rail protection, like found in the LMC book. Pendaliner came with a tailgate portion too. I found a good deal on the 22' roll new. I had had the same stuff on my truck for over 30 years, so I knew it was/is good stuff. I did add a 3/16" stainless pop rivet at each end to prevent it coming loose, but judging by the old install, they were not needed ... plus I have bed rail tie downs. Easy to cut if you want open standard holes.

Just dusty in this first picture.








My'07 already had a dealer installed Line-X spray in done by the original owner ... it looked new still in 2009. Before long, a friend sold his Chevy, he had a short bed drop in and give it to me. I cut the sides off, but the floor with the front wall and portions inside the wheel tub area matched near perfect. That truck has a Undercover 2090v hard cover that is water proof coverage.

Not mine, but I ran across this someplace. It is "different" to say the least. Not even sure what truck it is. I think a application of Iron Armor on the floor before laying the strips would help. The OC in me would require I place the odd strip in the center.


Looks to be a working truck too.

 

I wasn't going to pay for the LineX initially and was going to do a DIY bedliner, but after I saw my brother-in-law's truck that has seen years of abuse with the LineX and it still looks new I changed my mind. To do my 8 foot box they want $800 and it comes with a lifetime warranty. The decision was pretty easy.

 

I'd just spring for Line-X if it was just the bed. I've had great success with it for all of my trucks. The amount of cash saved doing it yourself just isn't going to be worth it, IMO.

That said, I just finished applying Monstaliner to the entire body of my 1996 Land Cruiser. I briefly thought about having it Line-X'd, but the price was fairly large for the whole vehicle. After some research and seeing years of discussion of results on the Cruiser forum and other forums, I decided to give it a shot. Application was pretty straightforward. I did not spray it, I rolled it. I love the texture (not too rough, not too smooth). I don't have first-hand experience with longevity, but the reports I have seen for it are promising.

 

I haven't used it, but the raptor lining from amazon has amazing reviews and tons of youtube videos about it. I'm considering it but to 69Bronc's point, it's like $150, you have to sand the entire bed, prime any bare metal, and tape off where you don't want it... that's a lot of work to save ~$500 on having line-x professionally sprayed

 

I used raptor in my bed and inside the cab.

Only spot that peeled was in the bed and it was rusty under there. Guess I missed a spot prepping it.

Prep work is the most important part.

It's held up 2 years so far. I haven't filled the bed with rock or anything but chains, boating gear trolling motor, seats, coolers etc has not damaged it.

Once a year I fill the bed with palm branches from my 15 or so and haul to the dump with no damage. Logs etc too anything I cut down

It will scratch I have one on the fenderwell not sure from what but something got it.

It's not as tough as linex that's for sure.

Truck is garaged so can't say about the fading.
I do park it outside whenever I go somewhere (every day) but it does not live outside. Will spend all day at boat ramp on weekend and haven't noticed any fade.

The rollers that come with the kit suck. They fall apart very fast.

They sell a roller at home Depot/Lowe's I found that's made of some kind of plastic vs foam supplied rollers..it works perfect and does not fall apart. One roller whole project.

I'll post pics later

 

Oh yeah, I tried rollers with the Iron Armor, pour a little, roll it out, but it soon sucked the sponge like rollers apart. I don't think I saw plastic rollers, or I overlooked them. I found good results though just using throw away brushes, 3 or 4" wide. I did years ago use it in the cab floor of my '77 when rehabilitating the floor, I forgot about that as it's under some carpet bonded to rubber now.

I also used some left over on some wood as testing. It's great for the costs. I have a gallon unopened yet ... and another gallon poured into glass pint and quart size jars with lids on them for small stuff.

 

That roller was something like this...I cut it into pieces and used 4 inch roller

 

Looks better than any I saw to use, looks robust.

 

Here are some pics of the finished product. Best I could get in garage light I'll try more in sunlight .
The few scratches, some of the inside cab, and here is a little piece of the roller I actually used . I made 2 4 inch ones and this was leftover I kept as reminder in case I need do it again.

It is very dirty at the moment obvious from photos.
Went running around with some jeeps and a bronco Sunday in some wet limestone and sand
Lots muddy feet in and out cab and bed. Have only lightly hosed out cab and bed floor after that.

 

I will also add.... It's very nasty smelly chemical smell stuff.

When I did the cab with truck inside garage even with doors open I wasted 1/4 of the kit due to the 3rd.bottle I couldn't handle the smell didn't feel well and had to go shower and get some fresh air in my lungs. I used every bit of 3 out of 4 bottles and its nice and thick.

When I did the bed I had to purchase 2 kits due to 1 kit was not enough to do my entire bed. I used 1.5 kits, 6 bottles. If you are able to spread it through an entire bed it will be very thin, nothing like line-x (if you have 8 foot bed just plan on 2 kits)

If you want to try to cover it with 1 kit they sell a gun to spray apply that will help.
Or
I would get some of those smooth foam rollers and first application i would cover it with a smooth coat from the foam roller, the the textured roller second coat.

This stuff is nothing like line-x I have pulled dried pieces off of paint trays etc and it's plastic rubber feeling not very tough, easy to tear. Does not hold itself erect unless in thick pieces but not the thickness designed to be applied.

Linex on the other hand is tough stuff. There is a little mom pop mechanic shop around corner from where I work. We used to take a lot of our fleet there for oil changes. They have a can on the counter (beer can) open empty inside sprayed with line-x on the outside . A lot of people pick it up and squeeze it myself included and in 10 years it still does not have a dent as of last time I seen it.

 

I used Raptor liner on mine. Very happy with the results. It has a hard finish and after a little more than a year and no peeling or flaking.

 

Pendliner every time. the fastest way to devalue a classic is to use bedliner.

 

Tbear: Thx for the photos. I like it. I think I will go that route. My wheel houses are beaten up, and I was not looking forward to doing that body work. I think the Penaliner will work perfectly. Where did you find the stainless for the top of the tailgate?

 

It was bought from J.C.Whittney in 1992, my old one had a anodized aluminum one from DEEZEE ... the stainless steel one was same company as I recall. It was in the box until last year. When mounting it and the Pendaliner tail gate panel, I ran two ratchet straps from tie downs on the rails down inside the bed over the open tailgate and down to the bumper to draw them tight to the top of my tailgate before drilling any holes.. I also lined the inside of the stainless steel with some tape.

Keep in mind, looking at below,, I did not recently cover a nice original floor. I had covered the floor and some rust with steel plate in the '80s, including the bed front wall. Ever since then until recently, it had a Pro-Tecta drop in liner after a gallon of paint was poured in and spread out.

You can see a hole rusted there between the added steel and the fender well bump. It was there long ago, but it let mice build a hotel behind the well bump, under the old drop in.


Back in the '80s, I had bought a 5 ft x 10 ft sheet of 11 ga steel locally, I overlapped the galvanized bed sides 6" on each side, cutting it to length first. Used a sabre saw to cut out for the fender well humps. I had some holes by then that were there when I bought the truck. To fasten the floor in place, I used a few 5/16" carriage bolts through 3/8 holes that still gripped the squares, washerd and nutted on the under side. In 2022 I found about the same holes, and some heavy surface rust on the floor to wire brush. I bought a new bedliner because my old one had some cuts, tears, etc. I cut the old one with a sawsall and kept the floor to use if hauling an engine or other heavy item that might cut my newer one. My older one didn't have the molded in notches for boards either.


The old drop in was under the lip too, it did not rust out my bed, as I said, my bed was rust damaged when I bought the truck. It only had 35K on it but the fella what bought it new parked it in a treed area, and nature did the rest. Was why the truck was repainted already in 1986 when I bought it.