So many people are looking at a do it yourself bed liner but what can you expect with these kinds of coatings? In this article I will look at the potential to save some money with these liner coatings as well as some observations on how they work and what they don't usually mention about what it takes to put liner paint on. Read on for more ideas on installing and using liners put on with brush, roller or spray.
Are these do it yourself bed liners really cheaper as compared to a typical spray in bed liner like what you get with Rhino Liner or the Line-X? The simple answer is "yes" as the liner you put on will cost much less than if you get somebody to put it on for you. You save at least half and maybe a lot more. Now remember though that if your truck has serious damage to the bed you still have to get those damaged areas fixed somehow and that adds to the cost and must be factored in. Note also that the supplies it takes to get ready to paint, like sandpaper and maybe some primer and brushes and so forth, all add to the cost. There's more too as you see the liner you get is not really the same as the Rhino and the like. It's like this.
A liner coating you put on will end up looking almost just like the liner you can buy but it will cost a lot less. There's a reason for that in this case. Though the liner you put on looks like the high cost liner if you follow the instructions for the paint you will still use only a little over a gallon of material to build the liner. On the other hand the pro installers put on up to four or more gallons of a high solids product. That makes for a lot more coating and a lot more durability. Well what about just putting on more material? That's a possibility but in many cases due to the differences in the material you use and what Rhino or Line-X uses you will have a hard time getting it to dry. What's more by the time you put on four or five gallons of material you could have just about paid the pros to do it. So is there more?
The paint doesn't exactly jump on by itself either. To get paint to stick, any kind of paint, takes some preparation work. That always means some careful cleaning and it also means in most cases some serious abrasives work. Neither of those is particularly hard but neither can be left off either or the paint you put on will likely peel. Careful preparation is a must but often gets glossed over in the material selling liner paint. So is it worth it?
Putting on bed liner paint yourself as a do it yourself bed liner is not all that hard. If you follow the directions with the paint what you get is a liner that looks almost just like what you will get from the pros but at a lot less money. The liner coating will not be as durable as the better liners are but will be plenty good enough for many applications. There is some work to be done to get the paint to stay put but what it takes is really not complicated and really is not that hard to do either. Using roll on bed liner paint is a worthwhile project for many truck owners. It is an alternative to a plastic bed liner which comes with some problems anyway.
