The Main Problem With Spray On Bed Liners
Spray on bed liners finish the looks of a pickup bed probably better than any other bed coating option. Particularly now that the bed liner coating color can match the paint of your pickup. However, bed liners come with numerous problems. If you’re thinking of getting a spray liner or already have one, here are a couple of ideas to consider.
Permanent may not always be best. Sure, it’s a plus to get a liner that lasts as long as the truck, particularly with a life-time warranty. But that in no ways means you get a liner that can’t be damaged. See, the guarantee only means the liner will be repaired.
Repair means a respray with all the accompanying hassles and time spent. And in the meantime you drive a pickup with a broken liner and maybe chances of a broken bed as well. The real key to spray liner durability is the thickness of the coating. That means liner material can be torn away and worn away and still the damage may not really get to the bed itself.
Another thought you may not want to think about is how that liner gets on the truck. The only way the liner paint will stay on is with proper surface preparation. That means the paint gets sanded very aggressively. It all but gets destroyed before the liner coat goes on. Picture this. You get this new truck with the carefully applied factory paint coating and then you pay this guy to take an air sander and sand the paint almost off. Then you spray a paint coating on over that.
That’s not really necessarily a poor thing, it’s only a painful thought. That is what it takes to get that “permanent” liner.
Damage to truck beds comes as more than just scratches as well. Dents may do much more harm than scrapes can really. Dents certainly take more to repair than a couple of scratches. Dent protection is another way that liners pay for themselves. Spray coatings always add almost a full quarter inch to the bed thickness. That coat includes rubber texture material too as fast hardening paint as well. That thickness absorbs bumps while warding off damage.
For looks a sprayed liner may be unbeatable, but for protection a cheap alternative avoids some of the problems built in with spray.
Cheap rubber mats protect from impact better and are easily removed. With permanent liners, really unpleasant hauling makes a mess of the bed and you’ve no choice but to either clean it out or leave it a mess. But with temporary liners, it is an easy task to slip the mat in or out when you need it or when you don’t.
Another consideration with spray on bed liners arises when you get the price tag. A professional coating costs you big. That is a actual reason to look at other options or at least to very carefully protect the liner if you already have one.
The author has written more about plastic bed liners and rino bed liners on his sites, check them out: rino bed liner and rino bed liners.
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