Your truck has probably taken a beating over time. You should have a sense of pride in every nick and scratch in it; it’s a medal of honor that proves you are no sissy who just drives a truck to pretend like you’re tough. You’re the real deal.
However, the bed of the truck, which is often coated with the same paint used on the rest of the exterior, bears the brunt of the heavy work that you put it through, and wears out fast. As the paint wears off, the metal below is exposed, putting it at risk for rust. Rust is a cancer that will eat away your truck if you give it a foothold in your kingdom. Not to mention, you probably want your baby to look as beautiful as she did the day you got her.
For this reason, we would like to introduce a solution to you: spray on bedliners. A truck bedliner is like a protective coating on the back of your truck that keeps it beautiful and looking new. There are spray in bedliner dealers who can install it for you, but this is something you can do yourself in a weekend, if you have the patience to (literally) watch paint dry. If you are interested in installing your own spray on bedliner, here are a few tips for a seamless process:
- Remove any accessories from your truck bed. To get the best possible coverage and to prevent spray from getting anywhere that you don’t want it, your truck bed should be a blank canvas when you get started. Remove any accessories you have inside your truck bed so that all is left is the bare bed itself.
In fact, we recommend removing your tailgate and spraying it separate from the bed itself. This gives you the ability to tape it off accurately and spray every detail of the inside of your truck bed. - Rough it up. Your spray bedliner will adhere to any crack or crevice on the surface of your truck bed, which gives it a better hold onto your truck. Roughing up your truck bed with coarse sandpaper before you apply the liner helps it hold onto the truck’s surface over the long run.
- Give her a scrub-a-dub.
After you’ve sanded the bed of your truck, there will be sand particles and paint chips all over it. You need to start with a good, clean surface in order to achieve a professional-looking bedliner. Even a tiny piece of dust on the surface of your truck bed can cause a bubble in the end result. Start by vacuuming it out, and then wash it down with soap and water. Let her dry completely, and then start the fun part! - Use good quality cutting tape.
The polyurethane coating that you spray on your truck ain’t going nowhere. While this is what you want from your bedliner, you do not want that coating to get on the exterior of the truck, or it’ll be there to remind you of your sloppy work for the rest of its life.
Enter cutting tape. The development of cutting tape is the single-most important reason why installing a spray on bedliner yourself as possible. Similar to masking tape when you’re painting a wall, cutting tape is used to mask off the area you do not want coated with your bedliner spray. One edge of your cutting tape has a metal wire in it which cuts through any overspray from the bottom-up when you pull the tape up, protecting any part of your beautiful truck that you don’t want covered in hard plastic. If you’re taking the time to install your spray on bedliner yourself, take the time to do it right. Use good quality cutting tape. - Follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer precisely. Spraying on your own bedliner is inexpensive and fairly simple, but you must do it right. Before you even begin, read over the manufacturer’s instructions, and make sure you know exactly what you are doing. Do not cut any corners; mistakes in your spray on bedliner application will haunt you for the rest of your truck’s life.
Do you have any tips for applying a spray on bedliner? Please share with us below!
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