Bed prep if getting spray in liner???

We did the same as @CalSgt , scamazon kit with the gun. Used it all but it came out great

Here is half the bed

Anyone just do the bed bottom and not the sides of the bed?

brooksman9 said:

Anyone just do the bed bottom and not the sides of the bed?

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My buddy Brian Harrison (Harrison's Rod Shop in TN) did it for a customer's truck. It's dark blue to match the interior/engine

That looks nice. May have to think on that for a bit.

brooksman9 said:

Here is half the bed

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Paints not peeling. Hit it all with 80-100 grit or equivalent (flapper disc wire wheel, nylon cup etc). Prime any bare spots.

I’ll chime in here.

My bed is quite solid for a truck that saw salt covered roads, but my truck did have a drop in liner for I don’t know how many years, but it was in there long enough to remove the paint in some areas to bare metal. While I did have my bedsides off for prepping, the same technique can be applied to any assembled bed.

1st thing to do is empty the bed and hit the bed insides ALL over with high pressure compressed air at a close distance. You will be surprised at how much junk and factory paint will flake off.

2nd thing to do is to wash the inside of the bed with some form of degreaser like spray 9, purple power, etc. and use a good brush to get into nooks and crannies then wash it out with a power washer.

3rd use a coarse wire wheel cup on an angle grinder. The this will help break up and rough surface rust and smooth raised gouges along with removing more loose paint.

4th 80 grit on a DA, keep going until you think it’s good then spend another 2hrs going over the bed again.

5th blow out bed again with air. The last thing you want to do it sand something into the bed that you missed during pre-coating and paint over it.

6th take new 80 grit by hand and sand all the ridges inside and out…….again.

7th 120-180 grit on the DA and repeat steps 4 thru 6

8th by this time the bed should look pretty “rough” which is good it’s at this point that I will wash the bed again with degreaser and blow dry the bed and look for shiny areas of paint that I may have missed. If all is good then I get out the red scotch brite pads and go to town

9th an optional step depending on preference ( I always do this step bc all the supplies are already out ) but I will wet the bed and spray some degreaser in there and use a new red scotch brite pad while everything is wet and then follow that by steel wool pads with the soap in them already to really make it clean. Name of the game is clean prep and you will get clean results.

10th wash bed out and then degrease one last time. After the bed is blown dry out of all the nooks and crannies with the bed down with acetone or lacquer thinner on a clean throw away blue shop towel. Keep wiping and flipping until all grease comes up. Also wipe in one direction only.

11th once bed is dry you can lightly spray any bare metal spots with self-etching primer and let it dry fully. Only a little bit of that stuff is needed on the bare metal.

12th mask up the areas that you don’t want any overspray and blow out the bed and lightly wipe one last time.

13th spray time. Spray whatever your choice is and follow the instructions and directions on flash time and coats etc.

14th peel off the masked off areas and sit back and admire your work and then posts pics here on the site


Phew. That was a lot, I think that’s the most I have contributed in a single post.

Here is what my bed looked like before/after

That's a lot of steps. A whole flight even.

brooksman9 said:

That's a lot of steps. A whole flight even.

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Hahaha that make chuckle hard

Nothing will stick to oil, grease or silicone.
The metal must be clean.

Never understood the whole spray-in bedliner thing. You know it never comes out, right? If you bugger up a drop-in plastic liner, you take it out and throw in a new one, bed still intact. It also acts like somewhat of a "cushion", if you toss in a bunch of firewood or something the plastic soaks up a lot of the shock and it doesn't dent the heck out of the bed. I just helped a buddy bring a load of old iron engine blocks and trnsmission cases to the scapyard, the liner took a beating but that's what it's there for, the bed is still perfect underneath if he ever decides this liner is too worn out. If you spray it on, you're basically dealing with a stock bed that just has some thick gritty paint sprayed on it, any shock directly transfers to the sheet metal and you still bang up your bed, and when it gets gouged and scuffed and dented to sh!t, well, you're stuck with it. You'll have to sand it all off, and it'll still be beat up. People always say "oh the drop in liners rub off all the paint in the bed", well heck, so doesn't spraying a thick layer of gritty crap over it because to get it out you have to take it back to metal. Plus drop-ins are slick so you can slide stuff in and out of the bed, herculiner/rhinoliner is like adding grip tape to the stock bed. If you ever have to sliude something in and out of the bed you're either ruining the object or the bed coating. A drop-in is a wear item. Scrape it up too bad and toss in a brand new one, truck looks great again and no harm done to whatever you were hauling. Just saying. I remember when this spray in stuff became a fad and I never understood it, I thought it would go away soon. It hasn't, but I still will never understand it. There are about 20 cons, and no pros. I don't get it

Clean it. Scuff it. Clean it. Grease remover. Bed liner 2 coats. I rolled mine. Used Gator I think. Get extra rollers as they dissolve quickly. Will need at least 10 rollers for 2 coats. Don't have to be like the ones that come in kit. Just foam roller.

RecklessWOT said:

Never understood the whole spray-in bedliner thing. You know it never comes out, right? If you bugger up a drop-in plastic liner, you take it out and throw in a new one, bed still intact. It also acts like somewhat of a "cushion", if you toss in a bunch of firewood or something the plastic soaks up a lot of the shock and it doesn't dent the heck out of the bed. I just helped a buddy bring a load of old iron engine blocks and trnsmission cases to the scapyard, the liner took a beating but that's what it's there for, the bed is still perfect underneath if he ever decides this liner is too worn out. If you spray it on, you're basically dealing with a stock bed that just has some thick gritty paint sprayed on it, any shock directly transfers to the sheet metal and you still bang up your bed, and when it gets gouged and scuffed and dented to sh!t, well, you're stuck with it. You'll have to sand it all off, and it'll still be beat up. People always say "oh the drop in liners rub off all the paint in the bed", well heck, so doesn't spraying a thick layer of gritty crap over it because to get it out you have to take it back to metal. Plus drop-ins are slick so you can slide stuff in and out of the bed, herculiner/rhinoliner is like adding grip tape to the stock bed. If you ever have to sliude something in and out of the bed you're either ruining the object or the bed coating. A drop-in is a wear item. Scrape it up too bad and toss in a brand new one, truck looks great again and no harm done to whatever you were hauling. Just saying. I remember when this spray in stuff became a fad and I never understood it, I thought it would go away soon. It hasn't, but I still will never understand it. There are about 20 cons, and no pros. I don't get it

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They have their uses but nothing protects from dents like a good old drop in plastic liner.
While it may or may not be attractive to some, it does the job and the old wives tales about rubbing the paint off and trapping water and rusting the bed out are basically false. Yes it rubs paint off but if it rusts through the bed bottom, the rest of the truck is likely 69% ferric oxide by then as well!

@Grit dog is right, they do protect the box. The S10 we just got for Brody(G-son) has one that looks like it has been in since new. Paint is scuffed on the ridges bit between looks new, NO damage!!...........except it's RED!!!!.....lol........I don't mind red rigs, as long as they are NOT mine