Protect your loads and prevent scratches to your truck bed with a durable bed liner.
A bed liner protects your pickup truck from scratches and rust. It also provides a quieter ride and enhances your truck's resale value. Although drop-in bed liners are available, they tend to move and scuff off paint between the liner and the bed. Moisture eventually finds its way underneath, and this causes out-of-sight corrosion. I solved this problem by applying a durable urethane-based plastic truck bed roll-on coating on my Toyota Hilux three years ago.
Instructions
1. Park the truck in a sunny spot. Scrub the bed thoroughly with a sponge mop and detergent. Remove all traces of detergent by sluicing the bed down with a hose pipe and a high-pressure trigger spray. Allow an hour for the bed to dry out.
2. Move the truck to a well-ventilated outdoor shady area. Clean the bed once more with spray-on wax and tar remover using fresh paper towels.
3. Remove all flaky paint with a wire brush and then clean up any rusted areas by working your way down to bare metal with 120-grit emery paper.
4. Scuff the entire painted surface inside the bed with 80-grit emery paper and an orbital sander; this will provide a rough keyed surface for the truck bed paint to adhere to. Use a coarse pot scrubber pad to reach into inaccessible nooks and crannies if necessary.
5. Remove all dust and residue with a shop-vac or leaf blower. Apply a coat of quick drying zinc-based primer to all bare metal spots on the truck bed, either with a brush or an aerosol can.
6. Mask off the tops of the bed and tailgate together with all hinges and latch pins.
7. Degrease the entire bed with a suitable solvent and fresh paper towels. Wipe in one direction and work your way from the front to the back. Change the paper towels frequently.
8. Paint all corners and inaccessible spots around hinges and latch pins where the roller won't reach; use a stiff-bristle disposable paint brush. Work your way from the front to the back while doing so.
9. Load a paint tray with bed liner roll-on material and use a long-handled paint roller to apply the first even coat to the bed. Work quickly and move the roller back and forth to feather the edges in smoothly and to remove any drips.
10. Allow about an hour for the first coat to partially cure. As soon as the surface is smooth and non-sticky, dip the tip of the paint brush into liner material and go over the corners and inaccessible areas with a stippling motion to provide a textured surface. Add an extra layer to any sagging areas where some of the material has seeped through small cracks between the panels and fittings.
11. Load the roller lightly and repeat the rolling-on process from the front to the back. You will have to experiment once or twice to find the proper balance between too much and too little material on the roller before achieving and even textured surface. Feather in any drips or spills while working your way from the front to the back.
12. Allow the recommended curing time, usually between three to four hours before peeling off the masking tape. Fold the far end over to overlap the tape and pull the loose end backward at a shallow angle to achieve a smooth cut edge.
13. Let the material cure for at least 24 hours during warm weather before loading the truck. Allow up to 36 hours if the weather is cool.
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