Plastic Bedliner Replacement with Herculiner Write up (pics)

If your like most people and do not like the factory plastic junk of a bedliner, than I reccomend taking the route of the Herculiner. I did this, and will now share how it done, and the various mistakes I had made down the road:

Time Needed: Roughly a day (preferably Saturday, or Sunday), there is alot if waiting for things to dry, and prepping work, so I dedicated a solid day to the project.

Materials Needed:

--For Tacoma's 6/5ft bed, all that is needed is 1 gallon of Herculiner Bedliner. This can be found at some hardware stores, or autopart stores for around $100. The kit comes with two rollers and one paintbrush to apply the goo, and 1 gallon of paint. It also included a small sander type fabric in order to prep the bed. Information/purchasing of this kit can be made here: http://www.herculiner.com/

--Time

--Hose, running water

--A strong arm

--A sunny day/garage

--Painters Tape

--Extra Sandpaper (the small cloth provided was not sufficient for me, when it came to sanding down the entire truck bed). I used anywhere from 40 grit (little extreme), to 150 grit.


Alright, now for the fun. The first order of business is to rip out the old bedliner. For me, this took some muscleing around, but once I got it, it popped right out. The trick is to get underneath it from the side closest to the tailgate and push up until all the way out.

Now that the is out you have to remove the tailgate platic. I believe there are four screws that you merely unscrew and and place aside.

Remove tailgate plastic at this time, then put the screws in the existing holes.

We have all the old junk out, now its time for the prep process to begin:

Step 1: Park truck on hill and hose out bed (mine was filled with 150,000 miles of dirt that had made its way behind the bedliner.)

Step 2: When bed is thoroughly cleaned begin to dry it (you are supposed to wait until it air drys, but I didn't have time for that)
, I dried mine with a microfiber towel, some people use leaf blowers.

Step 3: Now comes the sanding part. Select your sand paper and start from the back, working up to the front (by back I mean near the cab). I worked in circler motions, scrubbing hard at the old paint. Make sure to sand every little bit down. If you choose to apply the Herculiner over your rails, then sand down your bedrails too.

Step 4: Sand Tailgate in the same motion. Any place that you are applying Herculiner you want to sand.

!!!Warning: When you sand the back bedrail that is nearest to the cab window, make sure your sandpaper doesn't slip and leave a nice long scratch (like mine)!!!

Step 5: After sanding spray the bed thourouly with your hose, until all the sand dust is out of the bed. At this time you will be able to see spots that you had forgot to sand. Re-sand these spots now. I don't have any pictures of after your done sanding but the bed should look pretty chewed up.

Step 6: When you have completed touching up the scratches, hose the bed down once more.

Step 7: Dry bed (towel or leaf blower)

Step 7.5: Tape off anything that you don't want Herculined. Picture below.

Step 8: Open your nice can or Herculiner and stir. Stir, stir, stir, until the Herculiner is very rubber like and harder to stir. Now stir some more

Step 9: Start at the back (near the cab) and work your way up with the roller. I poured my Herculiner into an old rolling pan and worked out of that. Slowly roll on your liner. At this time all you need is a very fine coat. This is essentially a primer for more coats to come.

Step 10: When first coat is all applied, wait until it drys, then work on coat number two. Here is what it should look like after coat number one:



Remember, its just a thin coat

Step 11: Continue coat #2. Instead of doing 4 coats, I decided to only do 2, but to put alot more on on the second coat. So I globbed it on while I was doing the second coat. The Herculiner should really be textured now. Lay this stuff on thick (the more the merrier) and evenly until the entire bed and tailgate are done.

Here are some pictures of the finished product:





Let it dry over night and just to be on the safe side, don't work with the bed of the truck until 48 hours. The showroom shine will eventually dull after some washes and come out as a dark grey color.

Tips and Hints:

--The rollers that were provided sucked. After they were coated with Herculiner, they literaly fell apart. I reccomend taking great care when using these brushes, or elso you will have to go buy extras.

--When you apply the tape for the bedrails it is very difficult to apply it perfectly straight, so your finished product may look a little crooked:



--If you don't sand the enite bed the spots that aren't sanded will chip when put under stress.

--Every two years, people go through and touch up the herculiner, becuase of the small chips that occur every once and a while

Overall this is an exellent product that is reccomended by me and many others on this forum. It sure beats paying someone $300 to Line X it. Afer I was done I have gotten several people want me to Herculine there truck beds for them. The best of luck for applying it, if you got any questions just ask.

 

Nice write up Scott. Looks great too. So good, I just added doing a Herculiner jod on my truck's "To Do List". I like the added room without the factory plastic liner. Plus, stuff won't slide around all the time.

 

I just did this to my truck. I'll add some pictures when it comes back from the shop (someone blew a stop sign and hit my ass end)

Some things I would like to add:
1) tape it off before you start sanding. that way you sand every part you plan to paint and nothing more.
2) remove the tailgate and that metal cover on it (12 screws or something like that)
2a) also remove a tonneau or other bed accessory (sounds dumb but i didnt take off my tonneau and it made it a lot harder)
3) plug any holes with wads of tape. just roll it into a ball thats bid enough to stuff the hole
4) in order to get the straightest lines, put a pencil mark on each end of where you want the top end of the tape to line up with. cut a piece about 6in longer than is needed to cover the distance. place one end up to the pencil mark as level as you can. go to the other side and stretch the tape taught, making sure no more of it touches the truck yet. then, in one try, line the other side up. if you didnt make it, pull it off up to the other side and try again. this ensures the straightest line possible.
5) i thought the included rollers were great, and i wouldnt use anything else unless you found something of similar texture.
6) the roller is actually rather useless. it cant get between the grooves in the floor very well and is really only good on the flat areas on the sides of the bed.
7) i did two coats. one covering it as best as possible, then another layer of simialr thickness. if you put too much on at one time, it will crack as it dries and look like a waterless desert. after i put these on, i touched up any spots where i could still see specks of white (the color of my truck). Then i used the rest of the can (about 1/2 quart. or 1/8 gallon) to recoat the bottom of the bed.

I've done 3 off these ( 1 for myself and 2 for people who answered my ad on craigslist- even though i claimed to have done many )

If anybody is on the south shore in massachusetts or is willing to drive there, ill be glad to do it for $200 (about 10 hours of work on a clean bed including drying)

if your bed is really, really dirty, im charging extra

 

nice additional pointers, thanks for the corrections

 

no problem. wish i found this thread before i did my own

 

The 2001 I just picked up has the factory plastic bedliner and I lifted it enough to see that it is UGLY under there.

Has anyone tried hitting it with a power washer prior to sanding, and then maybe sanding with wet/dry real good and power washing it again? Seems it might eliminate a step. With my old bad hands, I may put the wet/dry on my sander and go at it.

I also have a dual burner bottle mounted propane heater that may help dry it faster, and better. Or I have to wait till hot sunshine. I know you can't have any water in there anywhere.

No way can I deal with doing all of that by hand. So it's that or the $300 linex treatment. Which in my case might be worth it.

 

I'm going to be doing this very soon but with the Rust-Olieum Gallon of bedliner. What kind of roller should I get since this does not come with one?

 

I would HIGHLY recommend wearing the worst beat up clothes & sneakers that you have while doing this install. Because...if you get it ON your clothes...it won't come off (toss the clothes away).

I'd also highly recommend buying disposable brushes & pans for usage on touch-ups & outlining the edges. DON'T USE FOAM. Herculiner will eat right through the foam.

Wear long sleeved shirts and gloves. If you get it on your skin, take it off immediately. If it dries on your skin, DO NOT SCRUB IT OFF. It can create a nasty rash.

(sorry I missed mentioning this before)

 

You should still go over the entire bed with Acetone to remove any oils left behind in cracks/crevices that the power washer can't remove.

 

If you use the rustoloem , make sure you know that it don't have as much texture as herculiner, some people like this some don't. One things for sure, its a hella lot cheaper

 

Thanks scott! i almost got the ryno but i am definatly gonna spend a day and do this. it looks great!! and i can save some money too

 

I'm in the process of doing this now...How long did you wait to do the second coat? I'm a little concerned about climbing all over it to do the second...

 

I did my DC several months ago. My bed was clean, so I began sanding. I bought a scruff pad for my drill and then went and bought two square scruff pads from Walmart or Lowes. These were a lot heavier duty than the pad supplied. I worked at sanding 2/3 days, a little at a time. You need to buy some xylene or acetone to help clean errant spots. The directions called for xylene and that is what I used. Wiped it down after sanding. I put on 2 coats, the first was easier. The second coat was harder because you had to reach further to stay off the first coat. Do take the screws out of the tailgate panel. You might want to get back inside to repair a latch at a later date and a filled screw head of hurculiner is no good. I let it dry about an hour or so, laid on the shop floor and wrestled with my terrier pup. I only ruined a shirt from leaning over the bed sides to put the second coat on. I was very happy with the results. I put a bed mat down several days later as protection, though I will probably never put anything heavy in the bed.

 

I went to ace hardware i found that they have the gallon kit for 74.99 instead of 90.00 like at autozone or shucks. and if you find a coupon it could cost you as long as 60.00 thats what i did, and it was a hella good deal!

 

It looks awesomeman!!!! +1 for you!

I have a question about texture... when applying the fist coat, does the roller make a noticable different texture then a brush? Or does it all even out.


One more question... When applying does it run like paint? I see that you only put small strip of tape on the side quarte panels.

 

Just finished mine yesterday. When you use the brush, you dab it instead brush it on. It will be somewhat different from the roller, but next to impossible to distinguish on the second coat.

And it doesn't run like paint unless you put an obscene amount on the brush or roller.

 

Does anyone have a good source for extra texture rollers? Im looking to do this soon and would like some backups.

 

From the painting work I've done, it seems I remember seeing a roll that would work at home Depot or Lowe's. I'll bet Ace has something that would work, hell even Walmart might have cheap throw aways. I herculinered my nissan hardbody like 15 years ago.

 

Thanks. Do you happen to know how long the gallon cans of herculiner last on the shelf after opening? I was thinking it would be good stuff to coat sliders with down the line.

 

Now to do your fender flares!

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bed-liner-fender-flares.433245/

And foam brushes are a nightmare, they cheap but youll use dozens of them