Would I regret bed lining my truck?

Here's my cons.

I kind of think of it like the debate over powder coating/bed lining bumpers, vs just jainting them.

Bed liner is hard to patch *when* you scratch it. Yes, it will happen at some point, especially if you wheel with it. Sure, you're not going to get those texas pinstripes, but you're going to hit a rock or something at some point. Not as likely as with bumpers, but still, it's going to happen at some point if you really wheel it.

The other problem is if you ever want to repaint it down the road. I know my bedliner looks like as after ~10 years. I'll just throw another coat or two of liner on it eventually, but it's thick in some places, thin in others, and that's going to be hard to mask over. I don't really care because it's the bed, but if it's the body, that's a different story.

Then again, my DIY paint job on my rear fenders (from pealing clear coat) looks like ass too, so who am I to talk, lol...

My though is that at least with paint, you can just scuff it up and rattle can over it.

But really, the deal breaker for me is just the work you have to put into it. EIther DIY or have it done professionally. It's a sweet look, and I'd rock it on my truck, but the cost-benefit just isn't there for me. I'm far to cheap and lazy. This is my trail truck, I don't care all that much if it gets scratched.

 

Yeah, if you worry about the paint on your trail truck, you really should be in the game.

 

You’re kidding yourself, they dont go with me, it’s just the ones that see it in the street. They leave snail trails on the sidewalks in town

 

That's kind of where I've landed with it. A cheap hvlp gun and a gallon of Rust-Oleum will go a very long way, and that's if you want to be fancy. Seems like prep work is about the same, but the question of what happens with it in a couple years or when it needs repair is where it leans toward paint for me.

 

These are valid concerns and a great counter argument to using bed liner on the body.

I didn't have to deal with any repairs to mine, but I looked into it before I jumped in. It seems pretty straight forward, you scuff the surrounding area and feather it in. There are a few YouTube videos on this as well. Now, if you had a tinted color like I did I suppose things could get a little trickier, but I bought extra tint so that in the event I did have to do touch ups I'd have an exact match.

I wouldn't let that be the reason you hold off. Doing it yourself at the cost of an afternoon sure beats taking it to an auto body/ paint shop for a couple days and bill, at least in my book. But I'm also quick to jump into something if I feel like there's a chance I can pull it off. This mentality has only served me, even my failures have brought lessons.. We'll see about stuffing 35's on my 1st gen IFS though lol

 

If you prep for paint you save a lot of money. Shooting paint is pretty easy. You can do a truck for about $200 on materials. If you get a scratch, that scratch. Can look bad.

Prepping for bedliner is the same amount of work. Spraying it is slightly easier. If you get a scratch it won't look any worse than it did before. Because it looked bad to start.

I've said it before, lining your truck to protect the paint is like soaking your lunch in diarrhea to keep other people from eating it.

 

Whenever you do something that is only desired by a very small minority you shrink your buying pool substantially. The smaller the pool, the harder it is to sell, the less it sells for. I'm a real estate broker, have been for about 15 years. I've had this conversation many times. "Wow, great mural you just painted. You need to paint over it." Generally I dont get that listing for about 6 months. When it sits on market that long the usually fire the person that told them what the wanted to hear,paint the wall and we sell the house.

So if you actual plan on driving that truck forever, go nuts. If you arent, don't do anything irreversible that nobody wants.

 

You are absolutely correct. The only way that I would consider (and will be doing) is because I plan on having the truck for many more years. And I have the track record to back that up, as I have had it for about 15 years so far. And I bought it with a salvage title, which is another huge ding to ever selling or trading it. But it has served me well over the last 135k miles. So, I'll drive it till it dies.

 

You're kidding yourself if you think it's going to just be an afternoon job. It took me a weekend just to coat my bed. And I didn't have door handles, headlight, trim pieces, or windows to deal with.

I think at best you'd end up with a decent 15 foot "paint" job, unless you completely disassembled the body and do a "proper" masking job like you see in a professional booth.

 

So my clear coat was pealing off my bed because I didn't properly do my bed liner coating. I sanded down the top layer to where I was applying the coating (top of bed rails), but didn't then go back over the seam with clear coat, or overlap the bedliner over intact clear coat.

Years later the clear coating is pealing/chipping off. So I just sanded it down with some 1000 and 2000 grit paper and rattle canned some clear coat over it.

Hell, I've only managed the motivation to do one side of the bed. My tailgate and driver side still need to be done.

This kinda says where I'm at with the whole paint and prep thing, and how much effort I'm willing to put into my truck looking nice. i.e. not very much, lol...

 

Your analogy gave a good hearty chuckle!

I was referring to the touch up only taking an afternoon (and yes, depending on the touch up I suppose it could take longer).

All said and done I took nearly two weeks of long days to bed line my bronco, and it was immaculate all over with your nose pressed up to it. A week of solid prep, full disassembly (interior, handles, doors, topper, mirrors, bumpers, absolutely everything that could come off did until I was left with just the tub, I was also fixing a lot of things along the way though, so that week of prep even though extremely thorough could’ve probably been cut down a couple days) day to spray, gave two days to cure, and then reassembly.

 

I want to see the write up on eliminating the lower door hinge for the tubbing required

 

Weld it shut, cut as much as you want!

 

Magnets.

 

I don't regret doing it. But then again, I'm not concerned with resale value as I'm not planning on selling my truck. If you're worried about resale, repaint the truck the stock color.

 

That looks tight!

 

Never have to wax it again!!

 

Killer looking truck, sir!
Here is the same truck from an alternate reality...



This is the day I took ownership of my Bedlined POS Taco. The PO put as little effort as possible into prep, and they painted everything with that shit (wheels too.) Of course it was inconsistent and was flaking off, but considering the overall condition of the truck it was par for the course.

Here you can see some of the flaky parts on the roof...



The hood was just as bad, and it was thick...No reason to paint it over when it's not staying on now, so I took a scraper to the hood one day...



I figured I would replace the hood eventually so not worried about any additional damage.



Bottom line, like others have said here, do the prep, do it right because it's a BITCH to get off!

 

Wax? What's that?

 

Black truck, green bed, and silver topper. That just won’t do. Now I have to raptor line it