Fair Price For This..?

What do you guys think would be a fair price to Line-X some steel bed rails (including the part on the tailgate) that I would drop off at the shop? I would only want the tops sprayed.

I just want to make sure I am not going insane, after hearing what they quoted. Or maybe I am just cheap..

 

After having a few parts Line-xed myself and having my cousin build some trucks with Line-Xed parts I’d say between $200-300.

My cousin had a set of bushwakers done for a Ram 3500 for $400

My bed was done in the $500 range several years ago (not the Tacoma).

 

Hahaha you are right on!

They quoted the entire bed at $529 recently... then the rails (just the tops, which would be dropped off) at $250.

I laughed when he said that, I thought he was kidding.

I would say it's 5% of the product (or less) to do the rails, but half the price?! I would prep, nothing for them to do there. I must be missing something here..

 

It takes a lot of time to prep. So that’s what you are paying for. And you can’t prep it yourself. In order for them to gaurentee their work thet need to make sure its done in accordance with Line-X requirements.

It’s really not a bad price. You can’t expect them to work for free.

Hopefully you aren’t having them do the bed of the Tacoma.

 

Of course not, I offered them $150, we'll see I guess.

I was going to do the bed, but just got a bed mat instead. I know, composite bed, etc but plenty of people have done it, and Line-X guarantees it just like with a steel bed. But no, changed my mind there.

 

Of the Line-X dealers I have talked to. They said they do not want to do it and will not gaurentee it. The material won’t adhere well so it flakes off over time.

I think thats the shady part is that they would Line-X the bed lol not so much price.

 

That is a big part of why I decided not to do the bed. The Line-X employee here that I spoke to on the phone seemed to have no idea what a composite bed was vs. metal. You do get the guarantee (according to him), but what good is that if it looks like shit and isn't fixable. I would still like to do it but I dunno..

I am curious though, you said it takes a lot of time to prep, but for some steel rails? I can scuff the powder coat that's on there before dropping them off, what else is there? This just seems to be such a simple job, it's literally just a flat surface, only spraying the tops. It's so much less work and product than doing the entire bed, which was only $529!

 

I have not seen them do the work but I know the area is cleaned and chemically preped. You also have to consider the work done to get the application perfect with clean lines and no overspray.

All of the Line-X jobs I have seen come out looking amazing. Ive seen fender flares, wheel wells, rocker panels, roofs, hoods, grilles, and even fully done trucks with different colors and designs. I’ve also seen interior trim peices done.

Line-X is a franchize with each shop individually run so quality can vary from one shop to another with that business model. I’ve seen work out of three dealers and all come out great with lasting quality. So I attribute a lot of that to a great product.

I think Line-X is worth the cash. They have a thin liner that works great for your application and you can pretty much promise it will last the life of the truck color and texture.

To buy a similar product and do yourself would cost almost as much. Monsta liner you can get I think for around $180 shipped.

Aerosol products and even products like Duplicolor and Rustoleum are just not the same quality.

I think you would be hard pressed to find a product just as good to do yourself. Just me. I think it’s worth the money.

 

I appreciate the explanation. I did not know about the chemically prepped part. I can't do that obviously.

I do agree. I had a truck bed done with Line-X and it looked brand new the whole time I owned it.

Damn it, you're convincing me to do it now. I think I made this thread to help convince myself not to do it, but now I am thinking I might. I think the guy came down to $200 when we were negotiating, and I said call back if you can do $150, but I may just do it.

 

So the other local Line-X, who seems to know what they’re doing a lot more, quoted $300 lol.

They say it’s because they have to encapsulate what they spray (i.e. they won’t just spray the top of the rails). Does this sound right? If it was going to peel, the how can they do the “over the rail”? By that logic, it would peel right off of the over the rail, because that’s not encapsulated.

This idea may just be abandoned altogether.

 

Why would you leave the underside unpainted?
It's gone rust in a week in FL

 

It is already powder coated on the bottom, just want the tough texture on top.

And the tolerances are tight, so Line-X on the bottom will probably make them not fit.

(rock) me (hard place)

 

they carry brush on bedliner at Lowes or HD, I tried it and it works well!

 

I’m starting to consider that, and it’s easy to repair chips.

I use the Rustoleum spray stuff on some parts, but it’s not durable enough for this.