First Gen Bed Liner

I got my boy a spray in bed liner for Christmas for his ‘03 single cab. His truck has a drop in but I worry about wearing from it touching the painted surface, I know it’s already happened by now but maybe we can put a good stop on it. Are there drain holes in the bed or should I suggest they drill some? I assume they could do something like this without drilling into vital parts. I ask because the liner holds water. The holes might be plugged but I’ve honestly not checked because I’ve been planning on the spray in.

 

Take the drop in- and drop it in the dumpster.
They chafe and hold dirt. water and debris and speed up the moisture and rust process.

The 2 slits at the front are prone to get plugged up, (they are small) and with a spray in liner, they only get smaller so, yeah its ok to drill a few smaller holes to help drainage. Id prime them before getting the spray liner and use fluid film on the bottom bed side for extra protection.

 

Not if you remove it from time to time to clean up what has accumulated and do some touch ups if needed. If you do this, your bed will never rust

Not saying that spray-in bedliner is not good but if you eventually have any little crack or chip in it, moisture will get in and it will just fester with rust underneath the liner. Good luck removing that stuff to treat the rust, it's rock hard! Personally, I would never go spray-in liner because of this, but well, to each their own...

 

You are absolutely right about taking bedliner out for cleaning and paint touch up.
I left my cap off for one year and was shocked how much gets under the bedliner from the rope hook holes.
The bed drains were clogged and standing water turned debris to mud.
I cleaned, painted and put drop in bed liner and cap back.

 

That's strange because my 03 DC has two "2inch" drain holes in the bed with rubber/plastic caps in them. when I removed my bed liner and cleaned up my bed, I just removed those two covers, so I would have better drainage.