Question on bed liner and bed rust

Hey All,

I recently purchased an 04 DC, and it came with a Rugged Liner drop in plastic liner. The thing has chewed the fuck out of the paint underneath and so I was going to rip it out and get a spray in liner. However, the bed has some dings and rust spots and I was wondering what this means if I wanted to take it to a LINE X or RHINO shop for installation. Do I need to get these addressed first by a painter/body shop? See pics below. For the hooks I think I will just remove them and buy new ones, but theres a few dings on the body of the bed where some surface rust has shown up. Do I have to get those addressed by someone else first before taking it to a liner shop?

 

If you are having a company do the spray in liner, they should take care of the surface rust before spraying. They need to scuff the entire bed anyway for adhesion.

 

Got it, I contacted a local Line-x shop to confirm and they basically said the same thing, they will sand out all the rust prior to application.

For those interested, this is the end result of taking off the bed liner today. So much dead trash and scuffs on the rails. Don't think previous owner ever cleaned underneath. The rail scuffing is tragic lmao, but at least it will all be covered and protected by the new liner. I would never recommended a plastic drop in liner if this is a common occurrence.

 

it’s pretty common. Friends of mine run a local Line-x shop and post stuff like this all the time on Facebook with those type of bed liners.

 

Have the liner shop run the liner material over the bed rails and down the sides to include the scuffing.

They can mask it off and you will have a nice finish with a clean, sharp look.

 

I work next to a Chevy dealer and whenever I see them put a drop in bed liner in a brand new truck I think to myself "what is it 1985?"
I wonder what the cost difference is between a drop in liner plus install vs. a spray in liner.

 

You can remove the hooks, insert bolts so that the threads don't get covered by the bed liner, then reinstall the hooks after the bed liner cures.

 

Thanks guys, I got it done last weekend and it came out really clean, got the premium LineX liner and had it done over the rails to cover the drop in damage. Supposedly they shave the rust off and primer it prior to application of the liner, although I cant really confirm. Ordered replacement rope hooks and screws as well so it'll look brand new again.

 

That looks great!