The Herculiner bed liner looks like an easy way to save several hundred dollars. It is a lot cheaper than a professional spray on liner, but there are several tricks you should know about. We just installed a roll on bed liner and here’s what we discovered.
1. Repair as you go…
Maybe the best place to use truck bed paint is on older trucks with bed damage. This is your chance to fix minor damage and stop rust while you’re at it. None of this is that hard to do, but it does take some time. Spend the little bit of time. You’ll be glad you did.
2. Clean it right…
Wax and grease on a truck will result in peeling paint. Clean the bed carefully with automotive cleaner. This will be acetone or a similar chemical. Do not sand the bed before you clean it. Sanding drives grease and wax into the old paint!!!
3. Scratching paint is good…
That means you want a very rough sanding on the old bed paint. There’s no reason for fine sanding. The bed paint will stick much better to a really rough surface. That’s what you want.
4. Putting it on is the easy part…
Putting on bed liner paint couldn’t be easier. See, the paint is thick and contains lots of texture. That’s why it covers so well plus it settles as it dries. That settling produces a surface that looks just like it was sprayed on even though you rolled it on or brushed it on…
5. Want color???
This isn’t exactly a tip. One advantage that Herculiner has over most of the other bed paints is the color choices. You can get white, red, gray as well as black. That’s a plus if you want one of those colors.
The Herculiner bed liner compares in many ways to liner coatings costing far more. To get a coating that sticks well and stays in place, you must do careful preparation. This isn’t hard, but it does take some time.