PROTECTIVE COATINGS AND SPRAY-IN BEDLINERS

Our material is a two part elastomer, also known as a plural component elastomer, meaning it is made from a catalyst (isocyante) and a resin and that has elastic properties. Our primary options are either a polyurea or polyurea/polyurethane hybrid, but there are others materials as well. It is applied using specialized spray equipment using a high temperature and high pressure application process that heats the chemicals up to 150-160 degrees and sprayed at over 2000 psi. Find out more by following the link to our Bedliner101 blog. 

Most DIY options and some aftermarket applicatiors use polyuethanes. While they may look similar to our product, they are not. Polyurethanes are harder but cheaper than polyurea. Harder usually means more brittle (meaning more likely to chip) and do not have the flexibility that polyurea or hybrids offer. Also, most DIY options have a high solvent content (by volume, meaning after the material cures, the solvents evaporate and there is less material remaining to protect the item it was sprayed on). The elastic properties can be more flexible and reduce the likelyhood of the material chipping under severe use. 

We offer a limited lifetime warranty on our bedliner products. The warrantly is against any bubbling, cracking , peeling or flaking. It doesnt cover neglect or abuse. The spray-in bedliner is tough, but its not indestructible and can be gouged or chipped. The warranty is limitied to the original purchaser and for non-commercial use.  

A spray-in bedliner is custom matched to your vehicle. All vehicles have variation in manufacturing tolerances and drop-in bedliners are made at the smaller end of those tolerances to fit every truck, so you can have gaps that drop -in liners do not fit well. With a spray-in bedliners, they fit like a glove made specifically for your exact truck. 

Drop-in bedliners can wear paint off the body that they cover which can cause the metal to be exposed to the elements and then causes corriosion. 

Drop-in bedliners are also hard and material can slide around in the back of your bed when driving. 

Drop-in bedliners can also hold water in the bed, thus giving you an unexpected bath when opening the tailgate in certain conditions or hold water under the bedliner, causing corrosion. 

The first major difference is the application area.  Our spray-in bedliners cover more areas of the truck bed compared to those coming from the factory. Factory bedliners will leave areas of the truck exposed because they are sprayed with the tailgates closed. Our spray-in bedliners are sprayed with the tailgates either opened or removed, giving us access to areas that do not get sprayed with the tailgates closed.

A second difference between our spray-in bedliner is the prep process. Factory bedliners do not spend the prep time to scuff up the surface to be sprayed. Factory bedliners may apply an adhesion promoter, but this is only applied around the edges making areas more likely to peel where the adhesion promoter wasnt applied. The adhesion promoters also do not hold as well as the physical bond created by scuffing up the bed. Scuffing up the surface gives us a good mechanical bond by increasing  the surface area. 

A third difference is the material and  thickness. Spec sheets will show the tear, elongation and other physical properties, but that is testing done at a specific material thickness and is only relevant if the material thickness are similar. Factory bedliners are usually sprayed at 50%-75% the thickness of ours. With us spraying a thicker material, you get a stronger and better end product. 

A fourth difference between our spray-in bedliners are the options. WIth factory spray-in bedliners, you only have one choice. With our spray-in bedliners, you can get the Classic, which is a polyurea/polyurethane hybrid that is very similar to the factory bedliners. You can upgrade to our Premier that has a top coat that does not fade from the sun's UV rays. Other upgrade options are our pure polyurea formulas. Our Extreme option is similar to the Classic, but is 300% stronger. Our Elite bedliner gives you the toughness of our Extreme pure polurea products but adds the Premier topocoat so that it doesnt fade from UV exposure. If you really wanted to make your truck unique, you can upgrade to our Spectrum color options that will match the color of your truck or be done with a unique color. 

A fifth difference is our warranty. Our spray-in bedliners come with a limited lifetime warranty. Factory warranties are only covered with the bumper-to-bumper warranty, which in some cases, is 3 years/36,000 miles. Plus, if you have to have a factory warranty worked on, it is typically sent to an aftermarket shop like us for repair.

You can see some variation in chemicals that aftermarket applicatiors use. Each chemical variation has different advantages and disadvantages. We believe that we are in the Goldilocks zone where we offer a material that is hard enough to be durable, but also have good elastic properties so that we do not get chipped as easy as others. Check out our Bedliner 101 blog if you want more details. 

We also do not short you on the bedliner by spraying our material thinner, we have strict standards we adhere to when it comes to applications. These standards make sure you get a high quality product. We promise to spray to material thickness we have in the past. Other applicators may not be spraying as thick material as us or could be using a cheaper material, thus cutting corners and saving them money. To find out more about the material, check out the Bedliner101 blog post.

Another thing to watch is the low temperature/low pressure appications that are solvent based  (this applies to most DIY options), can shrink. This can cause the material to pull away from the substrate and be more prone to failure. Our high pressure/high temperature material does not shink. 

The process can take anywhere from 2-4 hours for a traditional truck bed, depending on your choice of spray-in bedliner options. Typically, if you drop your truck off between 8:00-9:00 AM on the day of your appointment, we will have it done by the end of the day. 

We do have a waiting area so that if you want to stay here at the shop while we install the bedliner or other accessories, you are more than welcome to hang out with us. Just be sure to let us know you plan to stay here with it so that we do not schedule another customer staying with it at the same time and we can get you taken care of as soon as possible. 

This can vary depending on which product choice you make. The Classic bedliner is ready to be used for light duty use as soon as you get your truck back from us. We advise to not put anything heavy into it for 24 hours to give the product time to cure otherwise it could leave an indenture.

The Premier top coat could take a an hour or two to cure to touch, depending on the temperature  so you do not want to put anything into it or close the tailgate for 1-2 hours after it has been sprayed. If you shut the tailgate before it cures to touch, it can come into contact with the bedliner and seal itself shut.

But typically, you can use any of our spray-in bedliner any way you want after 24 hours of application.

Of course. Typically, a bedcover or other accessories can be installed immediately after the spray-in bedliner is applied. Keep in mind, if you choose an option with the Premier top coat, that can take a little longer to set up and if the top coat is not cured, it can rub off on hands and clothing, losing some of its sheen and protective properties. Please let us know if you plan to install any accessories that use factory holes, weld nuts or threaded studs so that we mask them off. 

Typical maintenance is just normal cleaning using regular car wash detergent, a bristle brush or a pressure washer under 1000 PSI. We recommend cleaning up spills on the bedliner as soon a possible because it may stain (depending on what was spilled).

We advise to avoid any product with silicone in them because can turn the bedliner white. Its just a cosmetic issue and will not affect the integrity of the bedliner. The two biggest concerns here are protectants and paste or liquid waxes. Car wash with wax options and car wash detergents with wax in them are usually diluted enough that it will not affect the bedliner. 

Typically, no. Smaller holes can obstruct some drainage, but majority of the trucks are designed to allow water to exit the bed even with a spray-in bedliner. 

Just about anything. The few things we do not spray are certain plastics (polyethylene and polypropylene) and treated wood.  We just do not adhere well to polyethylene and polypropylene unless it is fully encapsilated. The chemicals in treated wood causes our chemicals to bubble and peel. 

Certian GMC and Toyota pickups do have a composite material for their bed and they can be sprayed with our protective coatings. However, it does require additional steps to prep the bed before adding the  protective coatings and this adds to the timeframe to complete and the overall cost of the job. Be sure to let us know in advance if you have the composite bed so that we can schedule accordingly. 

Keep in mind that our protective coating is a high temperature and high pressure application process. Our material is heated up to 150-160 degrees and sprayed at over 2000 PSI (needing to be sprayed from about 5 feet away), so there are limitations as to where it can be sprayed and getting into narrow areas can be extremely challenging.

Yes, but its very difficult. Because we scuff up the paint surface of the bed (which increases the surface area to give us better adhesion), it ususally requires removal with a hammer and chisel and does take a significant amount of time and effort. If you have not removed a protective coating before, we do not recommend doing it yourself. 

Can you buy our protective coatings and install it yourself? No, our protective coating is only sold through authorized retailers and requires specialized application equipment and processes. 

DIY options may look the same but they are not. We use a high temperature and high pressure application process that produces a product that is superior to the DIY options in strength and longevity. It is the only way to apply our polyurea and polyurea/polyurethane hybrid coatings. 

When applying a DIY liner, initially, it can look similar to our protective coatings. But what you will see typically over time, is because it was installed by a DIYer, its not going to be as thick as our coatings. Most DIY coatings are low pressure/low temperature processes. DIY optionst that are high in solvent content will also shrink as the material cures and the solvent evaporates. Our product doesnt contain solvents and is VOC free. Most DIY options are polyurethanes, which does come with a lower cost, but these are typically more brittle which means the are more suseptable to chipping and do not have the elastic properties that our protective coatings have. And to apply a DIY option at similar thickness as our coating, your cost will often be as much if not more than what we charge for our products. 

We do install gooseneck and 5th wheel hitches. We recommend bringing it to us for both. We can drill the holes for the hitch, spray the bedliner and then install the hitch and plug to give the cut edges corrosion protection and give you a nice clean end product. 

This is typically not an issue if the vehicle has the original factory paint. If a refinished surface has not been properly prepped before applying paint or has not been "baked" on,  it is an increased risk.  It can occur to surfaces where we mask off areas that are not to be sprayed. We recommend a minimum 90 day curing period for non-baked refinished surfaces to reduce the risk of paint peeling.

It depends on the damage, but the short anser is: Yes. We can repair minor damage to the spray-in bedliner. In more severe cases where there is a significant peeling of the bedliner, it may be required to re-spray the entire bed and may not be covered under the warranty if it is due to abuse or neglect. 

Typically we just ask that the vehicle is clean of debris. It does help if any trailer hitches are removed. We do charge extra for removal of excessive debris, removal or masking off accessories such as bed covers, gooseneck hitches, afternarket lighting or tool boxes. We do not charge extra for removal/masking of factory lights, plugs and switches. 

Our protective coating can cover some very minor imperfections, but outside of the very minor ones, dents and gouges can show through. If you plan to have any dents fixed, they need to be fixed first.