This is a good review of all the DIY products out there:
There are many D-I-Y bed liner coatings available. With the exception of few, most products are designed only for spray application and are not optimized or well suited to roller installation. Listed below, you will find most of the items on the market considered to be do-it-yourself coatings but they are far from professional quality or consistent in texture and appearance.
Monstaliner™ is the only do-it-yourself product on the market that is capable of providing professional looking results with roller installation and is UV Permanent as well.
Note: The information provided below is our honest opinion of products we have used and tested ourselves. We have purchased every one of these items either in stores or online. If we say something negative about a product it is based on our real experience and knowledge as a paint manufacturer. These reviews are meant to be informative but you should be doing your own research as well. There are plenty of opinions and write-ups of these products online, in forums and on buying sites. If you have any comments or questions, please send us an email to
[email protected] Here's our latest list as of March 2011
Herculiner Truck Bed Liner holds the top spot in popularity mainly because it was the first do-it-yourself bedliner on the market. Herculiner admittedly has poor UV stability leaving many users disappointed when the product fades and looks like trash in 3 to 9 months. Contains a heavy concentration of crumb rubber (ground up tires) to create its texture. Rubber particles tend to settle easily in the liquid coating and constant mixing is needed to avoid an uneven and splotchy final texture. Herculiner's surface can be very difficult to clean and may require high water pressure and intense scrubbing to dislodge dirt and mud that gets stuck between the rubber particles. The coatings surface can also be very rough when rubbed against your skin and can literally "take the skin off your bare knees" if not careful when moving around the bed. The company now offers a UV topcoat protectant to keep it "looking new" as their website says. Herculiner is manufactured in South Africa by Duram Paint for Old World Industries who owns Peak brand antifreeze. Herculiner is an aromatic (non UV stable) single component moisture cure urethane. Kit contains 1 gallon of coating, roller, brush, scuff pad and can opener - #HCL1B8, $90.00 - $100.00 Note: Claims by the company regarding dry film thickness are subject to interpretation. When Herculiner film thickness is measured, false readings are obtained because rubber particles stand up high in a thin film coating. Dry film thickness is really only 4 to 6 mils.
Durabak is manufactured by the same company that makes Herculiner and comes in two versions, one with no UV stability and the second version does claim to be UV stable for a 35% premium. Both contain crumb rubber and are single component moisture cure urethanes. Durabak has the same issues as Herculiner with roughness, uniformity of texture and a hard to clean surface. 1 gallon includes roller - $90.00 for non-UV product / $120.00 for UV protection. These links show that Durabak is the exact same product as Herculiner.
http://www.protectakote.co.za/prodinfo.asp http://www.protectakote.co.za/contact.asphttp://www.duram.co.za/Products/prod-detail.asp?prod_ID=31Rustoleum Road Warrior Truck Bed Coating is a two component epoxy product also claiming to “fade over time due to the suns ultra-violet rays”. Road Warrior contains silica sand to create a non slip surface. It looks and feels similar to 60 grit sandpaper with the sand grains spread very far apart. Directions say to use a spray protectant to restore the original look which sort of defeats the purpose. It's actually not a bad product but it's not very flexible and cracks easily as all epoxies will do. A kit contains ¾ gallon of pigmented epoxy polymer and 1 quart of epoxy curing agent, roller, sanding block, drill mix blade and a paint brush - #7705498, $110.00 - $160.00. Pot life: 3 - 4 hours, 56% solids by volume.
Duplicolor Truck Bed Coating (old solvent base product) is a reasonably popular single component product made by Sherwin Williams. It has one of the lowest costs of all DIY products. Vinyl copolymer resins and MEK/Acetone/Toluene solvents make this product dry quite fast. Solvents listed make this product extremely flammable with a very strong odor. It will stand up to UV. In the can, it appears kind of thick but it contains only 25% solids content with over 75% solvent (very high VOCs). This translates into extremely low dry film thickness unless 4 or 5 coats are applied. There are many mixed reviews out there on this Duplicolor product and it has been on the market for quite a long time. Poor adhesion seems to be one of its shortcomings and this is mainly due to inadequate surface preparation and the fact that vinyl copolymer resins do not have the best adhesion to previously painted surfaces. Sold in gallons #TRG250 @ $62.00, quarts and spray cans. A very light texture is created using a plastic loop roller. No pot life, 25% solids by volume.
U-POL Raptor is a 2 component urethane bed liner with UV resistance. Raptor is made in the UK and has become a popular product over the past few years mainly for its nice packaging. The kit contains 4 bottles that screw up directly under the spray gun. Raptor is designed to spray and we had a hard time rolling it on anything larger than a small test panel. Fast evaporating solvents (MEK/Acetone) caused the roller to tack up when spreading over a large area. Our tests did reveal one significant issue with flexibility. U-POL Raptor flexibility is very poor. After curing only 5 days, the coating cracks very easily with just slight bending of the sample panel we rolled. Available in 1 gallon kits in black #UP0820 and tintable #UP0821 @ $124.00. Pot life: 60 mins, 50% volume solids. To make colors, the user needs to purchase additional automotive paint or automotive colorant and mix that into the bottles at time of use. As with all paints tinted outside the factory, some colors will require additional coats to obtain complete coverage.
Duplicolor Bed Armor is a new product made by Sherwin Williams. Bed Armor is a one component water base urethane that contains fine Kevlar particles which really does nothing to enhance durability but acts as a texturizing agent and an alternate to using crumb rubber. Bed Armor claims to be UV protected and we believe this is correct. We were not impressed at all with this product. Even with constant stirring, it was very difficult to keep the Kevlar material from clumping together resulting in a terrible and non-uniform texture. We were quite surprised with the poor results during testing and thought we had a bad can so we ordered another online instead of buying it locally. Same poor results! Shame on you Sherwin! This product is a disaster. Just look at the video on the Bed Armor web site and you can see that the texture obtained from rolling is terrible. They won't even show a close-up of the results in their own promotional video.
Contains Bis(2-ethylhexyl) Phthalate, CAS # 117-81-7 which EPA has listed as a "probable human carcinogen"
See here for the data
http://www.epa.gov/IRIS/subst/0014.htmBed Armor is available in quarts and 1 gallon kits with roller, tray, brush and scuff pad. Gal kits #BAK2010 @ $80.00 - $100.00. No pot life, 43% volume solids
Hippo-Liner is made by Dominion Sure Seal of Canada and is a 2 part urethane bedliner coating. Hippo has no UV protection as it is based on an aromatic isocyanate rather than an aliphatic isocyanate which would offer the best UV stability. Hippo-Liner is mainly designed for spray application and is difficult to roll uniformly because it contains solvents that evaporate very quickly and the roller tacks up too fast in the wet coating. Not a bad product if you can deal with the lack of UV protection. Available in small kits containing 1.7 liters (less than 1/2 gallon) with minimum of 2 kits or ideally 3 kits required to do most projects correctly. Black only #BHBL @ $75.00. Pot life: 30 mins, 52% volume solids
Color Your Hippo sprayable bedliner is a tintable version of Hippo-Liner from Dominion. Color Your Hippo is made from aliphatic isocyanates so it does have UV protection. This is not a bad product. To make the color, the user needs to purchase additional automotive paint or automotive colorant and mix that into the Color Your Hippo at time of use. Because Color Your Hippo was designed for spray and contains fast solvents it is also difficult to roll with good results. Available in 1.7 liter kits #BCYH @ $87.00. Multiple kits required for small bed or tub. Pot life: 60 - 75 mins, 50% volume solids
Gator Guard II is also made by Dominion Sure Seal of Canada and is a 2 part epoxy bedliner coating. The "B" component is thicker than peanut butter. Since epoxies offer no UV protection, Gator Guard will chalk and fade significantly when exposed to direct sunlight. Contains a very large non-slip material and its surface is extremely rough and hard to clean. Some of the texture particles are surprisingly sharp almost like shards of glass. We rolled Gator Guard and it's surface looks and feels like a 12 Grit sandpaper. The data sheet for this product says that the white cures to a yellowish white. This is because it is made from epoxy resins which will naturally yellow and chalk on ageing and when exposed to UV. Available in 1.7 liter #BGG2/#BGG2W @ $65.00 and 6.8 liter kits @ $225.00 in both white or black. At least 2 of the small kits are needed to do a small bed or tub. Pot life: 45 - 60 minutes, 50% volume solids
PlastiKote is a water base acrylic-latex bed liner with crumb tire rubber for texture. It is made by the Valspar Corporation. Has a reasonably low ammonia like odor, dries fairly fast but is nothing special. It's probably pretty good to line your little red Radio Flyer wagon. Has a fairly rough surface like Herculiner and Durabak. PlastiKote bed liner is available in gallons #256, $60 - $80
POR-15 POW-R-LINER is a 2 part urethane bedliner. Since POR-15 does not make any of its own products we studied their MSDS carefully and decided with a high level of confidence that this product is U-POL Raptor with a POR-15 label. We have not done actual testing of this product. Refer to the U-POL Raptor review above for details on this product. POR-15 POW-R-LINER is available in 1 gallon kits @ $179.50, Yikes!
SEM Products Rock-it is another 2 component urethane and was developed to compete with the U-POL Raptor. We have not tested this product yet so we do not have much to say. We did hear of a recent product recall regarding the catalyst portion. Available as 1 gallon kits in black @ $100.00 and tintable @ $105.00. Pot life: 60 mins, 48% volume solids
Topic: Bed Liner? (Read 13580 times)