Gladiator Bed (Plasti dip coating on the inside walls?)

[Sigz]

Was sitting here looking through ways to help prevent scratches of the bed and it seems to be either a solid bed liner like Line-x, or a bed mat.

I'm thinking of going the route with a bed mat just save a few bucks, but it has sort of tickled my interest in what to do for the sides of the bed...

I'm wondering (from the perspective of the fact that this JT is not a work truck or hauling lots of heavy/scratch prone stuff every day) if plasti dip on the inside walls of the bed would help prevent scratches and scuffs?

I've used plasti dip on my WK wheels in the past and they seemed to have held up to WI winters (other than the usual tire rotation lug nut scratch off).

What do you folks think of this on the inside walls of the bed? Would you recommend something else?

I would like to "buy once, cry once" with a Line X job, but after purchasing new tires, tonneau cover, and potentially new wheels - I think I'm going to save this Line-X until the future....

Thanks,

-Sigz

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[Bantam]

I suspect it would peel right off rather than protect at all from a scratch. You might have better results from a bed liner spray can or roll-on, but that may screw you if/when you decide to go with a full line-x.

 

[Zero_Accel]

Honestly you're going to spend nearly $100 on plasti dip to cover the whole bed, and it's not going to do much to protect it in any meaningful way. At best, it will stop superficial scratches, anything more will just go right through and chip the paint or dent the bed. Oh, and they need to scuff the bed with sandpaper to apply the Line-x anyways, so the paint will be destroyed regardless.

For what it's worth, I bought my truck used, and it had no Line-x, and it had full CHUNKS missing out of the paint in the bed, aluminum showing clear through about an inch across in multiple places (thankfully no dents). It had a tonneau cover, so I more or less forgot about it until I got around to having Bulletliner (made by the same founder as Line-x) sprayed about 9 months later, and you can't see where the chips were. If you run your hand over where they were, you can feel a TINY divot, but you can't see them at all.

Best to either just bite the bullet and get the liner done now ($600), or wait. If there's a few chips, it's not going to seriously affect the quality of the job in the end.

 

[Sigz]

Thanks - you are probably right.

 

[cafecito]

You can buy Rustoleum truck bed coating virtually anywhere. Spray cans are about $12, and quarts are around $25 if you want to use a brush or roller. If I had to guess, I'd say you could do the whole bed of your truck for $100 or less.

I honestly don't know why the heck people keep giving money to LineX. They charge an arm and a leg for a half-assed job that you can do better by yourself in a couple hours.

 

[Hootbro]

Bed Liner job is the last place I would pinch pennies on considering everything else I spend my money on for my Gladiator.

Like @Zero_Accel mentioned, a professional sprayed liner will cover any minor surface imperfections you may induce using your bed until you have the coin saved up.

 

[staying_tuned]

If now is not the right time fiscally, I'd give it another year or so and either DIY w/ something like Raptor Liner or just save for Line-X. The nice thing about a true spray on liner is if the prep is done properly, you could wait 10 years and the end result will still be a near new looking bullet-proof bed... Heck, I wouldn't bother with a mat either. Spend X on a mat and never recoup the cost. Spend $150 on raptor or $450 on Line-X and it could legitimately be a deciding factor come resell time. Plus it will be superior over a mat or plastidip during your ownership.

Just re-read your post. Push out the wheels to protect the bed properly. It has to be some type of universal law where you should never have nice wheels on a truck which has a plastidip sprayed bed : ).

A few raptor liner threads for reference:
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/my-diy-bedliner-u-pol-raptor.28830/

mine - https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/diy-raptor-spray-lined-bed.47180/

 

[staying_tuned]

I honestly don't know why the heck people keep giving money to LineX. They charge an arm and a leg for a half-assed job that you can do better by yourself in a couple hours.

I DIY raptor because it's a rewarding process and hey, I can save some money but LineX is an incredible product. I've shot a number of beds and I wouldn't spend less than a day on an enemies truck let alone a few hours. The products available for us to shoot are inferior to LineX. Head to an install shop... They have it nailed down but it is costly. I'm sure there are some bad experiences, maybe you had one but give them another look for sure. LineX is not even remotely reproducible by a DIY given the hardware reqs to shoot it as uniform yet thick as they can.

 

[DocMike]

Line-x it like everyone else is saying. It's the first mod I did. Lifetime warranty. I have hauled everything from camping gear to a Subaru EJ25 to a Hammond Organ in my JT....no problem.

 

[Sigz]

Thanks folks. I really already "knew" that answer -but was just wanting to bounce ideas off.

Will probably just get the Line-x down the.....line. :D

 

[PeterGriffin]

Another vote for Raptor Liner, do it yourself and save some money while your at it. There's no science to applying bedliner; clean/prep the surface and protect what needs protection from overspray. There's innumerable YouTube videos on the subject. There's roll-on versions of bedliner products too so the overspray issue is moot with those if you don't have a compressor or otherwise prefer not to spray-in...

https://www.amazon.com/U-Pol-Raptor...mzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0

 

[cafecito]

I DIY raptor because it's a rewarding process and hey, I can save some money but LineX is an incredible product. I've shot a number of beds and I wouldn't spend less than a day on an enemies truck let alone a few hours. The products available for us to shoot are inferior to LineX. Head to an install shop... They have it nailed down but it is costly. I'm sure there are some bad experiences, maybe you had one but give them another look for sure. LineX is not even remotely reproducible by a DIY given the hardware reqs to shoot it as uniform yet thick as they can.

Yea that's fair, and you're absolutely right, I don't really have anything good to say about my experience with them.

If you're spraying absolutely anything, it should be common sense to tape off or plug up anything you don't want the sprayed product to get in/onto. Yet, putting a golf tee or something into the bed rail nutserts is too hard? They also sprayed over my outlet cover, so that's basically useless now.

And to top it off, they needed to stick their dumb logo onto the side of my truck to sign their awful work? It just pisses me off every time I see it. For the amount their service costs, I would expect at least some semblance of common sense, not something that looked like a kid with a squirt gun.

 

[AstroZombie]

https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/rhino-liner.63220/
I just Rhino lined mine. I would look a a vinyl wrap as a temporary scratch resistor. The bed mat is nice too. I have one i'd give you but we are too far a part. It weight like 75 lbs. I went with rhino because it's not as course and hard as Linex and the material is put on thicker. Linex a more course and applied thinner. I also looked at Bullet liner too. Those were my top 3. In the end and minus formula's they are all the same. Shop around and get quotes. I was finding $100 differences in price based on shops locations. Also get quotes for all levels of applications. Some have basic, premium and add in/on protectants. I went with premium since it already had UV protection to prevent fading over time which all bed liners do. Some shops will try to sell you the base with UV top coat and it costs more than the premium that has it included already. They also all have a lifetime warranty.

 

[AstroZombie]

Yea that's fair, and you're absolutely right, I don't really have anything good to say about my experience with them.

If you're spraying absolutely anything, it should be common sense to tape off or plug up anything you don't want the sprayed product to get in/onto. Yet, putting a golf tee or something into the bed rail nutserts is too hard? They also sprayed over my outlet cover, so that's basically useless now.

And to top it off, they needed to stick their dumb logo onto the side of my truck to sign their awful work? It just pisses me off every time I see it. For the amount their service costs, I would expect at least some semblance of common sense, not something that looked like a kid with a squirt gun.

i was afraid of that with mine but when i got it NO LOGO!

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