I've read the posts on those liners and thought I would do my own bit of research. What better way to research than to look at the parked trucks at Walmart that have a sprayed bedliner.



Clearly, there's a few different brands but the result is the same in the end. All of the trucks that I peeked at their liner (around 50 or so, over the past month), it was a faded black (trucks varied in age, none were new). In my eyes, that faded black looked ugly, ugly, ugly and ugly.



So I thought about how I use my truck, present and in the past. Couple of bags of mulch, few cases of beer, bags of salt, luggage and boxes. There's never been scratches on the sides of the box area (ie. inside walls) or at the head of the box either from my use. It's no wonder my buddies call my truck a cowboy cadillac.



Ford makes a rubber bed mat and thought for $82.50+tax, couldn't go wrong. Bought and installed it. This is perfect! And I saved hundreds over the bedliner.



Just a word about the bed mat. Ford must make them to order. Mine arrived at the dealer 1 week after ordering it. The rubber was passing off fumes.



Cliff note version:

Looked at sprayed-in bedliners on other trucks parked at Walmart over the past month. All of them looked faded and ugly, in my eyes. Bought Ford bed mat. Love it.

 

Just to add - you don't have to get a Ford bed mat -

I have one that is non-Ford from my '08 and fits perfectly.

 

I agree about black parts being faded looking fugly. But the bedliner was never one of them, at least for me. A pickup truck is for work, and anything inside the bed area gets worked, so any guy will expect that area to look like it gets used, which in most cases it most liekly will over it's lifetime.

It's the other black parts that start to look like junk after a few years. On my 1997 I ignored the black parts for a very long time, never treated them and never really washed them either. It was my first new vehicle, and to me the black parts were just that, and I left them alone. After 5 years or so they were looking rather faded, and I started treating them with different products, like mothers backtoblack, which sucked, and eventually meguires trim shine, which worked great. Shortly after I sold it for the 2004 when it launched. I treated the black areas from the start this time around, and there were a lot of them on the 2004. It wasn't too long before they always started to look faded, especially after 3-4 years. By the time year 5 rolled around even the trim shine was doing little to nothing anymore to make them look good. Also by year 5 the 2009 refresh was coming out, so I said to myself that if i bought the refresh i wouldn't use any trim shine on the black parts, but i would wash and dry them good when detailing my truck. So eventually I got the '09, March 31st, and that's what I've done. So far, no fading. It seemed to me the more I used the trim shine, the less it worked and the more the black pieces faded on my 2004. Luckily, the 2009 refresh has a lot less black plastic parts than the 2004. The rear tailgate top and the bed rail tops are my major concerns for my '09. Also the "icemaker" cowl and the side view plastic portions.

 

I have Line-X Xtra in my truck and love the way it shines. And I also would never risk rusting of the bed with just a mat or a drop-in liner. Everyone has their own priorities.

 

The nice thing about the bed mat is that you still get all the drainage from the bed that was there already. I had the mat that is in my '09 in my '04, and when moving it over, There was zero rust on the bed. It was dirty, to be sure, but no rust whatsoever.

 

The spray in liners also allow the original drainage. But that's good to hear about no rust with the bed mat. I'll be keeping this vehicle for a long time, so I still just wanted to be a bit more careful with the rusting issue.

 

I had my 1998 for almost 7 years, no rust under bedliner. My 2004 for 5 years, no rust under bedliner. I have bedliner on my 2009, zero concerns. I've heard this a few times, but to my knowledge not sure where this comes from. No one I've ever known has had rust issues with their bed caused by a bedliner. In fact, I'm pretty sure they are designed to not be air tight so that rainwater dries out rather than standing. Could be wrong, no idea. But it's still hard for me to believe people have rusting beds all over the US because of bedliners. I think it's all just personal preference, I wouldn't even consider rust as a determining factor, ever.

 

Agreed. I've always had an OEM drop-in bedliner in all my trucks. Never had a rust problem.

 

I was simply basing that off of various forums and even a few threads on this forum. I've never owned a truck before now, but I had previously heard of *a few* horror stories and seen a few pictures of rust underneath some drop-ins. That was enough to get me to do a Line-X. But like I said, to each their own. In the end, I just like the finished look of the spray-in liner versus the drop-ins.

 

The Ford version of the bed mat doesn't trap water, so corrosion isn't a concern. It has raised dimples on the underside to allow water to drain away. Not sure how you see corrosion occuring with the use of a bed mat.

Just to clarify, bed mat is not the same as drop in liner. Completely different products. Bed mat is a thick, reinforced rubber sheet cut to fit the floor on the pick up box. The interior sides of the pickup box are left factory, without protection.

 

Yes, I do know that they are different. I may get a bed mat to put on top of my spray-in liner as well. But I liked the added protection around the sides. I just can't bare to see a single scratch on that clear coat and paint.

 

I hear ya on that one. And then the worry becomes, does that scratch turn into rust?

 

The metal forming the inside box is galvanized. Just take a look at most work trucks. The paint on the bed surface is scratched/rubbed/worn but little to no rust.

 

Didn't know that, thanks!