Herculiner Bed Liner

My old Ram 1500 had a Mopar under rail drop in bed liner. Maybe I'm weird, but I actually liked having a "slick" bed. When I loaded up for a camping trip I could set something on the tailgate and with a good shove, send it to the front of the truck. There were only two things I didn't like about it. One is that it rubs on the stock paint pretty bad so rust in the future was inevitable. Second was that water collects under the bedliner which also increases the risk of rust.

I debated heavily the pros and cons of drop-ins, spray-on, paint-on, and mats. Eventually I decided on Herculiner based on price, "ease" of installation, long-term protection, ease of fixing / maintenance, and looks. There are quotes around "ease of installation" because it wasn't all that easy. The prep work of scuffing / scoring the stock paint in the bed, dealing with headache inducing M.E.K. and the nasty gooey mess that is Herculiner over a two day weekend wasn't "easy".

I decided to give Herculiner a shot for a few months to see if I really like it. If not, then my plan is to buy a Mopar drop-in bedliner and since the bed will be protected with Herculiner I wouldn't have to worry about the paint scuffing problem I mentioned above so much. If the Herculiner started to wear, I could just do a touch-up on it.

Click on a picture for a larger, higher resolution view.

Scuffing paint with a green scouring pad	Difference of scuffed vs. unscuffed	Flat surfaces were easy
The ribs were hell	This is going to take a while	Joints were really tough too
The bed mat and tailgate mat that were in there	Starting on the floor of the bed	Removed the tie-downs
Removed the tie-downs	Scuffing the wheel humps	Still scuffing
Still scuffing	Still scuffing	Still scuffing
Still scuffing	Still scuffing	Still scuffing
Finally, everything scuffed	I decided not to do the tailgate	After wiping down the bed with M.E.K.
Still some shiny spots	After more scuffing and more M.E.K.	Using the paintbrush to Herculine the hard spots
Using the paintbrush to Herculine the hard spots	I stopped here for the day on Saturday to get ready for a dinner party	Picked up again early Sunday morning
Herculiner clumps up quick, keep M.E.K. handy for spills and thinning	First coat is supposed to be light	I was worried it was going to look like hell
Finally, on to the floor of the bed	The floor of the bed is easiest	Still doing floor
Still doing floor	First coat all done	Still see a lot of red in there
A bit uneven in places for sure	Looks horrible	I was still worried it would look bad
More of first coat	Still first coat	Let dry for 4 1/2 hours
WOW!!! After the second coat	I was pretty surprised at how good it looks	Switching between roller and brush to get the nooks and crannies
Waiting to see if the shininess goes away	Hoping it'll be more of a flat black