Do I Need a Primer?

This answer applies to our coating on ANY surface

Spray-Lining SLPV coatings will adhere well to practically any surface. However, you need primers for the following conditions:

  • Plastic Fenders, Bumpers, etc
  • Bare Metal

Bare Metal Preparation

Whether it’s a truck bed, trailer, container, or other object, if you have a corrosion-free bare metal surface you will need an AUTO OR MARINE-GRADE 1:1 EPOXY PRIMER. There are many available on the market. The key is that it is 1:1 Epoxy Primer.

Plastic Fenders, Bumpers, etc

If you have worked with coating plastic surface you know that without the proper prep, coatings DO NOT adhere for any significant period of time. We recommend using House of Kolor AP-01 adhesion promoter to prep a plastic surface for our coatings.

The key to using this product is to apply the coating shortly after use of the adhesion promoter. The adhesion promoter works by making the plastic surface tacky with a chemical reaction. While the surface is reacting it is most capable of accepting a bond with another material. So, it’s important to use our coating shortly after treating the surface with the appropriate adhesion promoter.

Why are some other DIY Spray Bed Liners Cheaper?

Spray Lining and Coatings Always Gives?you the Right Amount of Coating

Most DIY Products advertise a “1 gallon truck bed kit”. Over time this has caused many consumers to think that “One gallon equals one truck bed”. This is not correct.

We believe it is a disservice to the public to think this way. If you read our Q and A about Bed Liner Thickness you’ll understand that it takes at least 2 gallons to do a basic 6 ft bed, and at professional thickness it requires 4 gallons.

Spray-Lining DIY Kits start at 2.3 gallons of sprayable bed liner. Plus you get a real professional spray bed liner gun, not a cheap schutz gun. With this better gun you can control texture and thickness very well. This allows you to customize the look of your spray coating and apply a better consistent coat which helps with your level of comfort and the finished product.

Quality Coatings Provide Quality Bed Liner Results

In addition to these factors, most DIY Bed Liner kits are 1 part roll on system. Spray-Lining is a 2 part polyhybrid coating that is used by professionals in the industry. We are the only company besides Scorpion Coatings that offers a professional product to the DIY consumer.

Why is Spraying Better than Rolling?

You can see truck bed liners being sprayed at auto body shops all over america. The reason you see these trucks being sprayed and not rolled on is that the formula being used is designed to react and dry quickly so that the vehicles can be returned to service. In essence, fast dry time is a property that can be associated with a 2 part sprayed product versus a one part roll on. So, spraying is better for this reason as well as material control. With a brush or roller you cannot achieve the exact build and texture that you can with a gun.

There are a few classes of spray gun. These include:

    Professional – Non DIY

  • Fusion Guns – Like Fusion AP/CS
  • High Pressure Non-Fusion
  • Low Pressure – A/B hoses 0- Allows mixing
  • DIY Guns

  • Gravity Fed Hopper – quite a bit of control, 2 tips or one tip, premix material little control over set time
  • Schutz Guns – Very little control, basic 2 step operation.
  • HV/HP Paint Gun – Used for top coating only

In summary two major benefits: 1. The roller gives you less control over texture and build 2. A material sprayed through a gun typically has a lower set time than cheap coatings that are designed to ONLY be rolled on.

How Much Product Do I Need?

Here’s the calculation for any truck bed liner which is sprayed on:

1 gallon of any liquid covers 1604 sq ft at 1 mil (1/1000″).

Therefore:

total sq ft / (1604/mil height) = Gallons required to cover a specific area at a specific mil height.

Average Mil Height : Generally, for low stress areas you can go half the thickness of professional grade coatings. Therefore, if you are doing 20 sq ft @ 125 mils and you want to do 10 sq ft @ 60 and 10 sq ft @ 125 mils, your average = 125+60/2 = 185/2 = 92.5 average mil height

This is important when calculating actual material requirements. For floors, you do NOT want to use less than 30 mils when applying a protective coating. The mil height is required to provide the “protection”…… Be careful when reading other vendors product information because they typically do not expose this information in order to provide a “better price”.

Buy Spray Bedliners | Koi Pond Lining and Coatings | View DIY Products

What Texture and Thickness for External Body Coating?

Following the recent trend of applying bed liner to the outside of your vehicle saves you money and shows of the ruggedness of your auto. Doing these applications yourself requires a little bit of experience for a few reasons:

  • It’s the OUTSIDE of your vehicle!! You don’t want to screw up
  • You want to apply the perfect texture for washable yet rough look
  • You want great adhesion for long term functionality
  • Colors require a little bit more skill than black or grey

General Rules for Proper Texture and Thickness on External Body Bed Liner

The things you want to control are total weight of product, durability, texture and color. So, the general rules (in order to keep this short) are

  • keep your coating at < 40 mils (<1/25" of an inch)
  • For durability you do not want to spray thinner than this because it will be too easy to chip/crack because of the coating being too thin
  • For texture you are going to want to work on creating a FINE orange peel, which does NOT look like a bed liner when you inspect closely. The idea is that you want the dirt to be falling off of the vehicle. The more aggressive the texture, the less washable and the dirtier the vehicle will be. So, think SMOOTH with Little BUMPS.
  • You can do either a top coat or color all the way through the coating. If you are doing exact color matching, you will be using our Crystal Clear Bed liner as a top coat. This will attach to the more course underlying grey bed liner that is applied first to give you your texture and to keep cost down.
  • If you are tinting all the way through then typically, color matching will not work. In this case you have a range of colors to choose from. You can custom tint also, but there is NO WAY that the dry color will match a paint code because the tint must be added to a powder that is colored already.

Will this stick to plywood or concrete?

Our Bed Liner material is a polyhybrid formula which is a full range coating that is chemical resistant and has excellent adhesion properties with many materials. So, this can be used in other coating applications like decks, boats, etc. The material bonds extremely well with wood, concrete and most metals. Spray-Lining materials are varied based on the specific type of application because you don’t want bed liner on your boat because of heat, extra flex, slip-proofing properties, etc.

Adhering to Plywood or Concrete

If you coat a piece of ply wood with Spray-Lining Deck Coatings or Bed Liner, let it set and then cut the edge off with a saw you will be impressed by the results. The coating will impregnate itself on a molecular level about 10 mils into the wood (or more based on varying conditions and formula). If you beat that piece of wood with a hammer, you will see the added support provided by this chemical bond. A similar reaction will occur with concrete.

View DIY Products | Shop OUR Colored Bed Liners | Marine Coatings | Koi Pond Lining and Coatings |

Suggested Compressor Settings?

What is the right CFM and PSI for my DIY Bed Liner?

Different Products require different settings. Spray-Lining SLPVH-100, which is the basic spray bed liner, requires between 9 cfm @ 80 to 11 cfm @ 120 psi. You can spray it with lower pressure settings if thinned more. Lower quality products require less CFM @ PSI because they are inherently thinner which means less of “bed liner texture” and more of a paint-type finish.

We have the most versatile spray bed liner that allows you to achieve a broad range of textures and finishes for your project needs.

View DIY Products


All DIY Spray Bedliner Compressor Settings

  • Scorpion X02 Compressor Settings

    Air Requirements: 7 cfm @ 40 psi
    Operating Range: 15-40 psi
    Air Supply Connection: 3/8?

  • Al?s Liner Compressor Settings

    You need a minimum of 7 cfm capacity and 25 psi at the gun.
    You do not want to exceed 55 psi at the gun.
    This will generate too much over spray
    You can achieve virtually any texture from 25 to 55 psi.

  • Raptor

    6 CFM @ 65 psi
    4.5 SCFM @ 90 PSI, 5.5 SCFM @ 40 PSI

  • Durabak

    9 CFM @ 50 PSI
    Schutz gun with 60 PSI

  • LinerXtreeme

    60-75 psi – No CFM Requirement to be found

  • Speedliner 1000

    11 CFM @ 90 PSI

Compare DIY Bed Liner Products

How Thick are DIY Bed Liners Compared to Professional?

That depends on who you are talking about. Most DIY Bed Liners are applied at most 30 mils which is 1/32 of an inch. If you read reviews of Raptor, Al’s and others you will see consumers state that they bought multiple kits.
A professional sprayed bed liner is supposed to be 125 mils in thickness in high use areas and less on verticals. However, this is the game… Some applicators may try and get away with applying less because they make more money and most people would not know the difference.

Spray-Lining Products are produced to be applied at 60 or 125 mils throughout the entire project. We are the only company that offers a DIY system designed to compare with a professional sprayed bed liner like Line-X or Rhino Linings.

Buy Spray Bedliners

Does Thickness Matter for ALL Types of Bed Liner?

Yes. Any material will adhere and protect better if it is thicker. So, in a relative manner, thickness ALWAYS matters. Different materials may have comparable specs to each other at different thicknesses, but, it’s not so significant that you could say, ‘this material at 1/32″ is as strong and durable as that material at 1/2″‘. It just doesn’t work that way….

Now once you get into an area where two products are significantly different in behavior and comparable in strength at extreme thickness differences, you are simply talking about completely different materials. In these cases, thickness will not be the most important factor because the chemistry will be profoundly different between these materials and in many cases, probably not intended for the same purpose.


About thickness

Companies can use thickness (or lack of thickness) as an exploit for the consumer. We don’t mean directly either. Just by excluding the fact of the important of thickness, consumers are not allowed the opportunity to make the right decisions when buying DIY. That’s why we talk about mil height all over the Net. We want you to have the best experience long term with your coating. We believe that this third element (thickness) is critical to DIY success.


At Spray-Lining the long term results of your bed liner job, floor or marine application is far more important to us than selling you a DIY kit. Our products may seem more expensive than many, but that’s because we are not “painting” a story for you. We give you the information straight.

Shop OUR Colored Bed Liners | Floor Coatings for Garages and Workshops | Become a Dealer

What is the most durable spray bedliner?

That is relative to applicator and prep…. But, for the sake of argument, a polyurea-hybrid or poly-hybrid in general exhibit better specs for adhesion, tear and impact resistance than polyurethane or aliphatic urethanes.
Applicator experience and prep is a huge factor in regards to longevity and perceived durability. Meaning, that if the applicator is experienced enough, he can make a coating with lower specs than another last longer and in general than a better spec material applied by someone without the proper experience.

Take this into consideration when having a bed liner applied by a shop. If you are seasoned or have the support of the coatings manufacturer you may be able to produce the same if not better results than a professional company. Spray-Lining has the best support hands down for DIY systems. So, along with reasonable material prices, you get the information and support you need to finish your job with superior results. Shop Professional DIY Products.

Floor Coatings for Garages and Workshops | Marine Coatings | Shop OUR Colored Bed Liners