Bed liners of several types are almost must-haves for pickups. Without some kind of protection, truck beds soon turn to rust buckets. Simply using a pickup for normal use is sure to cause scratches, if not dents, and lead to corrosion in time.

Spray on bed liners have several advantages over other liners. Now these are offered as options even on new trucks. Usually for a new truck the spray on coating will be done by a local franchise of one of the big name liner companies.

Spray liners are after all really a paint coating over the existing bed coating. But it is special paint. Partly it is special because it dries and cures very rapidly. The paint usually is a two part product mixed right at the spray gun. Engineered to cure fast, that means the time to get the project done is very short. Usually that means the truck only has to be at the applicator just a day or so.

Another major feature of the coating is thickness. Up to one-fourth inch thick, the lining durability relates partly to the large volume of material applied. The thickness of the coat means lots of paint can be torn or ripped away and the bed metal still is not touched. It isn't that the liner is so hard to damage, it's that there is so much of it there. Then there's the matter of color. See, you now can get some liners in several popular colors to contrast with the paint of the vehicle.

The guarantee that comes with liners is not that the liner won't be harmed, it is that it will be repaired. It's not that the liner won't be damaged at all. It's just that repair is quite simple to accomplish. Repair just means a respray, that's all.

Another basic feature of liners professionally installed is proper preparation. Like for any paint coating, proper surface prep really is key to a coating that sticks. Scrimp on surface prep and the coating likely will be gone with the wind. That's basically why many do it yourself paint on liners won't last long. The surface prep gets too little effort.

That guarantee you get means the surface prep will get done and it will be done right.

Spray on bed liners work so well for a number of reasons. It's partly because of the material itself used in the coating. But it is partly just the careful application too. The guarantee you receive means the application must be done properly or the applicator must do it over again.