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Tue Nov 25, 2025 4:16 pm

I have seen a lot of people do spray-on bedliner (Raptor, etc) on the bumpers and lower exterior trim. I like the way it looks and my 1997 could use a little refresh, but I have some questions:

1. Does it actually protect the vehicle in any meaningful way, or is it just aesthetic? I take the van on a lot of forest roads (PNW), but let's be real this is not an offroad vehicle. Does liner really protect the van in such cases or is it just cosmetic?

2. If I do it myself, do I have to remove the bumpers to get a good effect? I've seen online some people spray it directly onto the vehicle with bumpers intact (with a lot of careful masking). Does it matter?

3. I'm planning to add aftermarket fender flares as well. Can I put these on first and then spray liner all over it, or should I do the liner first and then the flares on top of that?

Thanks!

Tue Nov 25, 2025 7:17 pm

A quality bedliner is pretty tough and should protect against stone-chipping, low-speed branch damage and just overall road debris. Personally, I just brush it on using strokes all running one direction. When my wife got rear-ended up in Seattle, I resuscitated the fr/rr bumper covers using heat and a plastic welder. I then brushed bedliner on the complete rear cover and just the bottom on the front. That was about six years ago. It's mostly held up except for some small sections where adhesion to the plastic wasn't fully complete. The color will fade a bit with exposure to direct sunlight.

I've been meaning to bedline the rocker panels, but there's some body work required before I apply such a nuisance to remove product. You definitely don't want to paint it over rust, as that's just asking for trouble down the road.

Tue Nov 25, 2025 7:24 pm

I dunno....but, I have a gallon of it right now. I have an '86 Dodge B300 that was an Aspen ambulance....it needs a bunch of work. It has some cancer down low. That part of the van has been painted black....from 2" high (above the wheels) to 8-10" high (on the rest of it). I'm going to give a bed liner coating on that part of the van a try.

Oh, it has 56K on it.

Tue Nov 25, 2025 9:44 pm

Trash Vanda wrote:

3. I'm planning to add aftermarket fender flares as well. Can I put these on first and then spray liner all over it, or should I do the liner first and then the flares on top of that?

Thanks!

what fender flares are you looking at?
I also want to do this rhino lining trick but haven't looked into it too deeply.

Damian

Wed Nov 26, 2025 10:23 am

Zeitgeist 13 wrote: I just brush it on using strokes all running one direction. When my wife got rear-ended up in Seattle, I resuscitated the fr/rr bumper covers using heat and a plastic welder. I then brushed bedliner on the complete rear cover and just the bottom on the front.

Wow, I didn't know you could just brush it on, and the result in your photo look great. I thought the only way to apply would be spray? If I can just brush it on, that saves a lot of mess since I don't have a lot of space to work in.

And thanks for the comment about rust, I didn't think of that but definitely have a few zits forming (1997...) and will take care of those first.

Wed Nov 26, 2025 10:29 am

Damian Shaw wrote: what fender flares are you looking at?

I found aftermarket ones on ebay that are made for T4s, but there are many universal ones that you can make fit.

My thinking is that if I install the flares first, then apply liner over them, they will look more integrated with the van vs being obvious aftermarket add-ons. I'm just worried that for some reason the liner won't adhere to the flares correctly, or the curing may cause them to warp or fall off or something?

Wed Nov 26, 2025 12:04 pm

Trash Vanda wrote: Zeitgeist 13 wrote: I just brush it on using strokes all running one direction. When my wife got rear-ended up in Seattle, I resuscitated the fr/rr bumper covers using heat and a plastic welder. I then brushed bedliner on the complete rear cover and just the bottom on the front.

Wow, I didn't know you could just brush it on, and the result in your photo look great. I thought the only way to apply would be spray? If I can just brush it on, that saves a lot of mess since I don't have a lot of space to work in.

And thanks for the comment about rust, I didn't think of that but definitely have a few zits forming (1997...) and will take care of those first.

I should mention that I'm incredibly lazy and hate to clean up paint guns after spraying, so this is where I landed with bedliner. It leaves an irregular textured finish and is perhaps not to everyone's taste, so do a test patch first. I use the cheap throw away boxes of chip brushes from HF.

Wed Nov 26, 2025 4:21 pm

I’ve been using these “flares” for about 4 years and they’ve been great. Clip on and don’t fall off, I drive a good bit of washboard gravel to go camping and mountain biking.
https://www.busdepot.com/j12150

Another thing I like about this is you can do the bedliner look without having to worry about about the wheel arches as much- fewer curves. Spray can bedliner.

Wed Nov 26, 2025 5:19 pm

Dunno if it's just the brand applied to mine, but I find that mud or dirt gets embedded into the textured surface and is impossible to scrub out. It's just a light film that I choose not to let bother me.

Thu Nov 27, 2025 8:05 am

Reason #1 for spraying bedliner along the side sills ... it hides all the damaged jack point pinch welds.

Can't be bothered by what you can't see ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!