It took me a while to pick between getting Line X or Combat sprayed into the back of my truck. For any of you guys outside of the Tidewater area, Combat is a spray in bed liner produced by a company called Combat Coatings. It is very similiar to Line X, it actually looks the same if you don't have any logos or stickers.

After close examination of the way Combat was sprayed in and how much thicker it was compared to Line X I was leaning towards Combat. I talked to a lot of different contractors at work about which brand the preferred and quite a few told me that they had trucks sprayed with both and thought that Combat held up a tad bit better.

So on Monday morning I was waiting to go to the doctors and thought, hey I have the money to do it now, why don't I just go ahead and pick one and drop off my truck. Well I was looking at the websites for both companies and gave the guys over at Combat a call. They said that if I dropped it off by noon and they could have my truck sprayed and out by 4 that afternoon. I was like, _____ yeah! Let me go take out my plastic liner and I'll be up there asap.

I got all bundled up and went outside, took off my truck box and my plastic bedliner. I had taken off my bed liner during the summer and cleaned under it, the rust wasn't to bad just a couple tiny spots that I was able to clean up. Well this time it was obvious that the plastic liner had to go, the rust was spreading and it was now or never. So I took my truck to one of those Robo sprayed and scrubbed the heck out of the bed with the power washer and their brush. Once I got it all cleaned real nice it was ready to go over to Combat. The guys were awesome in there, I was actually just reassured to know that they were all truck drivers. Last thing you need is some sports car driving guy to be working on your truck next thing you know it's all jacked.

Well I went on to my doctors appointment and the doctor reassured me that I did have stomach flu so atleast I wasn't dreaming there. I showed back at Combat kind of early, they told me to come back while they were finishing up on my truck. The only thing I could do was want to buy these guys a beer. I've never seen such a beautiful bed liner, it had that wonderful gloss look and they had just lined it perfectly with my bed.

The really awesome part of the whole deal was, I got to talking to the owner and he told me that they had put a new formula on my truck. They had just gotten this new forumla from the chemists, just began to use it last Friday (1/14/05), which would guarentee that the bed keep that gloss look for atleast 3 years. The gloss on this bed is amazing, you can't really tell in the pictures but at night it's almost like a mirrior.

If your looking to get a bed liner I defenitly recommend Combat or Line X both are equals in my opinion.

I put the links to the pictures:
Uno & Dos

The pictures do not do the liner justice, you guys can see it at the next meet. I'm going to set one up for the begening of February.

- Chris

 

Pretty nice ! I got mine about four months ago, from line-x @ the Beach. They did a real nice job as well, will have to post pics.

P.S. I was told not to use those drive thru car washes as they spray wax on your vehicle and that the build up would be almost impossible to get off the bed liner

 

i've had one for 6 months and have been thru numerous drive thru , no problems here

 

have you all heard of Rhino spray on, that's the = to Line X here in Oklahoma

 

Thats a nice looking bedliner!! I wonder, as slick as it looks, does cargo slide easily into and out of it? I have pondered a spray/roll in bedliner, but my thick plastic liner allows me to easily move cargo around

 

Good info for when I want to get the bed in my truck sprayed. Oh, us sports car driving guys know what we're doing once in awhile too.

 

How thick is Combat. I'm kinda partial to Line-x because they really put it on thick to take a beating without showing metal

 

Please keep us posted on how the color holds up. I had Combat sprayed in mine last June, and within a month it faded to a dark grey.

 

Guy off my ship got a combat liner and told me the liner is sprayed on in such a way that it allows you to slide stuff in, but it won't slide out. Hope that makes sense... Anyway, sounded like a safety thing that prevents stuff from sliding around too much.

BTW, how much did it cost?

 

I'm going to answer a few questions from the thread.

On the color, Combat is using a new formula now and the guy said he guarenteed it would be that new black gloss color for atleast the next three years. So I don't imagine it will fade but if it does so be it.

The thickness is about 1/8", maybe a tiny bit thicker. The one thing I noticed from the guys who have it done in the factories like Toyota is how thin theirs is and how quickly it wears down to the truck metal in their beds when used on a consistant basis.

This new formula that Combat is using is not as rough as the old formula. I know the original Combat bed liners were like sandpaper, you could cut yourself open by scraping you hand against it roughly. I defenitly understand what Stu says, he put it very well. You can slide things into the bed with ease but they do not move around at all. After getting it sprayed I put some different items in my bed like a 40lbs bag of ice melt to test it out. The bag of ice melt slid easily into the bed but after taking some corners and playing around on the road the bag did not move at all.

We also have Rhino here in Virginia, it's a different kind of liner then Combat and Line X are. Rhino is a lot softer, you can take Line X or Combat and rubb it against Rhino and it will do to Rhino what happens to a pencil eraser against paper. That's not a knock on Rhino, it defenitly has it's place and purposes in the industry. It all depends on what you want to do with your truck.

When I got my liner the guy told me not to let break fluid or plumbers concrete actually touch the liner because it will destroy it. I defenitly would not doubt anything about them drive through car washes, heck I wouldn't take my truck through one of them with or without my liner. I don't think they do that great of a job to begin with. I'd prefer to just spend an afternoon scrubbing my truck down from end to end.

- Chris