The people at Colorado Bullhide called last night informing me they had a cancellation, and asked if I would be interested in bringing the truck in today to have the bedliner and tonneau installed.
YOU BETCHA'!
So I dragged myself out of the rack this morning at 0630, jumped in the shower, got dressed, and headed down to Windsor. I got there about 5 minutes after they opened at 0800, talked with the owner Dan a bit, and then they pulled the truck in the shop and got to work on it.
I was back on the road and headed home at 1230, pretty good service! I'd been corresponding with Dan over the last week with questions about it, and was satisfied that they knew what they were doing. He confirmed what I'd read on several pick-up truck forums, that the materials used were all very good, and the surface preparation is the most important thing, just like doing bodywork.
The three big suppliers are Rhino, Line-X, and Bullhide. Rhino and Bullhide are a bit softer than Line-X, and are easier to crawl around on without leaving scraped off skin on the liner, and also easier on your knees when you're in the cargo bed. Line-X has the reputation for holding up slightly better if you regularly haul thing like gravel, bricks, and concrete blocks, but it's a small difference. He also had samples of the various products, removed from junked trucks where he knew what materials were used. One interesting thing were the several sections of OEM (factory applied) bedliner. If you held the stuff up to the light, you could see pinholes and voids in it, indicating it hadn't been sprayed on very thick, resulting in it not being as durable as an aftermarket applied coating.
Here you can see the thickness:
They removed the access panel in the tailgate, sprayed it separately, and reinstalled it:
Sure is dark in there!
Even though it's cured enough to use, I'll wait until tomorrow to install these "Bullring" cargo tie downs:
The above picture shows them in the "stowed" position. When you need to secure something, the U-shaped ring pulls out and snaps into position:
Ant the tonneau cover is really nice. Very solid, and easy to latch/unlatch, and fold the sections up.
These are the two new LED light fixtures I installed. The "four tube" one is 6000 Lumens, and really lights up the engine compartment, and the "two tube" fixture over the bench provides extra fill-in light.
The orange extension cords run to the garage door openers, and no, I did not install them! The black hanging cord on the four-tube fixture *is* my responsibility, and I'll be extending it a few feet so it can be dressed-in properly and reach the new switch boxes I built a couple of weeks ago.
The liner and tonneau look great in the photos, DrJim. Looks like they did a terrific job.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it came out really well. They've been doing this for 15 years, and know what they're doing. A bit out of the way, but they had the best price, and every review I could find on them was 5-stars, so I made the drive.
DeleteLooks good! And 'clearing out' stuff is good too!
ReplyDeleteThanks, NFO. Even SLW, who's NOT a 'car person', said it looked very nice. And she can easily handle the tonneau by herself, so double-win!
DeleteYay on finishing up the final things on your truck. Looks good.
ReplyDeleteDid you get yourself a real snowblower yet?
Haven't looked seriously, but unless I can find another Honda like the one I found last year, I'll most likely get an Ariens. Rev Paul up in Alaska swears by them, and he gets a LOT more snow than we do!
DeleteYou will appreciate that tonneau cover come snow season!
ReplyDeleteAnd when it's raining, too!
DeleteSLW went by Harbor Freight the other day and came home with some of those cheap, blue plastic tarps for when we haul loose stuff like mulch. I was worried if we hauled it, it would get down inside all the little nooks and crannies, and collect moisture, leading to rust. BUT....the spray-in bedliner seals everything up so well that there aren't any nooks and crannies left!
I'll still use a tarp, though.....!
When I was talking about durability with the guy at the application place, he said it was really tough, but to wait 72 hours before I threw an engine block in there and dragged it out with a chain!
Not heard of Bullhide, but it looks good and that's what matters.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations.
Lifetime warranty to not chip, crack, peel, or debond, and the price was right.
DeleteNice looking job on the liner.
ReplyDeleteWe completed our change over to LED worklights a while ago and we've noticed that they no longer look insanely bright, they simply look bright.
A quick light meter reading shows that they are the same, and we have become used to them.
I remember when we used to think a flashlight with an incandescent bulb was a decent light.
Speaking of tie downs, I removed the hooks from our ratcheting tie down straps and replaced them with an appropriately sized screw pin shackle.
They do nice work there. They spray 1/8" of the liner, then change the nozzle on the gun, and spray down the "splatter" coat.
DeleteThe lights are plenty bright, but aren't the insanely bright ones you can get that have a bluish cast to them.
You removed the hooks on both ends, or just one end?
Both ends. I changed my system when I found a hook had popped free.
DeleteI roughly match the load rating of the shackle to the ratchet strap.
If somebody else was paying the freight I'd use stainless steel, but galvanized finishes fit my budget.
I'll keep that in mind. I have some of those little shackles that would work. I'll put them in my box of stuff I always carry.
DeleteLooking real good ... congrats on your ride.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Delete