Rhino Liner : Color match my truck's bed?

[DaveK98]

Went to 2 rhino liner dealers in my area (Houston). One said they only do black. The other does color but said I would not be happy with the color because 1. Won't match well. 2. Will fade as the color products don't have uv protectant in them.



My paint is the 05 deep molten red pearl coat.



Sorry I posted this in the engine forum, won't let me change it now



Can anyone offer any advice?



Dave

 

[Buffalo]

Rhino Liner

I've heard, EXACTLY, the same thing you just heard. You are, also, in a hot area of the country and I would think the problem would be more pronounced than if you lived in an area without as much sunlight.



I have nothing against Rhino but, I have heard that the product is not as durable as some of the others, such as Line-X. The story I was told was that there are 2 different methods for installing these liners. The HOT method & the COLD method. The hot method dries almost instantaneously while the cold dries at a slower rate. Some of the differences are that with the cold, you have to "pile-on" more material on the ribs going down the floor of the bed because, the cold, since it doesn't dry quickly, wants to slump down into the valleys, from the peaks of the ribs. Also, the material has a tendency to run and drip off the sides and side rails, of the bed. A good installer can probably avoid those problems but, you never know what your going to get. Another thing I heard was that the texture ends up looking more like "cottage cheese", rather than a finer texture.



The hot technique dries before it can slump into the valleys and sticks to the sides and side rails better.

I got a product (hot) similar to Line-X, locally, and I'm very happy with the quality of the installation and the durability, so far. I was able to get mine at a show price ($300. 00) just by asking if they were going to have a sale, in the near future. The owner gave me the sale coupon and told me that whenever I was ready, present the coupon.



I would, also, highly recommend getting the product installed over the top, side rails and the top edge of the tailgate. Just for the extra protection.



I, in no way, mean to critisize anyone's product, here. It just pays to do your homework and then make a decision as to what will work best, for you.



Hope this helps.



Joe F. (Buffalo)

 

[gonzo2]

Go with black. Especially with the Rhino. Mines Armaguard but similar to a Line-x. Liner was 1. 5 years old when this picture was taken.

 

[RustyJC]

Mine (bright white clearcoat) is Line-Xed in black over-the-rail. Not that I considered any other color, but I was also told that they didn't recommend any color other than black here in the Houston area because of fading problems.



Rusty

 

[GWoody]

My Dad had a Rhino coating red sprayed on a flatbed and after a year the red had turned to yellow in spots, uglier than poop, don't get red.

 

[dsaint69]

Rhino

I would do a Line - X. They warranty at anyplace in the US. You do a Rhino, they only warranty it at the place you got it originally. And only if you do it in Black. Also, Line-X dries in less than a minute, where rhino takes a whole day. If you have not done already, Look into Line-X. You won't be dissappointed.

 

[DaveK98]

I think I'm going to get a line-x from D Friedson. He seems to be the only person who will do the color the way I would like it done.



I'll let everyone know how it goes!



Dave

 

[klenger]

FWIW, here's a pic of my Deep Molten Red with a black Line-X liner. I'm thrilled with it.



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[EBottema]

I was told by a Linex guy that when doing rocker panels in white, they colored white linex will turn yellow over time. He recommended painting over the linex instead of mixing it as a matched color...

 

[DFriedson]

I'm a LINE-X dealer. We use Dupont Nason paint, which is a urethane based automotive paint. It's durable, glossy, matches the OEM paint (except for a few exceptions), and won't fade. Here's a couple of pics, I have more pics, I'll scan them tonight and post tomorrow. The exceptions are a few colors that were not consistant from the factory, such as GM's sage and Toyota's light silver metallic. Note: Not all LINE-X dealers know how to do this method.



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No more rock chips! Lower facia of this Altima with color matched LINE-X:

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Pics are not so great, but here are rockers and flares with non-fading color match to a Suburban color:

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Entire exterior in a Ford red non-fading color match and black LINE-X:

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[EBottema]

DF-



Do you mix the paint with the linex material or do you spray over?



Erik

 

[DFriedson]

Nason is sprayed on the bedliner immediately after the bed is sprayed. Now, the liner is dry, but the chemicals don't actually cure for 24 hours. The urethane based Nason actually bonds with the liner during the liner's cure time. The result is a very durable color-matched liner. This method works well and has been used by some LINE-X dealers for years.



EDIT: Forgot to mention: We don't spray a black liner first. We spray a pigmented liner that is closed to the OEM color, then spray the pigmented liner with Nason.

 

[Colonel102]

My color match

Check out the color match "bug shield" I got from Line-X



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[DFriedson]

That looks great!!



We can also spray in some logos. We do it for FREE!



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[rbattelle]

DF - where are you located?



Just yesterday I parked behind a 2005 Flame Red 2500 with a Rhino red-colored bedliner. The colors were not matched and it didn't look good. Looked like an amateur did it.



-Ryan

 

[DFriedson]

I'm located in Fort Worth, Texas.



Yep, that Rhino you saw was just a pigmented liner. Darn near impossible to color match and it's gonna look like my rearend in 6 months to a year.



As promised, here's some more pics. All of these are non-fading via Nason paint. These are scanned photos, so there is some loss of color and resolution. I know, I know, I need a digital camera.



Blue color match:

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Beige color match:

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Hard to tell, but this is a gray color match:

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This isn't the best looking truck I've seen, but here are before/after pics, the entire exterior in black LINE-X with Nason.

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[klenger]

DFriedson:



You need a digital camera, ... and a website to post all these pics on.



Nice work on the liners and paint.

 

[mgonske]

Go for the color-match--you won't be sorry! I had color-matched Rhino-lining on my Forest Green '98, and now on my Bright Silver Metallic '03. The material is pigmented, and there is a UV-protectant top coat that's sprayed over. The '98 looked beautiful right up to the time I got the '03, and so does the new one today. I didn't think they'd even be able to do silver, but I was pleasantly surprised.



These pics weren't intended to showcase the Rhino-Lining, but you can get the idea:

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Now, I will grant it's possible to screw it up. When I had my Jeep's tub lined, it came out a horrible pink/flesh-toned color, instead of the tan color of the TJ's interior plastic trim. Because of the molded-in nature of the color process, I thought I had just ruined a brand-new Jeep, but they were actually able to top-coat it and get the color right. I've dug into it to see how it would wear, and now four years later, it still looks fine (whew!).



That was a new dealer to me (had moved since having the '98 Ram done), and I still took the new '03 to them--in fact, because they still felt bad about the Jeep, they did the color-matching on the new Ram for free.

 

[CajunDieselMan]

Now THAT is impressive!!!!

 

[ropinfool2]

That color matching looks awesome, wish I had a dealer that offered it. I have the black Rhino, it's faded pretty bad, doesn't look very attractive but I still prefer the Rhino over Line-X. It's a softer rubber compound, nothing slides in my bed, nothing. In my old line-x'd truck everything would slide all over it was so slick but that is just my opinion. I wonder if I can "color" my liner now? John