Autoblog

On the final media day of the 2008 Chicago Auto Show, Mike Levine from Pickuptruck.com walked us over to the Ford display to show us an inconspicuous Super Duty sitting among a fleet of Ford commercial vehicles. He wanted to show us the bed, which was filled with DeWalt tools and Ford's new Tool Link system for keeping track of one's tools. The purpose of our visit was not Ford's new fancy in-dash computer for the commercial sector, but rather the spray-in bed liner that the truck was sporting. Called Tough Bed, Ford will soon become the second manufacturer to offer a spray-in bedliner behind Nissan, which began offering its Durabed spray-in bed liner on the 2004 Titan. Ford's Tough Bed will be an alternative to drop-in bed liners, which, while popular, can be susceptible to rusting the bed if water gets between them and the truck's metal. Ford's spray-in liner, meanwhile, is applied by robots at the factory and covered under the truck's three-year or 36,000-mile warranty. Head over to Pickuptruck.com to see Levine's detailed comparison between Ford's factory offering and a popular third-party spray-in liner called LINE-X. Honestly, we wonder what's taken the OEMs this long to offer optional spray-in bed liners, but now that Ford and Nissan are both doing it, don't be surprised if GM, Chrysler and Toyota follow suit quickly.

[Source: Pickuptruck.com]

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Yikes, this is definitely one way to add a little more toughness to an S-10 Blazer. Our fellow blogomaniacs over at CarDomain found this unique dash treatment and reported on it yesterday. We bet that it would still pass under the radar of materials standards (if we had to guess, we'd say this falls under FMVSS 205). Of course, hot summer days sitting in the JumboMart parking lot with the windows up may lead to lots of delicious off-gassing, but damn if it doesn't look butch. The coating is Line-X, a spray-type bedliner, and CarDomain member BLAZED98 has done a nice job of applying the coating to his 1998 Blazer's dash bezel and the trim panels for the power windows. It's probably even got a nice soft-touch feel that's absent from the interior plastics those vehicles shipped with. As for Line-X's other marketing claims of impact protection and quieter ride, we wouldn't want to test the former, and the nifty stereo in the dash should deal with the latter nicely, anyway. We can't really call it abuse, per se, as it's a well-done spray job, and it does add a tough look to the dash. If GM starts Rhino-Lining the inside of the H3, we'll know where they got the idea from.

Thanks of for the tip, Greg!

[Source: CarDomain]

Quite simply, rust sucks. Most any vehicle regularly driven during winters in the Salt Belt will fall victim to corrosion, and the various spray-on undercoatings available from the aftermarket have their shortcomings. Specifically, the spray-on application of these coatings often results in incomplete coverage, and what is applied will typically degrade upon repeated exposure to a decade's worth of abrasive road debris.

After dropping the fuel tank on our 1996 Buick Roadmaster, we found some oxidized ugliness despite the vehicle's near-impeccable maintenance record. Fortunately, the damage was caught before significant amounts of sheetmetal were lost, and modern technology has provided us with the tools to keep the situation from getting worse.

Spray-in bedliners? They're not just for pickups anymore. The U.S. military has begun working with Line-X and Rhino Linings to coat entire buildings and vehicles in the durable black stuff - including the Pentagon, bulletproof vests, and Humvees. The companies have found alternative uses for their polyurethane coatings before - Disneyland rides, anti-spill ground cover under oil tanks, and so on... but this is the first time we can recall learning of its use for the military.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the 9/11 attacks brought the military to their doors, as the spray-on goo is capable of "reducing the disintegration of bricks or concrete into deadly flying fragments in a bombing or other attack."

Let's hear it for creative repurposing!

[Sources: Detroit Free Press; Appearance Plus]