Truck bed paint

Maintenance/Repairs
1

Carrying loads of gravel and dirt scoured much of the

paint off the bed of my pickup. The paints I have

tried to replace it haven’t held up well, including

truck bed paint and bumper coating. I don’t want a liner.

Is there a better paint for this application?

2 
Well if you want to pay the price you could get a powder coating.  It is going to be expensive and it is not a do it yourself job.
3

Rhino Liner and Line-X are two truck bed liners that hold up well to the type of abuse that your truck bed see’s. This is a spray-on type bed liner. And it’s not cheap. But replacing a truck bed is’t cheap either.

Tester

4

I know you said you did not want a liner, But if you are going to continue carrying gravel and using this as a work truck it might be a good idea to use a spray on liner, I personally recommend Line-X, I have it on my truck and it halls Heavy Metal and the bed looks great.

5

I don’t think you have a choice. There is NO paint (well maybe powercoat) that can hold up to hauling gravel and dirt. Line-X and similar products are you ONLY choice.

6

Have you tried putting a tarp in the bed before you load the gravel? It protects the paint AND makes cleanup a lot easier.

7

I think the problem you are having is that the surface that you are painting isn’t optomized for the paint to bind to. The truck bed paint might be designed to go over the regular paint and clear coat, which is now scoured. You might consider preparing the painting surface better. First, make sure it is extremely clean. Then check to see which surface the bed paint binds best to. You may need to grind the paint off down to the metal and prime it for the best results. In this case you might be better off going to a body shop.

8

I was going to suggest a sheet of 1/4 plywood.

9

There is a hardener available that is mixed with paint shot from a gun and this can really make a difference in the paint toughness, but there is no paint in the world, even with hardener, that is going to stand up under a dirt and gravel beating.

If you insist on no bed liner or coating such as Rhino then you might consider a Mini-Dump. You could repaint the bed and install one of those.
I don’t know what they’re going for now but installed a few of them a long time ago. It also makes unloading it considerably easier.