Looking for a bed liner.

hacked89

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Hey man, like the under the rail fit so I wouldn't worry about that.

To answer your question, you are two design changes away from exact fit.

87 - 96 <--- promise
97 - 98
99 - 16 <--- the bed you might get

Here's my setup that will go on my truck when it's time.

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laserjock

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My ford liner is under rail. PITA to remove but it does fit nice. It’s currently standing against the side of the garage in standby because I hate them for general activities.
 

snicklas

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i don't care for the hard plastic liners. They make the bed way too slick. I've even seen people buy the rubber bed mat and put in the bedliner to make it less slippery.

My F-150 has a sprayed in bedliner (was there when I bought it) and I really like it. It's not too slick, but it also isn't to "sticky" either. I can still slide stuff in the bed with ease, but stuff sitting in the bed doesn't slide all over. If I were going to pay for a bedliner, I would go with a spray on type. But, just truck shopping, what bedliner it has, or doesn't isn't a deciding factor for me...... just an opinion, that is all. Kinda the same discussion of what type of bed cover is the best. A topper, a tonneau cover, a hard cover, no cover.........
 

Selahdoor

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Well, I went and picked up the bedliner.

We kind of wedged it in there, (canopy is on.), and over the wheelwells.

It was kinda where it should be, but with the front end of it almost to the roof of the topper.

Tossed the spare back in there on top of it.

He surprised me with a free complete tailgate for a 98 f350. So beat up, it isn't likely to be useful at all... Except... it has all the hardware and cables. I gave him ten bucks for that, even though he tried to refuse. Just one cable would be worth the ten bucks. But it has ALL the hardware. I tossed that in, on top of the liner, as well.

By the time I got home with all the jostling, and the bumps and stuff from the gravel road... I opened the back end and had a look, and the liner is almost setting all the way down where it should be.

Not quite. And it looks like the problem is either those sides being too high. And/or, the wheelwells not being the right shape. As @Chillman mentioned.

Going to have to remove the topper, before I can get this actually installed. And have other things to do before I can remove the topper. So it will be a while.

I'll give yall a picture when I have the chance.


I'm running on only one tank, so I was concerned about fuel. Long trip.

Filled up on the way out. Watched till the fuel reached a certain point in the filler neck.

Filled up at the same place. Same pump, on the way home. Watched again. Wanted an accurate measure of mileage for the trip.

Got 17.7 MPG!!! That's a far cry above the 3 to 6 mpg that I got from the old truck.

Whole trip only cost me roughly 30 dollars. That's half what I expected.
 

Selahdoor

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Also... Scott. My truck bed is so smashed, so rusted, and so porous with holes and actual rips, I'd spend so much money fixing all that just so I could spray line it, that I'd probably be better off just getting a whole other bed for it. I didn't want to do that. This liner will work even if I have to mess with it to make it so.
 

chillman88

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You might find it fit a little better after the topper is off. I'd imagine the front lip piece isn't letting it quite sit where it should. Might slide forward an inch or better.
 

Selahdoor

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Got the rest of the stuff out of there. Got started on taking the topper loose.


Looks to me like it is going to fit just fine. The wheelwells seem to be a bit larger than mine are. That shouldn't pose a problem. If there are other problems, they haven't become apparent to me yet.

Here's a pic of the label on the backside of it.

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There is only one cable on that old tailgate. But that's one extra for me, in case one of mine breaks.


Hey. I'd like to put a piece of rubber or plastic. Something flexible, under the end of this bedliner, to bridge the gap between the tailgate and the bed.

With the tailgate down, this piece would just be resting on the tailgate. With it up, the piece would fold up with it, and eliminate the gap.

Any suggestions on where to find something like that, cheap or free?

If I could find a piece of old inner tube long enough and wide enough, that should do the trick.
 

Selahdoor

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Ok, nearly killed myself!

Well, that or completely trashed the topper.

Or maybe both. LOL



First to explain something. I have NO place in my driveway where I can park on a flat spot. Every bit of it is angled in two directions.

Where the truck sits, the nose of the truck is facing downhill.

The passenger side is also downhill.

It's steep here. A friend measured the angle one time and said it was over 30 degrees.

Pictures simply do not do it justice.



I was in the bed of the truck, moving the topper by myself.

Moved it back, a couple feet, with no real problem.

Got the front of the liner installed over that lip.

Sat the topper on top of some pieces of styrofoam, to get it out of the way, (Pieces of styrofoam were on top of the rails of the bed.)

Had to do some banging to get the liner under the rails.... yup, you guessed it. Topper fell.

Pretty much just came down and didn't move much though. So I easily got it back into place.


Got one side of the liner all pushed in under the lip of the rails.

Started the second side.

Now I want to move the topper back forward where it is supposed to be. After that, I'll lift that passenger side again, so I can get the rest of the liner under that lip.

Get under it and lift, and start to slide it...

Remember I described some actual rips in the metal of the side rails? Yeah, it caught on a jagged one of those.

I realize what is going on and give it a bit of a tug and lift at the same time... And the topper takes off like it was shot out of a cannon.

Carried me right along with it. It's a miracle it stopped where it did, instead of going completely over the side.

If it hadn't stopped there, it could have either cut me in half, or broke me in the middle.

Instead I just hit the side and fell.

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You can see that the front end, which is the most downhill portion, went the furthest.


Ok. Took a breather. Came in the house and thought about it a while.

Went back out, and used three ratchet straps to slowly get it pulled back up where it belongs.


Once it was back in place, I lifted that passenger side again. This time, leaving two straps in place, so that it couldn't slide on me.

Got the rest of the liner shoved under the lip. Then put the topper back in place exactly where it will sit.

Works pretty good.


Looks like the liner is shorter across the bottom of the bed, than my truck. Side to side.

Front to back is is only short by about an inch at the most.

Wheel wells are bigger than my wheel wells.

And across the tailgate area, it is really out of whack.

Here is a pic. The liner is so much shorter across the bottom of that opening, that you could shove a soup can in, on either side.

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I'm probably going to have to work with a heat gun, first, to try to deal with some of that.

Then do some cutting if I can't get rid of the problem.

And possibly have to do some plastic welding.

All in all, it isn't bad.


As I said before, I am going to have to find some rubber or plastic that is about 6 feet long, and 10 to 12 inches wide.

I want to fasten that under the end of this liner, and let it ride up, on the tailgate.

To close this gap...

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I think a piece of inner tube that size (1' x 6') would be about perfect.

He didn't have the liner for the tailgate. But I think I have a matching liner for that.

With both liners there, I could lay the rubber over the gap. Then fasten both liners down on top of it.

I think I'm going to have to put weatherstripping up the sides of the tailgate area to seal the tailgate to the body.



Last... I think I am going to spray some expanding foam up under the side rails.

There's a few places where you can actually see daylight through there. Obvious leaks.


And the point to all this...

An emergency place for me to sleep in case of something like having to get out of here fast because of a forest fire or something.

In this area, the biggest concern is being waterproof.

Can't live in it even temporarily, if water is leaking in all over the place.
 

snicklas

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@Selahdoor

Hopefully heating the liner will give you the ability to reshape it some. The reason you have that gap is, looking at the information tag, that liner is for a 99+ SuperDuty Pickup. When Ford did the redesign of the pickups for the 97 Model Year (F-150) and 99 Model Year (F-2/350) for aerodynamics they changed the shap of the bed (I know Dodge did this in the 94ish time frame on the “2nd gen” trucks). The bed at the cab end is wider than the bed at the bumper. It is not really noticeable, until you have a straight edge on there. This is why on the 90’s and newer trucks, bedliners, toppers, tonneau covers are “truck specific”. In the square shaped trucks, the big 3 made, The beds were all the same basic size, and square. Now they are all a slightly different size and shape.

Here is what you are dealing with on the shape of your liner...

Here is a shot down the side of my 11 F-150.... looks straight, right:

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Here is a picture of the top rail of the bed at the rear. Keep in mind the tonneau cover is square. The difference is in the bed.

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Here is the front of the bed. The rib you see end beside the cover in the above picture, is the rib on the outside in this picture:

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As and added bonus, here is what my spray in liner looks like.....

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So the liner you have, seeming to be narrower at the rear, is because it actually is narrower....
 

Selahdoor

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THANK YOU!!!

Yes. I do hope some heat helps. Looks like it isn't going to be easy.
 

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