Rust-Oleum Automotive Truck Bed Coating Spray Paint, Black

Why it's worth it

This is a 15-ounce aerosol of textured, non-skid bed coating with Rust-Oleum's Stops Rust formula underneath it. It's the right call for a trailer floor, a set of fenders or repairing a gouge in an existing liner — not for coating a whole bed.

There's no mixing, no gun and no compressor. You shake the can, mask what you care about and spray, and the any-angle tip lets you hit the underside of a wheel well without cramping your finger. It's dry to the touch in an hour. For a rusty trailer deck or the scuffed step area behind a rear tire, that's the entire project.

The coverage math is the catch. One can covers up to 20 square feet, and a standard six-foot bed floor plus walls is a good deal more than that, so a full bed means a stack of cans and a lot of shaking. Rust-Oleum puts the service life of its truck bed coating at roughly three to five years under normal use, against a decade or more for a professionally applied spray-on liner.

From our review of 8 truck bed liners, by Ben Carter, Tech Editor

What we like

• +There's no mixing, no gun and no compressor
• +The coverage math is the catch
• +Within its lane it's genuinely good

What to know

• –Single-component coatings sit on the surface rather than cross-linking the way a two-part urethane does, and it shows
• –It's also thin. You're building a film with an aerosol, so getting even coverage across a big flat floor takes patience and more…