Europe Cars & Trucks News

In the wake of 911, the Orange County Register of Santa Ana, California, ran aninteresting story about the history of Line-X and its amazing properties. It told of how theproduct’s inventor stumbled onto the process while searching for a better way to protecthis race-car trailer’s bed. The feature went on to reveal that while rebuilding thePentagon, Line-X was sprayed onto the walls due to its incredible ability to resistexplosions.

When the time came for us to clean up our ‘72 Ford F-100’s steel bed, we were justlooking for a fix until we could locate a better example. Our bed was hammered fromyears of extremely hard service, and we erroneously assumed it was beyond saving. Itwas 9 a.m. when we showed up at Line-X of Huntington Beach, California, with our ’72shortbed Ford. We asked Marcel Venable if they could hammer out the major dents in thewheelwells prior to spraying in the Line-X. Before we could say, “You can’t findreplacement panels for these things anywhere,” Ivan had the wheelwells and bed floorroughed out almost to perfection.

In retrospect, knowing what we know now thanks to Line-X, it wouldn’t have takenmuch more work to cherry it out completely. After the ‘72 was Line-X’d, we mentionedthis to Marcel, who told us it wasn’t too late because the dents can be knocked out after abed has been coated with Line-X. With that news, there’s a good chance it won’t be toolong before we get out a hammer and dolly or section in a new floor, forgetting aboutanother bed.

Beyond the obvious gains in our truck’s appearance, as soon as we drove away wediscovered a benefit we had anticipated, but not with such a dramatic difference. All thesqueaks and rattles that were in our bed when we drove up were gone, and there was a lotless road noise in the cab. CCT

Photo Gallery: Line X Bed Liner Install - Custom Classic Trucks Magazine