If you are like most truck owners, the bed of your truck can take a beating primarily if you use it for working or hauling stuff for you and your friends. Even if you don’t use your truck bed very often, you probably find all kinds of dirt, debris, leaves and other stuff that makes its way into the back of the truck.
If you want your truck to remain beautiful and clean and keep your bed liner in good condition, you need to make sure that you regularly clean it.If you want your truck bed to be spotless and shine you should know the proper way on how to clean a truck bed liner.The way that you clean your truck bed liner will depend on how what type of coating you have in the truck as there are slightly different ways depending on what material and style you have.how to clean a truck bed liner
A Look At the Different Truck Bed LinersBefore you can start cleaning your truck bed liner, you need to determine which kind of coating you have as there will be variations on the best way to clean it. For example, some truck bed liners are removable and should be removed from the truck to get them clean.
Spray-On Liner – If you have a spray-on truck bed liner cleaning your pickup truck bed may be as easy as merely cleaning the rest of your truck. These types of ships are durable and, and since they are permanent, you wouldn’t be able to remove them for cleaning.
Drop-In Liner – There are different kinds of the drop in truck bed liners as some are removable while others are supposed to be permanent. If your ship is removable, then it’s an excellent idea to remove the liner every once in a while to give it a good cleaning. On the other hand, if you have a permanent drop in liner, you would need to clean it while it is stationed on the truck bed.Truck Bed Mat – If you have a very simple liner that is more like a mat, you can get these clean by removing the carpet and washing it outside of the truck. It’s a good idea to remove the carpet whenever washing your truck because you can get water stuck under the mat that will then sit there.How to Clean a Truck Bed LinerNow that you know the difference in some of the different truck bed liners you can adapt your cleaning to fit the style of your ship. Use the following steps to clean your liner either inside your truck bed or on the outside on a flat surface.Sweep Out Any Debris or Dirt
Cleaning will go a lot smoother if you sweep out any debris or dirt that is in your truck liner first. If you have lots of trash in your ship and you start spraying some water at it, you will end up with mud all over your bed liner which will do more work for you.
Use a simple push broom to remove the dirt and debris from the liner. If you want to get into the crevices and small spaces, you can use a small hand broom, but this isn’t necessary.
Spray Down the Bed LinerUse a forceful spray of water to wash out the bed liner. If you have a pressure washer, you can use this to get in the corners of the coating and get all the dirt out.If you are cleaning your liner outside of your truck, you dump the water out of the liner to help clean some of it out and get all the dirt out along with the water.If you are cleaning your liner in the truck, you can use a broom to push the water and dirt out of the truck or point the hose in the direction, so everything flows out the back of the truck.Wash the Bed Liner Thoroughly
Once you have the liner wet down and almost all of the noticeable dirt and mud has been washed out, you need to use a cleaner to get the bed liner to shine.Some people use a pure car wash soap, but you may find that it isn’t powerful enough to get your liner clean. If you want your bed liner to sparkle and shine you need to use something a little more robust.You can look for a citrus cleaner, which works to remove the dirt and grime from the bed liner. Something like orange concentrate cleaner would work well as well.If you have a spray on bed liner, you can also try a degreaser if you notice the citrus cleaner is not powerful enough to get rid of the grime. Since the spray on bed liner is pretty durable, it can withstand the powerful degreaser but you may not want to use it every time but instead just when your truck needs that proper washing.Also with the spray on bed liner, you can also try to use a stiff nylon brush to scrub the dirt away. This helps to really get in the corners and wash away the stuff that may be stuck on as well. Just be careful that you don’t scratch the liner.
Rinse and Dry the Liner
Once again use the most potent spray on the hose or a pressure washer to rinse off the cleaner. Make sure that you get into all the corners.Usually, you will notice that with a pressure washer you can get most of the dirt and stains off merely just from the washing, but after using the cleaner, you should notice your liner starting to shine.Once you have washed everything off and you are satisfied with the removable of all the dirt and stains, you will need to dry out the bed liner. Most of the time you will notice that if the sun is out, the bed liner will start drying up on its own pretty fast. If it is not drying fast enough for you, then you can take a microfiber cloth and wipe the areas of the bed liner that seem to be collecting the water.This can be a great way to deep clean your truck bed liner and get it to look brand new. The key is to use the powerful water spray and understanding in all the crevices and corners.
Some people complain that this method doesn’t work and nothing they try gets the liner clean. If that is the case then most likely your ship has faded over the time because there was no UV top coat used. In this case, you can try to restore it and then use a UV top coat or use it as is and realize that it’s not dirty but just faded.
