I was talking to a friend of mine recently who installs Line-X spray on bed liners in pickup trucks. He told me about a few of the cool things they do besides bedliners... They completely coated a hunter's truck with Line-X. The vehicle is virtually impervious to scratching and denting. They coat the floors of Humvees with Line-X as part of the new armor initiative. They have also started doing spray-on front end masks for sports cars. Knowing how the front ends of my vehicles have been "sandblasted" by flying rocks and other road debris I am thinking that a spray on Line-X Front End Mask would be an awesome mod. You could also take it a step further and spray the lower section of the car for a two tone effect that would protect from splashing, tar, etc. I guess you could even coat the whole car if you wanted to. Most bedliners are finished with a sandy \ gritty finish, but Line-X can also be applied with a smooth finish. Not sure I will be doing this mod any time soon but I thought I would pass this info along in case anyone else was interested. Take a look... LINE-X Spray-On Truck Bedliners...the ultimate truck accessory! Cheers! Judas_Prius
Check under the doors on your Prius. There is a similar clear spray-on protection that was applied at the factory.
I had the bed of my Tundra sprayed with Line-X. I love it. One word of caution though, the color does diminish after time. It was a lovely wet looking black for the first months, then it started to turn gray. It is pretty tough stuff. The way my wife drives the truck I should spray the entire truck with Line-X, especially the rims and bumpers! Also, the surface gets a little slippery when wet.
I just have to point out that the LINE-X article says "LINE-X polymer coatings have been recognized by the U.S. military..." and "recognized" is not the same as "used." LINE-X looks like a good product but I live in Stafford and have attended the events at Quantico and vendors like to twist the truth with the best intentions to win a contract. LINE-X doesn't keep projectiles from piercing a surface -- it is just supposed to hold it together like when Floridians put masking tape on windows before a hurricane. BTW, LINE-X is an anti-skid material which suggests it has a high coefficient of friction. Friction equals drag. I wonder what it does to your gas mileage?
It's a polyurethane that is sprayed on. It's more viscous than paint, so tends to have a 3D finish, not smooth and flat like a good paint job. This -might- decrease drag like it does for golf balls. Even if this has no effect, the surface "slipperiness" of the finish has virtually no effect on aerodynamic drag due to the "skin effect". The air at the skin isn't actually moving. The pebbling of the surface done to golf balls increases the thickness of the skin effect, and that decreases drag (air against air rather than in places air against the ball surface). My RX-7 had coatings on the bottom of the doors like this. It looked ok. It is also paintable, so if painted that would negate the fading and could make it a little shinier. Not sure if it's less expensive than the 3M film. If so it might be a very good "chipproofing" treatment.
