I handed in my letter of resignation just over two weeks ago at Cal State San Bernardino. Since then I have been unemployed, smart move right? Well the reason why I made the switch is that today I am sitting in my own office of my own business. I purchased a Spray Lining and Auto Accessory business. I am obviously hoping the move from a state job will turn out to pay off as yesterday was a nightmare of a first day. Anyways should anyone need anything auto parts related, and I do mean ANYTHING! Give me a shot at getting you a great price first, also should you want your truck bed lined, rocker panels, or anything else just let me know. The business is called Bed Tech it is located in Loma Linda, at 24735 Redlands Blvd Suite A just South of the 10FWY off Anderson. Thank you for your time.

 

 

Good luck Randy. I hope it works out really well.

 

Good luck Randy.

The only thing I miss about having left State employment years ago is the great retirement packages they now have.

 

Hey man,

I don't mean this in ANY offense at all, so please don't take it that way.

But don't most trucks now come with the liner in them? Doesn't that scare you a little bit?

Again, I don't mean to offend you saying you got into the wrong business, just interested in how much business you can get doing that.

I remember back in the early 90s places like that were crowded. My dad had a new truck every 3 years so I had to sit at those places for 8 maybe 9 hours waiting with him until it got finished. It was still fun to me though.

 

Bedliners are an added accessory you can purchase through the dealer, but to my knowledge they are not standard on any truck. Also, factory/dealer bedliners are usually the drop-in plastic type or the carpeted "bed rug" type.

The spray-on liners are still aftermarket.

 

hmm ive been looking for a billet grill for my new (to me) 04 Frontier...

 

What kind of accessories do you sell? Do you deal with any bedcovers such as ********?

If my truck didn't already have a bed made out of plastic composite I would be all over getting a spray on bedliner. Still that spray on bedliner works well inside the cab of a car if you are looking to run a big stereo system

Good luck with your new venture Randy. That place isn't too far from where my sister lives. You should get some good business in the IE trucks are popular in that area

 

Nissan Frontier has only just started having a spray on bedliner standard and Toyota only as of 05 has made their bed completely out of plastic composite. Ford, Chevy, and the rest all still have metal beds with only the paint protecting it. Plastic bedliners are dealer added options that you pay extra for and those plastic drop in bedliners suck. They trap water, scratch up the paint underneath, fade, and warp. I much prefer the spray on liners. Just as strong but look much cleaner and are less hassle.

 

Yep, you beat me to it. The NISSAN Frontier I rented had a factory sprayed on liner. They are nice but aren't indestructable. I've got a couple of chunks out of mine due to nails sticking out of a pallet. One of these days I need to get it repaired under warranty.

Lon

 

There is either a Nissan or Toyota on the market that does come with a factory spray in liner. And a lot of trucks nowadays are coming with the snap in plastic liners. However most people notice the kind of wear and damage a drop in liner creates over time, plus there is nothing like the custom clean look of a spray in liner. With gas prices and manufacturers offering options for truck beds it could definitely impact businesses like mine, however on the other side if trucks come with spray in liners that will also mean there will be a need to repair them down the road. Also with the accessories as kind of a side business it allows me to get some flexibility to try to market my business to more customers or offer current customers more products.

 

Just let me know what style or type you are looking for and I will be happy to PM you a qoute

 

Thanks Nigel! I can get all kinds of tonneau covers, the Undercover (this is a poly tonneau that is built to be light but strong so that you can remove it and use the entire bed), Lorado (this is the style that looks like its covered in vynl), Truck USA Cover (this is the rolling steel tonneau like a Jack Rabbit by Pace Edwards), and I have a local hookup for very nice custom made tonneaus out of fiberglass that will be paint to match exactly to your truck with dual locks and felt under the tonneau, the price on that is right around $600, a great deal compared to snug tops or other paint to match covers!

 

Randy,

You can make a killing with a spray on liner business. There is only stipulation; you’re going to have to hustle your *** off. I have a friend that has recently opened up a Tuff Skin shop in close proximity to a Line-X shop dumb move right? I mean everyone knows who Line-X is but who/what the **** is Tuff Skin? The first couple of months were absolutely dismal I’m talking buckets of red ink. Until I demanded that he do everything that Line-X didn’t. For example Line-X didn’t pick up and/or deliver vehicles, Line-X didn’t do same day turnarounds, Line-X didn’t remove the bed bolts before applying the liner, Line-X didn’t offer any spiff or bonus programs to front line salespeople. So armed with this information he started hammering his local automotive dealerships and accessory shops exploiting these shortcomings and little by little the business started to trickle in. I told him that it’s not about what product you are selling; it’s how it’s being sold. Speaking from the RV side, absolutely every Lance Cab-Over Truck Camper I sell has a spray on liner included in the purchase price. Every gooseneck or 5th wheel hitch I install gets a spray on bed liner. The salesperson incentive program is what has really made a significant contribution. Here’s how it works…all a salesperson has to do is send a customer to you with his business card. You sell the service for the exact same retail price that his shop would. You take your wholesale cost and the balance gets kicked back to the salesperson. Randy it’s all about the hustle!

 

And kickbacks, oops, incentives. j/k

Like me you are selling a service. Keep the customer happy and he will tell his friends etc. My business is a little different, but I have never had a yellow pages ad and most of my clientel comes from word of mouth and is T&M.

 

I was looking at the ******** X2000 Speedstur. I think it's the one that best goes with the X-Runner styling.


But a really low profile fiberglass one I would be interested in as well. I want it to color match as well. Something like this I would be interested in as well if your guy can make one like it.

 

Mike, I could not agree more about the hustle. I am hoping that some marketing ideas I have will pay off as well as trying to broden the applications of the liner itself. I am hoping to market to dealerships as well as the walk-in customer that is looking to get their truck lined. Hopefully the work and investment will pay off in the end. Mind you I have no dillusions that this endeavour will make me rich, I just want to make enough to be comfortable with Donna still working, and gain some flexibility that will allow us to do some family planning

Nigel, the tonneau in the second picture, on the black truck, is almost identical to the look of how the custom painted to match tonneaus come out looking from the local shop I deal with. I can price both out of your if you are interested, just let me know

 

Also, in case some of you were wondering, here are my prices, which include a discount

Short Bed Under Rail = $335
Short Bed Over Rail = $385
Long Bed Under Rail = $355
Long Bed Over Rail = $405

If you were to get more volume coming my way I could either lower the price of each job or provide the person lining up the work with some incentive to keep the working coming

 

fyi ur website seems unreachable

 

Let me first see if my car audio deal goes through if it doesn't then the money will go towards the cover. That's a great deal you have both with the fiberglass covers and the bed liners. I will ask around some of my truck buddies and see if any are looking to get a bed liner anytime soon. If so I will try to shoot them your way I know a couple might want to ditch the plastic drops in they have now since they do a lot of offroading.

 

Sounds awesome, thanks Nigel

 

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The Nissan Frontier has neither an optional nor a standard spray-on bedliner available... at least, not that I saw when I spent about two months of this year going through specs when shopping for my '06 Frontier. The available optional bedliner, from the factory, is plastic. Yes, a dealer could've installed a plastic bedliner if a truck wasn't ordered with one initially. But if a truck 'came' with a spray-on bedliner, it, too, would've been dealer(or rental company) installed, not factory installed.

But good luck with the new business venture. If I ever change out my plastic bedliner, I know where I can go for a spray-on.

 

The '07 models of the Frontier and Titan have a spray-on bedliner available.
Nissan USA - 2007 Nissan Frontier Prices and Key Features

Nissan USA - 2007 Nissan Titan Prices and Key Features

 

Ah, forgot it's already '07 time.

 

They do a little bit of misleading in their advertisement too. They state it's the only truck with a standard bedliner and utilitrack system. My Tacoma has the utilitrack standard and the only reason it doesn't have a bedliner is bc the bed is made of plastic so no need. Technically the bed is one big bedliner. Either way like Lon said the factory spray on bedliner the Frontier comes with isn't all that great anyway. I am sure Randy's will be much more durable and for his price its a good time to ditch the drop in bedliners and upgrade to a much better one

 

competitive priorities:
-cost
-quality (top quality/consistent quality)
-time (delivery speed/on-time delivery/development speed)
-flexibility (customization/variety/volume flexibility)

good luck.

 

Thanks, I am trying to balance all of those variables