Mission Complete!

It's been one of those chores I kept saying, "I'll do it next weekend." Trying to decide if I wanted to drop $500 on a professional spray-in bedliner or just a do-it-yourself kit for my truck wasn't easy. After going through the pro's and con's about it, I just decided to do the "Do-it-yourself" kit, which turned out to be a ball buster. I'll set up the sequence of events. I have a 99 Toyota Tacoma which is my daily runner and it's a great little truck. Keeping in mind that it's about 8 years old, I wanted to protect it for many more years to come (that is, if I decide to keep it). I don't really do that much towing/hauling with it, mostly just to get me back and forth to fire calls, and reserve weekend. Occasionally, I'll head to Lowes or Home Depot and pick up some wood/plywood for various projects. If you know me, then you know how anal I can be sometimes about things, and how organized I try to be. I guess I could be diagnosed with OCD...no kidding. Anyhow, I decided to attempt the Herculiner kit but I had to go 110% with it...no half-ass job for me. So, of course the prep work was the hardest part about this chore. Again, since I'm anal about stuff, I removed everything from the bed of the truck...the tie downs, the brake light assemblies, the tailgate, the tailgate latches, EVERYTHING! And of course, things didn't go as planned (as is in any project). A total of almost 4 hours of drilling out 2 bolts, this was beginning to be one big headache. To make a long story short, through hard work and determination my brother got the bolt out finally, without destroying the threads too...a big plus if you ask me! After finally getting all the hardware out, I washed the bed of the truck, used a chemical cleaner called Prep-All, and got it nice and clean. Finally we could start applying the Herculiner. After several hours, and 2 coats later...we were done. It looked great. It was so good, if you ran your arm across the bed, you would probably cut yourself! A special thanks to my brother who helped me out, big time...and a big warning to all who decide to do this. Wear long sleeve and don't wear something you like. Once this crap hits your skin, unless you wipe it off right away using Prep-All (or some sort of Acetone based cleaner) it will be stuck to you for at a minimum of one week. Again, since I'm anal, all the hardware I had to either get new stuff or burn a little elbow grease to get the old stuff looking good. I did a combination of the both. I bought all new screws for the tie downs (to include one new tie down). And sanded everything else. After sanding, I primered it, and painted it with several coats. Then I used some grease so these new parts didn't get rusted into place like they once were. Oh, and good luck finding tailgate bolts for an older Toyota. Dealership supposedly didn't care them, local hardware stores don't really carry metric sizes, and auto stores were hit and miss. I finally found something identical at Auto Zone (thanks guys) and it worked out just fine. In summary, if you decide to do this project on your own, then make sure you have A.)Plenty of time B.)Are able to get spare parts C.)Patience!! D.)A place to park the truck inside a clean garage and finally E.)Plenty of time. Thank god its over with. I think next time I'll go pay the extra cash to have it done.