I own truck repair, collision & welding shop. We usually build truck bodies also. My manager tried Scorpion: Good stuff but slow drying & expensive. I researched learning that Speedliner & Rhino Pro was even more $. Why is Spray-Lining Coatings less $ than these? Also why is automatic mixed polyurea less $ than manual mixed stuff?

I sprayed Scorpion bedliner at Les Jacobs Ford in Cassville, MO. Les Jacobs paid me well, they do good work. But Les Jacobs mgt complained about Scorpions Lining. It’s over $60/gallon, it dried in 1-2 days, it wasn’t as strong as Line-X, Spray-Lining Coatings or HardLine by Rhino. My business partner (mgr from from Les Jacobs) and I see “Polyurea” pricing is the name of the game. We plan to compete with all Line-X, Rhino Spray lining shops South West of Springfield, Mo. We will start with manual system like the SLC Backpack Sprayer then graduate to Graco E-20 or Graco E-XP2 if we surpass 4 truck beds per day. We studied pricing on Rhino & Line-X. Too risky at $80k to over $300,000.00 but national brand may have value. We studied several “Rhino-Line-X Alternatives”; less but still well over $40,000.00. Reflex & Vortex are less but require buying only their guns from about $20,000.00. SLC ships Graco, their own spray rigs + PMC rigs for less, polyurea is less too. Great but since Rhino & Line-X are major brands how does Spray-Lining & Coatings market their dealers to compete? Hope this wasn’t too wordy! Thanks, Gary.

Thank you, Gary. Spray-Lining & Coatings realized pricing on polyurea under bed liner dealership deals was inflated after Line-X spun off of Rhino in this growing market segment of coatings. Others like Scorpion, Reflex by Langeman & Vortex try copying. But without true national name recognition the clones or copycats “pretend” to have national names but do not. Result: Lookalikes charge more wholesale for their bedliner, more for equipment or must bind dealership startups into buying “only their proprietary” formulas or spray-rigs. While that’s not unethical or dishonest it made competing (with Rhino / Line-X / any other established shops)more difficult. SLC got more of it’s tactics from it’s “ship jumpers”, disenchanted (Rhino / Line-X or Lookalike) clients who became (our) dealers. SLC’s marketing includes websites targeting those names or the cpating or polyurea world in general; Custom Lining and Coatings (Custom Linings was big), Kens Flexible Armor (i.e. Arma Coatings or ArmorThane), even Rhino-Line-X Alternative are used to jump start bedliner demand in different areas. Other services are email blasts to local body shops, truck dealers, welding fabricators, etc, radio, print media, etc ( as on http://www.spray-lining.com/about.php )… Mostly SLC saw these unfair startup games before they were apprehend by those like you and your partner who simply do your research.