There are many do it yourself truck bed coatings. A good bed liner will save the bed of your truck by sealing off the metal and adding a cushion for hauling heavy solid objects like landscaping rock or fire wood. Keeping the bed in good shape by adding the bed coating will keep the bed from rusting out and looking better.
There are a wide range of bed coatings available for the do it yourself bed liner and some can be ordered in specific colors for matching the color of your truck. The most popular is black and will match nice with any other paint color on the truck. Black will be the cheapest as well. These bed coatings are available in spray on for the person that has access to a pneumatic spray gun or a role on that can be applied with a paint roller. The role on will be the way to go because you will have more control with the roller and have no need for masking.
After you have decided which bed coating will for you the bed of your truck will need to be prepared. Make sure you will be doing this project in a well-ventilated area as these products may have fumes that are harmful to breath. If you are in a garage open the doors, windows and use a fan to move the fumes away from you. Get a painting mask or respirator if you want to be sure of safety. A trick to keeping yourself from getting the coating stuck on you is to put petroleum jelly on your arms and wear rubber gloves. The petroleum jelly will keep the coating from sticking to your skin and will easily wash of.
The surface of the bed and inside of the tailgate will need to be free of any dirt or oil. After cleaning the bed you will want to rough up the surfaces that will be having the coating applied on them. Use a very coarse sand paper such as 80 grit for this. The bed coating will thick enough to cover the scratches in the surface and the surface will give the coating good penetration. After sanding clean the surface with a lacquer thinner to remove dust and any oil residue. If you have chosen to use a spray on bed liner you will need to mask off any surface you do not want the coating to get on. This will save a lot of time because masking now will be a lot easier than trying to remove the coating off these surfaces later. Start applying the bed coating in the front and work back making sure you have put down a good thick coat especially in the seams of the bed. After the bed coating is applied you will want to let it dry and cure very well before loading anything in the bed of your truck. The manufacturer of the bed coating will have this information listed in the kit along with whether or not you should apply more than one coat.