Yes, there is a Chevy Tahoe under there.

Talking about cars at the SEMA tradeshow is nothing new but this year a wildly different vehicle was attracting a lot of attention. We passed the Line-X booth and did a quick double take. What appeared as an extremely large armadillo turned out to be a technical marvel. Somewhere under the armadillo plating covered with Line-X protective coating was a Chevy Tahoe.

What is normally considered a truck bed liner, Line-X’s protective coating proved to be much more as it served as the armor plating of the Discovery Channel’s Tornado Chasers mobile laboratory. Even the rust color of the coating made us think of some kind of prehistoric animal. It’s difficult to tell but under the armored shell a Chevy Tahoe lives.

LINE-X's industrial coating have won awards and been tested by the Department of Defense for Blast Mitigation.

We talked with Cristin Liveoak, Line-X Public Relations Manager, to find out more about the company’s line of protective coatings. Liveoak explained that the protective coating on the Tornado Chasers Dominator vehicle was a serious industrial coating that won the Innovation Award last month from the Center of Polyurethane Industry.

The spray on coating is easily applied and covers any prepared surface including crevices that are difficult to get to.

According to Liveoak, “these coatings are engineered and tested to ensure superior protection. The industrial coatings are environmentally friendly, contain no VOCs and are used around the world in a diverse range of industries to protect against corrosion, abrasion and impact resistance to keep equipment and systems running at optimum efficiency.”

You gotta admit, if you were going to ride out a tornado, there are a lot worse places to seek shelter. Plus, there is a coolness factor being inside the Tornado Chasers' Dominator vehicle.

We wanted an explanation of what serious protection was. Liveoak told us that Line-X industrial coatings had been tested and outperformed all other leading materials, including carbon and stainless steel against abrasion and impacts.

We must have looked a little cynical so Liveoak continued to explain by saying, “The military have recognized Line-X industrial coatings’ blast mitigation product for it’s high level of protection. In DOD [Department of Defense] testing Line-X industrial coatings were statistically shown to outperform 27 other competitors in a battery of simulated tests.”

That’s good enough for us.