Plasti Dipping my entire Daily Driver - Dial Up Beware

Well, I got tired of the crappy paint that was left on the DD. The Arizona sun has killed the clear and what little paint that was left wasn't holding up very well. I didn't want to get a fancy paint job and I've seen how those $800 paint jobs don't hold up and still don't look very good when freshly done.

I decided to try Plasti Dipping the entire car.

Here is a good shot showing what I was working with.. When we used the pressure washer to clean the car I was actually taking paint off the fender so I had to move farther away.. I think the fender was a repaint.

Before Plasti Dip by maniak_az, on Flickr


Here is a similar shot after dipped (only 2 hours old)
Af Plasti Dip 1 by maniak_az, on Flickr

It came out much better than I expected. There were a few goofs and I got better at taping as I got farther along so there are a couple places that the tape wasn't just right. Overall, I'm happy and if/when I do it again or decide to change colors it will run me about $250 in materials.. This time is was $460 since I bought a sprayer and a few other little things...

I got everything, including the 3 gallons of Matte Aluminum and 1 gallon of silver metalizer from DipYourCar..

Here are a couple more shots..

After Plastid Dip 2 by maniak_az, on Flickr

After Plastic Dip 3 by maniak_az, on Flickr


After Plasti Dip 4 by maniak_az, on Flickr

~Mark

 

[toypaseo]

Actually looks pretty good

 

[BigRondo]

I agree.

 

[DjDom]

Came out looking great.
Any reason you stuck with silver?

 

[Maniak]

Came out looking great.
Any reason you stuck with silver?

I had no idea what I was doing. I've never painted using a sprayer before and I've never used sprayable plasti dip.. Sooo...

I went with a color that wouldn't be obvious when you opened doors (door jabs different colors) but more importantly, if I missed a spot it would at least look almost like the same color..

And.. I need to work on my taping technique. There are a few places on the body where the tape was onto the metal so the dip stops short of the edge..

I also have a couple spots where I wasn't getting enough product on so the color is off a bit and more importantly, it is rough...

But, unless your looking for stuff like that you don't see it... I may even put on a pattern of strip looking things later. That way I can get more practice before I dip the X.

~Mark

 

[MONMIX]

who still uses dial up?

 

[Maniak]

who still uses dial up?

I have a neighbor who does.... All he does is Email and craigslist.. I do think I'll have him switched to the same WISP I have soon though..

I guess I could use the phrase DSL beware, but it doesn't have the same connotation..

Sort of like how "Don't Copy That Floppy" works better than "Would you steal a car?"



I did forget to say.. One issue with choosing a color close to what was there originally was that I couldn't see the spray on the body.. The colors were too close to the same.

~Mark

 

[Anime]

Looks good, but $250-460 on an easily peeled-off coating seems like a permanent waste of $$$ when compared with getting a quart of two of sale/clearance auto paint and doing a DIY spray job with that for under $100, or the less expensive method of using Rust-oleum, or even spray cans. Plasti-dip only lasts a few years, or until something breaks the finish and it starts peeling off from there. It also fades unless you add UV stabilizer. Will be interesting to see how the silver fares in the AZ sun.

The whole "Dip your car" thing seems like more of a gimmick for the upmarket ricers who have expensive vehicles and want to 'skin' the car when they're bored with the paint job or add matte black details, without actually committing to it or getting an actual paint job.

There are "paint alternative" bedliner-like coatings that are better (see Line-X Body Armour), but the consumer-level stuff hasn't really made it to market yet.

 

[Maniak]

Total cost in the sprayable product was $200-$250, the rest was tools.. So the cost isn't that high.. Especially on a vehicle with > 260k miles on it.

Also, as you stated, this isn't permanent, which is actually what I wanted. If I screwed it up I could change peel it off and do it again..

For me, the big difference between using paint and dip is the prep. There is no way I could have just painted over what I had on the car. You can see the clear coat is gone in big sections on the hood. Since the dip is thick is actually covered those imperfections.

I've seen how an $800 paint job (on a Honda) looks and even with those the prep work really adds to the cost. Plus they don't look very good. That included labor but they knew what they were doing when I don't so using the same amount of money to buy paint and do it myself would have meant a permanent crap paint job.

I've seen Dipped 4x4 rigs and the dip doesn't scratch the same as the paint jobs and when you do rip it or change colors you can peel the panel or the entire vehicle and do it again.

While Dip isn't for everyone but from the people who I've talked to who run it, which is normally the import crowd, they big reason they use it is that it isn't permanent and they can change colors easily. Especially nowadays when they have tons of colors and many additives including pearls, metalizers (what I used) and even things to do that chameleon color shift. Like I said before, it was something to cover the mess the car had on it already that wasn't permanent.

~Mark

 

[DjDom]

And.. I need to work on my taping technique. There are a few places on the body where the tape was onto the metal so the dip stops short of the edge..

I also have a couple spots where I wasn't getting enough product on so the color is off a bit and more importantly, it is rough...

~Mark

The thing with plastidip is you don't tape.. This may sound silly, but you don't tape anything off. You peel off the overspray which leaves you with clean lines.

 

[Maniak]

The thing with plastidip is you don't tape.. This may sound silly, but you don't tape anything off. You peel off the overspray which leaves you with clean lines.

There are certain reasons/places to tape. If you don't tape the windshield you end up using a bunch of product on something you are going to take off anyway...

Also, Dip doesn't come off of rubber well, at least that is what I read. There is rubber around every window and even around 1 side of the headlights.

I did keep tail lights un-taped on one side so I could compare taped to un-taped. They look the same since I managed to get the taping done correctly back there.

I wasn't sure about the plastic with the black pain at the bottom of the door windows so I taped over those. If the seal was better I would have probably just taped the rubber and left the rest...

The explorer doesn't have the same window seals so that one should be much easier, although it will take more product. I figure it will run me about $300 in materials but I won't need to use the more expensive stuff on places like the roof where I don't need the metalizer to make it look nicer.

I took pictures of all the goofs and I'll post on DYC to get some input but I "think" I know what I did wrong in those places.. I just didn't know how to fix it when I saw it happen..

~Mark

 

[RangerX]

Mark, curious how it's holding up after a year and a half...?

 

[Maniak]

The Dip is holding up well. I had one spot that a tree/bush branch hit it and it dug into it. I just took some MEK and re-melted it back down and now you can't tell I did that..

The only places that it's peeling/lifting is where I goofed my taping job around the rubber windshield seal. It's actually been lifting for about 6 months but it's not getting any worse..

I had the windshield replaced and the new rubber seal isn't in the exact same place so now you can really tell where the plasti dip ends (just like you would be able to with paint.

Now that I have a roof on the carport I may hang up some tarps and peel/re-dip the car and see if I can get the dip around the rubber seals better. Most of the dipped cars I've seen don't have rubber window seals (windshield or door window) so I'm still trying to come up with a better way to get a clean line without spraying over the rubber.

I did stop washing the car after 6 months but after a good drive in the rain it looks shiny again, even though it's not reflective...

~Mark