Plastidip
 

So my factory green paint job was getting a little beat up. My hardtop did not match, there were lots of cone scuffs, chips, scratches, and had an unpainted replacement front lip. Since this car is seeing more and more track and autox competition these days, i didn't want to spend the money for a real paint job since it will likely be messed up in less than a year. So i went to DipYourCar.com and ordered a kit to plastidip the whole car. there was an issue with one of the packages getting damaged in transit and this caused a couple issues with not being able to start the project as planned. Eventually i was able to sort things out with the supplier and Plastidipped the car in about 8 hours spread out over 2 days. I then cleaned and plastidiped my 15x8 6uls since they had a chipped finish. This took 2 days since i messed up the first time and had to redo them.

Enough chitchat, here are the pictures:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373569041
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373569041
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373569041https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373569041
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373569041https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373569041
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373569041
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373569041

Looks good other than the strips. But different strokes for different folks!

Is that vintage gold on the wheels?

I'm thinking about doing that color on my REX and Miata wheels.


is the blue glossified?

I too am curious about the wheels because they look great. What color and is it the same kinda plastidip you used on the car?

Not my cup of tea m8t.

I'll take this any day.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373570731

Looks good. The stripe is meh but to each his own. The wheels turned out awesome.

Is it just the weird angle of the pics, or are those stripes about as straight as this forum?

The wheels are rattle-can plastidip matt black (5ish coats) with 2 very light coats of copper metalic over top.

The blue and black were both flat and i added 2 coats of glossifier over top of the whole thing when it was covered with color.

I wanted to do some sort of stripe for the heck of it. I see way too many of the standard 2down the middle racing stripes and the fender hash marks are all over every poser mustang in the area. So i tried to do something a little different and emulated the Ascari A10 stripe design. If the style gets on my nerves, i can just peal it off and do something else, but for now i think it looks just fine.

Notes and issues:

~If you plan to do more than one color, use tape with ridiculously wimpy adhesive! It It will try to peal your base coat extremely easily.

~Plastidip is very soft for about the first week. Be gentle with it until it has had time to cure and harden a little.

~Plastidip is super easy to fix. Buy the Fix-it kit which is just the solvent that the dip was originally liquefied in. It can be whetted with the solvent and then gently rubbed to work out any cuts, pulls, texture, or imperfections. once it is smoothed and dried, you can put more finish coats on top to hide that the issue ever happened.

~When dipping wheels, you do not have to mask the tires! go ahead and let the over-spray hit them. While the plastidip is curing on the wheels, peel the heavy portions of dip off of the tires and then use a microfiber cloth to rub the remaining plastidust/over-spray off the rest of the sidewall. Just don't let the cloth rub the wheel and make sure it is still soft when removing from the tire. It can be removed later but just requires more work.

~If you just washed whatever it is you are going to spray, make sure it is completely dry before you start spraying.

~Overspray in body cracks can be easily rubbed off with a microfiber towel. If you take too much off and create a pull near your main surface, fix it with the solvent or use a coat of clear/gloss to seal the edge.

~do not apply coats of plastidip too quickly. give them at least 15 min of cure time before applying another coat. if you don't, you will wind up with a sag or it simply wont adhere to the surface and will be a "bubble"

~do not apply coats too thick. same reason as above.

~if you remove your wheels to plastidip them, let them cure overnight before re installing or mask where the lug makes contact with the wheel. If you don't, as you run in the nut it will peel of a nice big chunk of your freshly applied plastidip. Hence why i had to do the wheels twice...

Wheels look great! I'll probably do mine matte black, not sure what color for the wheels though..

I can digg the plastidip in your case, because racecar. I keep saying this, but I have plans on doing my DD with the tan plastidip. I think it will be awesome in my environment and look fairly good.

Here's what my car looks like now.

Now that it's not my car.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-i...-no/2013-07-11

okay I've seen that before, but I thought the cost was a little much for the wheel kit at ~$40.

The new vintage gold has potential, but obviously no metal look:

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/a...ine=1370823548


vs.

the black base w/ gold metal flake:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d9...l/IMAG0837.jpg

I actually like that for whatever reason.

Also swimming108, is that the Sputnik lemons car I spy in the background? How did it end up at your place after the last race at summit?

i hate the stripes and how he left the mirrors gloss black.

I'll get to finally use the dip soon, but it won't be on the whole car like I had originally planned. I'm getting a free paint job from my moms new husband as a late birthday gift. He does custom auto/body work, and does awesome paint work. A nice new glossy classic red, base/clear, versus the single stage I sort of prefer, but it's free, some I'm not going to be a bitch about it. Then black dip on the front and rear lip spoilers, the bottom on the sides to recreate the factory strip of protective coating (I think it looks better with than without that) and on the trunk spoiler and possibly rear finish panel. Now I just need a new top to replace mine, which is held together with safety pins and black thread.

you do not need nearly as much dip as what comes in the wheel dip kit. Even with my screw up/do over i only used 4 cans of black and less than 1 can of copper metalic. If you do it right the first time, 2 cans of black and 1/4 of copper would make your wheels look exactly like mine.

Team Sputnik's LeMONS car got to my driveway by me driving it there after the Summit Point race. I have only minor repairs to do to it before our next event at NJMP in August. I think that car is fucking awesome! it is light, handles nearly perfectly, and has stupidly awesome brakes. She is my favorite lemon

Main problem with orange is usually people dont put enough. Theres this dude at my gym in a blue M3.. looks like shit. He did the splitter and few bits here and there and its so transparent that the orange looks like someone rubbed shit all over his car.

I think you might have done this wrong.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373611014

How many gallons to cover the whole car?