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?

he inherited it :party:

ROLF

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373906019


ROWLF

roll on laughing floor

wat

?

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...0-JDDGvrbylcJA

Exactly!

3 gal of blue and one gal of gloss. It comes out to approximately 1/2 gal per coat.

more plastidip pics please.

ive been considering buying one of the kits with the sprayer and everything. i was gonna hop on the $300 (or so) kit for SUV/large vehicles.

did you buy a kit??? and if so, which one?

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373918338

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373918338

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373918338

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373918338

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373918338

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373918338

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373918338

http://i595.photobucket.com/albums/t...psfb01a53f.jpg

Not any fan of anything rattle canned, but I gotta say, after watching a few of these videos, I'm really intrigued. I just wonder how flat this stuff lays down.



C

imo, it looks and feels like shit up close - that is, anywhere within 10ft

Better with gloss maybe?

Look at how heavy they're laying on the paint at 1:41, I can't imagine that's going to dry into a decent finish.

Also, poking through some Google search resuults, there doesn't seem to be a clear consensus on how long this stuff lasts.



C

I do like the bright orange.

I will disagree. Some douche drove his S4 to the shop when I was installing my muffler it did not in any way felt or looked shitty.

What's the mix for the light teal?

I bought a car that was plastidipped the same color the OP's Miata a couple months ago, and there will be dip in crevices, around pieces of trim and between the lights and the fenders/ quarters/ trunk lid for the rest of this thing's life. The big flat areas peeled off very easily, but despite the stuff being blazed on VERY thick, it still won't come off of the little crevices and between body panels without a battle. I won't EVER use this stuff on another whole car, and I'm SOOO glad that I peeled this car before dipping my Miata.

Off the DYC website i got the kit for a small car with gloss.

-threaddrift-

What's the story behind that SE-R?
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373569041

C

we already hit that topic. That is our 24hr of lemons car. Soviet did the majority of the initial build on it. I am currently maintaining it for our next race. It is a shockingly bad-ass machine! It is not an SE-R though. It is the 1.6L B13. In my opinion it is better than the SE-R though. less power = less heat/stress on all components= less likely to break.

...oh... :drool: I do like that.

Well I like this work because its looking great.. specially that mat black and gray without top... they are looking very fine, but others are also looking good. Thanks for sharing these photos of plasti dipped cars.

I sprayed my gas door, striker plates, and hardtop. Its held up great for the last 6 months in the Florida sun. I would never dip a whole car.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1374731548

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1374731548

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1374731548

Any photos of long term use? Does this stuff survive weather well, not necessarily salty environments, but general every day wear and tear?

I recently tried using the florescent plasti dip on some black wheels....what a mistake that was! Took way to much paint and covered for shit...though its partially my fault because in little writing the can says best if used over white base coat...waste of $35 right there....oh and going back to peel it all off FML

Yeah if you want this shit to peel you gotta cake quite a bit of it on there. You wont be peeling thin coats.

I've no pics but a friend had terrible results with it on his Z. By that I mean it looked like doo-doo in a few months. But he just peeled it right off no problem. His was white. Flat white

I like the concept of applying it to small trim pieces where I would've used vinyl in the past.

On the wheels, I wonder how they would hold up to the high temperatures of track use. I'm sure my rotors aren't glowing, but they do get hot.

Is the texture rubbery or does it feel like paint?

I consider it fairly rubbery. I do NOT like it. You can't do lines, any exacto-blade or masking tape you try to use just tears it off everything.

It says 4 hours drying time, try 4 days. Don't even look at it with greasy fingers until the end of the 4 day period, cause it'll never wash out.

I'll probably redo these in regular paint, we'll see.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1378684515

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1378684515

Needless to say you regret dipping?

Yes. I always have, on anything I've dipped. I've had incredibly good luck with flat black enamel paint. I plan on using it for the windshield header and mirrors. Thankfully it was put on thick enough to peal easily. Live and learn, this will hopefully be the last time I make that mistake.

As a follow up, I've found that 3M Adhesive Cleaner:



https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1378762802



Does a pretty good job of dissolving dip that doesn't want to come off. I even got it off of the windshield washer squirters and out from behind some stuff where I was convinced it was never coming out. It doesn't just lift it like paint stripper or dissolve it like brake clean would, but it softens it enough that you can scrub it off of places where it is stuck to a textured surface or it's too thin to peel.

I still don't think I would do a whole car that I actually like or expected to own long enough that I would have to take the dip back off.

Everything that I've sprayed with the Plastidip aerosol cans I've been able to handle within an hour of spraying, with no fingerprint issues.

I have never plasti-dipped anything other than the ends of a pair of pliers, but that looks pretty good! I kinda like the stripes too.

The pliers stuff is different. Its thick hard rubber while the stuff in the spray cans is a is a lot thinner and runnier.

This one. I like this one.

Update on mine:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1380216346

All plasti dip was removed from the mirrors. A gloss white enamel from Restoleum was used on the hood and flat black enamel on the windshield and mirrors. The white matched the Macco white paint job wonderfully.

Masking was fairly easy, no annoying cleanup of overspray afterwords, just a few pieces of trim were sprayed flat black, but most of them were faded to a dark grey anyways.

Down with plasti dip. I figure if you have a paint job that's bad enough, take a little extra time and use real paint. If it's too nice for real paint, don't paint it?

I emailed a guy selling plasti-dipped BBS wheels. I told him that I'll be interested if he removes the plastidip and finds the original finish isn't damage. No response yet haha. I can't wait to see the number of plastidipped cars on the markdt with ads like, "Some plastidip is left but it will easily come off if YOU put some time into cleaning it."

I plasti dipped a bumper i got from a scrap pile at a body shop and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. A buddy and I were skeptical so I shot a trash bumper, but we both liked the end result.

It covered all the deep scratches and imperfections in the bumper except the hole and covered up the tear pretty well.

If I ever spray a car I would cover all the crevices cause Im sure all the junk would forever be stuck in there but with decent prep I bet it would be just fine.

Mine peeled right off after about 3 months of TX sun.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1374283946

I have a thread about it in the BS section

Anyone seen this yet?

Not gonna lie...that looks great.