it sucks that u can only get white red or black tho i was gonna repaint my spoiler but maybe i’ll sand it all down and try white plastidip and see if it will match, the guy above was able to match his white pretty close
i know you spell checked the FUCK outta that word, don’t lie ! :rofl
:crackup I only forgot the “c” lol
hahaha
Option two. Like the flat on the inside and gloss on the outside.
It will look like you rattled canned the car, its great stuff, but its uneven sometimes when it dries.
My Saab wheels are plasti dipped and then I painted another color on top of the plasti dip then cleared them, it can all be peeled off at any time.
Wish I grabbed the before I painted color picture
Grille is dipped too.
It actually makes a really good primer for painting over.
So Ilya, do all black but the emblem and then clear it so it looks glossy
That’s what I think I’m going to do.
Couple layers of Plasti Dip with Option 1 (we’ll start with that and see what it looks like IRL) and then do some clear.
Reason why I like Option 1 over Option 2 is because if I do the entire grill black, it won’t match the car.
All my trims are chrome. That’s why I want to leave a little chrome on the front (top strip, bottom strip, and emblem). Everyone on FB and the M forum picked option 1 too.
If my car had black wheels, etc. option 2 would be more fitting.
However, I might just wait to do this for when I go to the 08+ bumper since the grille’s are different. Really thinking about that.
Here’s my kinda sorta write up. Enjoy:
What’s goin on guys. Over the weekend (1-7-11 to 1-8-11) I plasti-dipped my roof. Now my initial though process was I wanted a gloss black roof. Once I read about plasti dip I was hooked. A great cheap way to paint your roof that literally tears right off.
I went online, bought 4 cans of clear coat right away (just because I couldn’t find it locally) for about 30$. Those came in midway through the week, so Thursday night I went out and got 5 cans of black (about 32$).
Friday night finally came. I’ve got a buddy who works at an Autobody shop, so after hours I went over there. We used some leftover plastic to bag the top half of the car, taped the edges (along the rear window molding, front window molding, and the strips that follow the roof).
We layed on each coat as evenly as possible, trying to keep it from streaking like many other videos I saw. It was impossible to do but at least the effort was there. We also blasted salamander’s to heat the garage up and help dry. All this did was kick up dust and put it all up in the paint. Since it’s plasti dip it actually didn’t look awful with all the dust specs in it, so we said screw it lets keep going. Every 2 pictures or so are different coats:
Now the clear was a huge mistake. The matte black actually evened out nicely (laid on the last coat pretty thick, let it dry for something like 3-4 hours before the clear). The clear sprited out of the can almost immediately, causing huge ugly drips all over the roof. It really sucked because we knew rite there we were going to have to redo it, but we finished anyway. Well let me just say, the clear coat is garbage. Even after finishing it, the whole roof wasn’t very glossy. That being said, we didn’t bother doing more than like 1 ½ coats because we knew we were tearing it off anyway.
Tearing off the tape was simple. Since the edges arn’t really touching, you can pull it off without really risking pulling the freshly painted paint off the roof with it. Just make sure you have a razor blade handy, because there are a few select spots it might require a light trace with the razor blade. For me, only about 1 inch in the sunroof required this sort of attention.
Finished look that night:
Finished look the morning after:
First Attempt:
32$ (5 cans of black)
30$ (4 cans of clear)
20$ (garage materials)
Total : 82$ (Pretty damn expensive considering)
The next day (Saturday) I stopped at home depot, picked up a can of actual plasti dip, and a can of VM&P Naphtha for thinner (says it right on the side of the can, and it’s the only suggestion that’s an actual ingredient). This time we headed to the garage pretty confident in our plan. Tore off Fridays mistake, which came off EASY. The tiny inner edges were hard as hell to get the dip out of, but some of it I said screw it and didn’t get to picky (you don’t see it, its deep in the edge, and I wasn’t trying to spend an hour just removing the little bits I could barely get to)
Now got to the fun part, after the car was bagged/taped again (this time we bagged the WHOLE car to avoid any overspray from the gun), we started reducing the paint. I don’t have the knowledge to do this, but my buddy who works at the shop we were at pretty much reduced it, tested how it would spray, then reduced it a little more (he said 4 to 1 with a little extra after we tested). I believe he said he used a primer gun, because it would handle the thicker paint much easier.
Now out of the gun, it layed on THICK, and very evenly. According to my buddy, out of the gun almost no pattern is required for an even coat. As long as you put it on as evenly as possible, you wont have to worry about streaking or anything. Our mistake here was not doing the edges first. When we were finishing we used the rattle can to touch up. This was an AWFUL idea and from the “final pictures” youll see where the rattle can hit, and what was completely the gun.
Just the gun sprayed coat
“touched up”
Final product (minus like 1 more touch up youll see)
That last little touch up
Final picture
“morning after picture”
My opinion on the final product is you have to see it to appreciate it. The lighting makes it look a little weird at angles (especially through a cell phone camera) but if you’re up close you can see that it’s pretty damn even overall.
Best part was we really had to put 1 coat on. We should have done 2, but I figured wed only need 1 (dumb mistake) can of dip, so we ran out of paint right at the end there.
Second Attempt:
1 can of Plasti-dip (dip) 8$ (should have bought 2)
1 can of VM&P Naphtha 9$
Materials 20$
Total : 40$ (WAY cheaper, WAY better outcome)
All in all, im satisfied with the outcome. Next time, I will buy 2 cans of dip and a can of reducer. This should be plenty and give a very even finish. I don’t want to spend another weekend on it right away, so I think I’m going to leave it and try again over summer. After all, it peels right off anyway, and beside the few inconsistencies, it looks pretty damn good in my opinion.
I realize I posted this in both my “intro” page and in here, but I figured it was sorta necessary considering this thread.
Great post.
I have to say, it looks like the horror stories I saw where inaccurate and it does peal right off. But now I have to consider, if after all the time and effort you put in and you still get some streaks in it, wouldnt it be worth it just to do vinyl? Especially for the roof where you could really easily lay down one sheet of it for cheap.
I’m thinking for a job like a roof, vinyl may still be a decent alternative.
However PlastiDip on such things as wheels, badges, grills is still a great option and cost wise will definitely be more budget than doing an entire car.
I’d like to see more cars done in white as the site owner has done, as flat white seems easier on the eyes for defects and likely easier to hide streaks on than black.
right. Oddly enough i’ve been using it for spaying parts for my 3d scanning. I can’t scan anything reflective so I hit it with the flat white and am able to peel it right off without ruining the part’s finish.
I just think with a little experience you can make it work great. The reason for all the streaking is the rattle can at the end. If I let it dry inside the garage for the entire night (and only used the gun to spray it) I really think it would have come out perfect. I’m going to try again in a few months, I’ll post results after that. You gotta remember, no ones really tried what I’m doing, and a vinyl wrap is like 150$ for 1 and I’ve never installed one before in my life. If I ruin that vinyl wrap, im out 150$. If I mess up my plasti dip roof, I spent out 30-50$ and I can try again if necessary.
It did become expensive but only because no ones tried it, and I had no idea what I was doing. At least now if someone else wants to try it besides me they have an idea on how to do it semi-right and keep it cheap.
I’m not knockin on it. Keep at it.
First off. MEGA + REP for trying it, like you said, and backing up your efforts with lots of pics and a great write up.
Now for my 2 cents i promised.
No offense to you, or your buddy helping… but you were fighting an uphill battle and you can see the result. Like I said in this and the other PlastiDip thread… there is just NO WAY to get a rattle can paint job or even a product like that shot out of a gun to lay out correctly on large panels like a roof or full car. Its not designed to do it. Picasso couldn’t lay plastidip on a car and make it look right!
I invite you to my shop so i can take a look at it for myself and give my honest opinion. If it really looks better than those pics, I will say it. Also backing my word, if you want to have me respray the roof gloss black, the right way, I will take $100 off becasue you gave it a hell of a shot and spent that money on this plastidip attempt. Thats one local car enthusiasts hand washing another.
The way paint is laid on body panels is simply this.
The ENTIRE panel needs to be covered, evenly, and WET. Thats why you have to work FAST and accurately when painting cars. The chemical reactions in the paint, causing them to dry is exactly like 2 part epoxy. The ENTIRE contents must be evenly distributed for it to work and dry together. Thats why this crap is good for wheels and small items. You can FULLY shoot it in time so it wets out uniformly and dries evenly.
The reason it came out a bit better from the gun is becasue the fan pattern from a 2.2 tip is easily 5 times larger than a rattle can nozzle. Giving you a fighting chance of even coating the material. The reducer is going to SPEED UP the dry time though. Even with a “cold” or slow reducer, its still going to harden faster than it would out of the can, unreduced. And will also open the door to solvent pop issues with multi coats of the stuff. Again becasue its not designed like autobody paint.
And the icing on the cake. If you already have the means to shoot this stuff from a proper spray gun, like the second attempt. A trip to Napa, Crossfire generic black basecoat $15 would get you enough material to shoot the roof, even ready to spray so you dont need your own reducers to sit on the shelf or spend $25 on reducer only to use an 1/8th of the container. Clear is a bit more, like $28 gets to a small container of “spot and panel” clear and $20 for some hardener. Still, less than $70 would get the materials to shoot “auto body” base/clear. Even if you suck at clear coat shooting, once it dries its nothing some 1600-1800 wet sanding and a buffer wont fix.
Just food for thought guys. Again, BIG PROPS to you for the write up and attempts!!!
As would I. Dude posts backing his product and bounces. Didnt “sell” me on shit.
yeah he could use real paint but then it wouldnt peel off?
not really looking forward to trying this anymore because it seems like you can’t spray it from a gun and get good enough results so f that.
KrazyKid you’re forgetting the benefit of this having the ability to be a two day thing.
Spray it black once you get 5 stars or more wanted level, roll around for a few days to lose it, and peel it back to the original color.
Can’t do that with regular paint.
/\ :rofl @ GTA reference
Like I said, the rattle can at the end made it look a little streaky. If we try it again in a few months, I’ll be sure to lay it on with JUST the gun. Also, if you do it in a cooler environment (at least while you’re spraying) it should lay on wet as hell and stay wet until you’re done. This shit actually takes forever to dry, I had to leave before it was fully dried but since I saw that the touch up ended up ruining all our efforts I didn’t really care
For now, I’m leaving it on. Once it warms up again or something I might give it another go, but at this point I’m obviously not in it for the cheapness. Plus since NO ONE has ever done this, obviously it’s going to take a few tries to get it down right.
Who knows, next summer I may come into the chunk I need for a reel black roof.
Just keep in mind if anyone else tries this, reduce it a little further than the consistency of normal paint, because it comes out thick as all hell.
LOL I know it was a joke but still. IMO anyone modding a car should know what they want to do with it. If you want a black roof, paint it black. Done. If you dont like it, paint it again. Take my business out of the picture… I hate on this stuff becasue its taking something (a car) that’s supposed to be respected, owned and operated adult like, and rattle canning any parts of it, with any medium seems like a short cut, half ass attempt to get some mythical end result that it will never be.
Kind of like all the cars you see 100 yards away with rattle canned black hoods… trying to look like carbonfiber from a distance or what ever. Its childish IMO.