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’ll post videos in a minute. Takin forever to upload
