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There was a thread on the RX-7 Facebook group where someone asked about Plastidipping their FD and immediately got shot down by everyone - "don't do that to your nice car!" "vinyl is the way to go" "it's going to look like crap!" etc.
I've got a good amount of first-hand experience with this and I'd like to make a thread about it and set things straight.
What is it?
Plastidip is a rubberized paint. It was originally made to dip tools and things into to put a rubberized handle or coating on it. Then people started figuring out different uses and it's gone off the deep end from there. You can get spray cans to do wheels or emblems and also get gallons and a spray system to coat your whole car.
Why would you want to do this?
I've had my car since 2004 - it's black and the paint was OK when I bought it. As the years went on and the paint got rougher, I put vinyl racing stripes on. When the vinyl on the stripes died (it started looking moldy and wouldn't clean up) I peeled them off and it damaged the paint underneath. Also, there was a number of paint failures going on so my car was looking poor. I dipped it to make the car look good and also have fun with my car looking different. At this point my paint is SHOT, it's well overdue for a paint job, but I can enjoy driving the car around and it looks good (and I get compliments) for a fraction of the cost of a paint job.
I've heard it will ruin your paint.
False. If you apply it properly, with multiple (like 6) full wet coats, you'll have a thick skin that you can peel off when you're done with it. It's very forgiving on paint, even shot paint jobs like mine.
It's going to look cheap and crappy.
False. If you get the right product and apply it correctly you can have a fantastic looking finish. There's a crazy range of colors and finishes available. If you try and do it yourself with hardware store dip and a cheap sprayer, it will probably look like garbage. But that's true of anything - dip, vinyl, or even paint. You have to use the right product and the right technique.
Just get the car vinyl wrapped, that's the way to go!
I hear this one a LOT. I think it's from Instagram kids who see some crazy wrapped Lambo and think that's the only way to go. Vinyl wrap is a quality product and can look AMAZING. But, you will PAY big time for it - the vinyl itself is expensive, and unless you have a pro shop apply it, you're not going anywhere fast. A vinyl wrap at a shop can start around $2000 whereas an all-in kit of Plastidip with the sprayer and everything is about $500. You can also do it yourself.
On older paint, the vinyl's more aggressive adhesive can cause damage to the paint when the time comes to peel it off. Dip is a lot less agressive.
I'm not knocking vinyl wrapping, it totally has its place, but it's not an apples to apples thing. Vinyl is INCREDIBLY hard to apply properly. Dip is relatively easy to do yourself.
Dip won't last long
My car has been dipped for about 3 years now. There's a few spots on it but in general it still looks great. It's garage kept which helps and I take it every year to Deal's Gap where it gets rocks and bugs all over it with no problem.
My buddy Kurt's car was dipped about 5 years ago and pretty much lives outside. It's looking tired (mainly because I don't know if he washes it ever ) but looks FAR better to the faded pink paint underneath. His paint job looked super tired and faded out (literally faded to pink on the mirrors) and we did a candy red on it. He actually got flagged down on his way home with someone complimenting how good his car looked - he NEVER had that before. it's a good feeling.
First off, dipyourcar.com - that is THE place to go. They have all the tools, all the paint, and all the how-to's you need.
If you haven't really done much painting before, I'd start with a Beginner car kit. These are super easy to lay down to make a good finish. The more advanced dips have pearls in them, they look amazing but you can easily get tiger stripes and an uneven finish if you're not careful.
If you feel like you can handle a spray gun, you may want to look at the advanced kits. Pearls can be tricky but they can really look amazing when done.
As far as how to do it, there are a TON of videos -
They step you through everything and do a great job showing the process. Spend a LOT of time on the videos.
You can also get spray cans to do your wheels or black out trim or emblems. There's a lot you can do.
As far as FD-specifc tips -
- Remove the tail lights, center light, and front turn signals, as well as the side markers. What you remove you don't have to mask. Also remove the license plate and backup lights.
- Make sure to mask off the exhaust and the plastic trim at the bottom of the rear bumper.
- I usually just remove the R1 lip spoiler if the car has it.
- Mask the fender vents where the air comes out, if not the overspray will get In there and look rough.
- Spoilers are tricky to spray. I have an aftermarket RE-Amemiya spoiler (looks like a bigger R1 spoiler) that's easy to unbolt. I've removed it and built a stand to hold it out of 1x2's and sprayed it off the car. You can spray it on the car but you may not get a good coat on the bottom.
- On the trim around the windows, I mask off about 1/8" in from the edge of the trim. The trim will get a coat of dip on that 1/8" edge, but you can use a razor or x-acto knife to slit along the trim to peel that excess off when you are de-masking. Do it right and you get a clean line there.
- I've done it outdoors in my driveway on a nice day with a large throwaway tarp in the driveway. You can do it inside but you need plenty of room to get around the car, also mask up EVERYTHING as the spray can get everywhere.
- Have some friends help out. Big thing is having a friend move the spray turbine as you spray and watching the hose.
- Set up a table to re-fill the gun with paint and clean the gun as you go.
For $500 you can take your multi-color faded and scratched paint job and make it look like something you are proud of and aren't embarrassed to drive. It's well worth it.
Again, a real paint job is the way to go. You can't sand out dip or buff out problem spots - once it's there, it's there. There are drawbacks and it's not perfect. But for the price and ease of application it's well worth it. You can ride around with a good looking car as you save for a proper paint job.
Few more pictures. The wheels are dipped with a wheel kit, I think it's like Hyper Gunmetal or something like that. The dip on the wheels is getting sad now on the fronts from the heat from the brakes (I'm VERY hard on the brakes on the Dragon) but it's an easy peel off.
I was wrong on the age - the picture with my car with the wheels not dipped is from November 2016, That's when I dipped it. So it's coming up on 4 years later.
I think if the car lived outside it would have faded (the color is VERY bright) and may have gotten more rough in spots. It's in the garage most times and the dip has some war wounds on it but still looks and functions great and again isn't embarrassing.
Looks great! I think plastidip is the way to go over vinyl wrap, especially for the age of our cars there's a risk of the paint coming off when you remove vinyl. A little off-topic -> I've plastidipped my aluminum door sills twice (4 coats) and it didn't hold well up well from my shoes, I ended up using bedliner spray.
Can you post pics of your door jams, engine bay and hatch area?
Not much to say on the jambs/engine bay/hatch - the car is black and the jambs and bay are black of course. There gets to be a small bit of overspray in some jamb-type spots, but you can just scrub that off once you're done dipping.
Dip doesn't like to be rubbed against, especially "pure" dip. It's grippy rubber, so if your door sills are hitting the door slightly or rubbing on your leg or shoe when you get in the car that will degrade it. DYC has Dip Protect which is a detail type spray that big time helps the dip be "slicker" and really helps with that. They also now have Dip Armor which is like a ceramic coat, I havent' used it but it looks pretty awesome.
One thing I should really state - DYC has a TON of videos, resources, and information to make the process go smoothly. But, if you just order it, half-*** spray on a few coats, and call it a day you're going to not have good results. It's not hard to do, but you have to put in some time watching the videos and learning before going in to it. The good thing is the process really isn't hard, but you do have to put some time in before hand if you want a good final product.
Doing vinyl is a LOT more complex and really requires a serious skill set to do right. It's one of those things that looks easy but requires SO much finesse to get a good result without bubbles, wrinkles, etc. I dont' think I've ever seen an amateur wrap that turned out good looking, the ones you see that look amazing are done by pros and they have SERIOUS time in to learn the skills and have the right tools to do it.
Again, vinyl is amazing - I've seen so many cars that just looked incredible. Heck, I had vinyl racing stripes on my car for years - I did have them professionally installed, though. But, you really have to weigh everything. For me, getting a vinyl job is SO close price wise to a paint job I'd rather have the paint job. But for $500 all in I can have my car look good and enjoy driving it for some time before I'm ready to put money into a proper paint job.
Since we're talking about vinyl. I've done 2 of my own cars. After watching a bunch of videos. It is definitely not easy. Most of it is experience. When and how to stretch, how to close off the edges, when to do inlays.The FD in particular,. theres no break between the roof and rear quarters, so you're gonna have a seam there no matter what. And its a TON of work. But you do get the nice glossy finish.
How well it is installed makes a huge difference on how it turns out and lasts.
Also with vinyl the quality of the materials is a BIG difference. Better stuff has better UV resistance, better adhesives, reacts better to heat to stretch and form it, etc.
My car has been dipped for about 5 years. I watched a lot of instructional videos, and the first time took about 5 hours. I like how durable it is, the unlimited color options, and how easy it is to just re-do it. I remember seeing Herblenny mention that he actually preferred dip to a satin vinyl. I want to try a gloss vinyl next because vinyl has come a long way in the last few years. I expect the learning curve to be higher, but I've seen some good results from DIYers.
The Before picture showing the yellow fender, red mud flap, primer spots....that really shows where Plastidip makes so much sense. The car needs to be painted at some point, but a simple dip job and the car looks good and you can enjoy it without driving it around mis-matched.
Some of the newer dip options get a good gloss, it's not full "see your face" shine but it looks really good with the top coats and stuff.
08-14-20, 03:43 PM
Plastidipping your FD: how to and all about it
) but looks FAR better to the faded pink paint underneath. His paint job looked super tired and faded out (literally faded to pink on the mirrors) and we did a candy red on it. He actually got flagged down on his way home with someone complimenting how good his car looked - he NEVER had that before. it's a good feeling.
