Well I was just tired of the old crummy paint on my 86GT (I was actually washing the paint off with the wash mitt) so decided to see what this Plasti-Dip craze was all about. Initially I was totally against it but to be fair I thought I'd give it a shot for fun. Here are just some quick before and after shots, I will add more information and pictures of the process I went through tomorrow. Waiting for a good day to get better quality photos from my automotive photographer friend.
Spoiler is only black because I ran out of red for the basecoat (it has TERRIBLE coverage.) I've decided to dip the wheels black to to go with the black secondary color theme.
I'm in the same boat, paint wise. My plan is also to Plasti-Dip the car, from silver to matte white. I bought 3 cans so I can see how well it works. If it works (and looks) good, I'll probably buy the air gun kit. For less than $400, I can do my entire car.
You can rent a booth for under $100. No need for a compressor, line filtration, clean(if they maintain it), and heated
Cheap gun, gallon of bc/cc, 2k primer, poly filler, sand paper, blocks, wax/grease remover and tape for $400 easy
1.25 gallons of mixed clear goes a longgg way on a Fiero. Even if you totally suck, you can put down 4-5 coats of clear and have plenty to cut and buff.
We use urekem. Painted many cars with this and it's excellent for the price. Much better coverage than OMNI and the like
It appears to have a glossy finish. Is there a clear that goes over it? I've had black on a set of side mirrors for over a year and they have a matte finish. They're still holding up well without any signs of wear or peeling.
You can rent a booth for under $100. No need for a compressor, line filtration, clean(if they maintain it), and heated
Cheap gun, gallon of bc/cc, 2k primer, poly filler, sand paper, blocks, wax/grease remover and tape for $400 easy
1.25 gallons of mixed clear goes a longgg way on a Fiero. Even if you totally suck, you can put down 4-5 coats of clear and have plenty to cut and buff.
We use urekem. Painted many cars with this and it's excellent for the price. Much better coverage than OMNI and the like
I would actually consider this a benefit if you like changing the color often. Peels right off and start fresh, instead of adding a lot of different layers of paint.
I don't see this as a product you keep on the car for years and years, I agree regular paint is better.
Nowhere did I say Plasti-Dip was any better then conventional base/clear Just wanted to try out something new/trendy/different to see what the hype was all about. And while I was at it I went the ridiculous route of "Phoenix Colorshift", we'll see how long it takes for me to get annoyed/bored of it.
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How much did it cost to do?
I'll get back to you on this. Depending on the color and coverage, I would say a Fiero uses 2 sprayable gallons minimum. Gunmetal for example has great coverage but Red was utterly terrible and I really could have used 1 or 2 more coats. Each gallon is about $55.
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I like the idea, but I would be concerned with wear and tear vs real paint. How well do these full body plasti-dips hold up after a few years?
dipyourcar.com has a product out that is supposed to help protect the dip vs wear and tear (It was cheap enough that I bought some to see) I can't say I know first hand how well the whole system holds up to abuse.
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It appears to have a glossy finish. Is there a clear that goes over it?
"DYC Topcoat" or whatever it's called is a new clear coat sold by dipyourcar.com. The way I applied it was just mixed with the pearl powder for a satin effect vs using a different technique with just gloss for the straight glossy finish. I wanted Satin not Gloss, another reason I decided to try out Plasti-Dip. Using the gloss technique would be a bit above my level of experience having only ever sprayed automotive primer 10 years ago.
Once I get home I'll put up more pictures with the steps I took, from body work to fix the chips to the levels of base coats and then the top coat. It'll show some of the drawbacks of the direction I went for this car.
Looks good, I did mine in Sakhir Red which looked similar to your without the color shift. I'm planning on redoing mine in the next few weeks but haven't decided on a color.
I'm not worried about it lasting years and years. If I can get it to last a couple years, I'm good. I should have enough money saved up for a "real" paint job by then.
Ok here is a quick rundown of what I did to get to the final result.
First here is the main reason I decided to dip the car. I was Literally washing paint off.
Sanded down the chips in the fiberglass and used some fiberglass reinforced body filler to try and smooth it out.
Here is why basic red sprayable plasti-dip has terrible coverage. This is the hood with 4 coats. You can still see the sanding spots below where I sanded down past the paint to remove chips. I only used primer over bondo areas, but priming the entire car first would help, but cost a lot in primer.
My solution was to use DipYourCar's suggestion of always using gunmetal as a base coat for red (tried to save money by skipping this step, mistake hurt me in the end)
Followed up with the red base coat I wanted underneath my pearl layer.
Here is the whole car in gunmetal (no fully dry) I was actually hesitant not keep this color because it turned out so well but in the end I decided it would just look like a primer car which is the exact opposite of what I wanted.
Here is gunmetal from the front, I think this was after drying all night.
In process shot of painting the door jams, didn't want to see the red and silver every time I opened the door.
Here is as far as I could go with the red. I ran out of Plasti-Dip and it really could have used 1 or 2 more coats. Maybe if I didn't screw up on the hood I could have scraped away with the 2 gallons I bought.
This is actually the only picture I have of the pearl clear coat mixture. It is half of the suggested maximum from DYC (dip your car) per gallon. I was going for more of a red.
Sadly I can't remember how many coats of pearl mix were applied for this picture. Overall I had 3 coats, would have probably went with 2 if I had a stronger red base coat because there is a little more copper color then I was hoping for in the end result.
All finished, tape removed and new front emblem installed.
Hopefully I can get some nice shots this weekend of the finished product. Probably a quick video of a walk around so you can see the color shifting effect.
Did the decklid and wing today. Not sure I'm impressed just yet. I figured 3 cans would be more than enough (white over silver) to cover both. Not quite. I need another couple layers on the wing. Ran into 2 problems. First, I got a lot of splotches (big drops). I hope that's just an aerosol can issue, not a PD issue. Second, SOMEBODY'S fingers were dirty when he reinstalled the decklid and got fingerprints all over it. Any idea if this can be cleaned up?
had a similar issue when I spray canned my decklid. The coverage from the cans is terrible.
I hope that means that shooting it from the gun (theirs or yours) works much better. I like the matte white color (it's different...nobody goes matte) but the globs of "paint" and the lack of coverage suck. I sent DYC a PM on their FB page as the "Contact Us" link on their website doesn't work. Hopefully, they'll make it right somehow. At least it's PlastiDip and not paint so it'll peel right off when I get more. I'd almost go for the paint sprayer kit but that's a bit much for my budget at the moment. Too many other things to fix first.
Aerosol cans are 11oz so from my experience is you'll probably need 12 for the whole car. Don't forget the paint needs to be extremely clean and dry before you spray over it.
Aerosol cans are 11oz so from my experience is you'll probably need 12 for the whole car. Don't forget the paint needs to be extremely clean and dry before you spray over it.
I wasn't planning on doing the entire car with cans. I figured I'd try the decklid and wing (since I just bought new stands) with cans just to see if I liked it. I like it except for the coverage (or lack of it) and the huge drops splattered all over. If I decided to do the whole car, I'd buy the kit with the sprayer/gun. My paint was clean and dry (probably not as smooth as if it was getting "real" paint but pretty close). Here's a pic of the drops. It has nothing to do with condition of the surface.
Originally posted by Monkeyman: I wasn't planning on doing the entire car with cans. I figured I'd try the decklid and wing (since I just bought new stands) with cans just to see if I liked it. I like it except for the coverage (or lack of it) and the huge drops splattered all over. If I decided to do the whole car, I'd buy the kit with the sprayer/gun. My paint was clean and dry (probably not as smooth as if it was getting "real" paint but pretty close). Here's a pic of the drops. It has nothing to do with condition of the surface.
were you spraying horizontal or vertical? I had the same problem when I did my spoiler, had better results when I had the spray can and spoiler vertical. if you planning on using spray cans think about getting the DYC spray nozzle. I believe it puts more out more material and make it smoother.
were you spraying horizontal or vertical? I had the same problem when I did my spoiler, had better results when I had the spray can and spoiler vertical. if you planning on using spray cans think about getting the DYC spray nozzle. I believe it puts more out more material and make it smoother.
Tried it both vertical and horizontal. Both were a fail, in my book. I paid extra for the spray nozzle and spray handle. Neither were worth the cost of shipping. I hope DYC makes things right. My future business with them depends on it. If they blow me off, I'll probably have a paint peeling, multi colored, scratched up car for a few years until I fix the important things and can afford to get it painted. If DYC works with me, I'll probably buy their complete kit some time this summer and do the entire car. (I already dread the sanding I know I'll have to do. )
Dang! looks good in the pics! That's gettin me all fired up as I have three nice GT's here that need paint! I don't think I'll go the plastidip route,but I will do them here at home with some paint from NAPA and get them in done before bug season! (hate buffing those critters out)
I don't understand this. You are following all the steps of a real paint job. Why not do the real thing??
Trust me I was fighting trying to decide if was even worth it. My friend does paint at a body shop and he said a similar (but very well done) paint, pearl, clear, would be over double, nearly triple what I paid for the entire kit. I knew I would have to do the body work either way, plasti-dip doesn't fill chips in the fiberglass.
The main reason though is the product is easily removed. I don't plan on keeping this color for the life of the car, it's a little ridiculous with the color shift. I'm 27 so I'm sure my tastes will change (I prefer quiet sleeper exhaust systems now for example.) I want to try a few different colors and it's a lot of fun to change things up. Bonus is I don't have to do any sanding when I change colors!
I wasn't planning on doing the entire car with cans. I figured I'd try the decklid and wing (since I just bought new stands) with cans just to see if I liked it. I like it except for the coverage (or lack of it) and the huge drops splattered all over. If I decided to do the whole car, I'd buy the kit with the sprayer/gun. My paint was clean and dry (probably not as smooth as if it was getting "real" paint but pretty close). Here's a pic of the drops. It has nothing to do with condition of the surface.
That looks like an issue with the aerosol can. I didn't have that problem when painting my spoiler black with the cans. It also wasn't what I thought you meant by splotches so thanks for the pics to explain.
I don't understand this. You are following all the steps of a real paint job. Why not do the real thing??
What gets me excited is that this is a great way to learn some of the basics about painting. If you mess-up, no big deal. Just peel it off and start over.
------------------ -Chris '85 V6 SE 4sp (SOLD) '88 GT - Series 3 SC3800 w/ 3.5" pulley, 1.8" rockers, 3" exhaust, 3.5" intake, 3.29 gearing. Installed and tuned by Sinister Performance '99 Kawasaki Vulcan 500, owned since new '09 G37x Sedan w/ Premium & Nav (wife's car) '13 G37xS Sedan (new daily driver) '14 Yamaha FJR - 0-60 in 2.8s w/ 34MPG!!!
I don't understand this. You are following all the steps of a real paint job. Why not do the real thing??
Nah you dont need to sand, primer, clear, /etc, just clean it, tape it and spray it. I think if one was good at using cans they could maybe do it even cheaper than with a sprayer. Its about $6 a can here. IMO the best thing is you can experiment with colors, even leaving them on for years, and then peel them off instead of having spent thousands on a paintjob and then spend that again if you dont like the paintjob. Experiment with 2 tone, stripes, coloring over blacking out plastic chrome etc. If you really like it, then peel it and do it in paint.
I like Plasti-Dip, Yeah the finish isn't great but who cares! For some of these custom colors, that would be a 10k+ Paint Job! Obviously Fiero's are not high dollar cars, so for a noob being able to paint their car a cool custom color for cheap, well I think that's pretty cool. I always planned to Vinyl Wrap my car, but have so many ideas! This way I can test them out with Dip before I fork out cash for a real wrap job. They have a new color called "Black Cherry" That's what I plant to spray my GT with...
Question for you dippers... I plan to just primer my car before I dip it, will the dip stick to much? Will I have to wetsand the primer to make it smooth before the dip?
Question for you dippers... I plan to just primer my car before I dip it, will the dip stick to much? Will I have to wetsand the primer to make it smooth before the dip?
I have primer on my roof and hood, I think the surface is smooth enough to not cause any issues with peeling. It would probably be in your best interest to wet sand the primer with 1500 grit sandpaper or so. Remember a smoother base will lead to a better finish overall and it won't take more then a few hours to give it a quick wet sand. Make sure to let us see how your project goes!
I like how it looks like a gradient of a red to orange color, and the black wing on the back gives it nice character in my opinion. I actually was thinking about plasti-dipping a vehicle that wasn't my fiero, but it sounds like nobody actually likes to use it.. any thoughts?
I'm not worried about it lasting years and years. If I can get it to last a couple years, I'm good. I should have enough money saved up for a "real" paint job by then.
They make a white primer/sealer.. so it be ready for paint.. instead of the plastic dip.. and it be a matte/flat white.. just say'n..
side question is, can you spray it with a paint gun or do you have to have a "special" gun that shoot it..?
I'd never do a whole car.. by the time you prep it, mask it, buy the spray gun and other "special" items you might as well spray tintable primer/sealer.. and be that much closer to a real paint job.. I'd do wheels, and maybe stripes.. because most don't pull panels and the glass. the plastic dip tends to start lifting at the whindsheild.. and edges of panels that it didn't get to wrap around.. like the front fender edges.. at bumper/etc.. the sport import crowd was doing this until the driving at 90mph a lot, made it lift like a vinyl roof.
[This message has been edited by E.Furgal (edited 05-19-2015).]
Plasti-Dip is amazing stuff especially for interior as you can remove it when you sell the vehicle or decide to change it. I have watched countless projects on there forum its great! Also I have considered the PD for doing accents on taillights, maiking decals or just experimenti g period.. What can you lose it comes right off just make sure you do the recommended coats or you'll really hate yourself haha. I will definitely be doing my interior with this stuff. Looks great you did a fine job!
