Plasti-Dip'ed my rims yesterday

[QueBert]

I had looked into Vinyl wrapping my car last year, but it was too expensive to have done by someone else. And to hard to do it myself. I gave up on the idea and moved on. Sometime after I saw Plasti-Dip mentioned but I was over my idea so I didn't look into it. I figured it would be expensive, and/or too difficult. Yesterday I stumbled upon a how-to video which caused me to look up the price, which lead to me searching and finding that Lowe's sells it. So I ran there to buy it. I went with the matte black, a look I like on very few cars, I wanted some matte rims last year, but when I saw how much $$$ they were I quickly forgot about it lol.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a painter, I'm not skilled in these sorts of things. If something can be f*cked up in general, I seem to manage to find a way lol. From watching the videos Plasti-Dip appeared to be almost idiot proof. If you fff it up, you can easily remove it and just start over. @ 6 a can, it's not even expensive so f'ups won't hurt. I figured with no chance of any permanent manage to my car I'd give it a shot.

I did not remove my rims, I'm semi lazy, but more importantly I don't have the necessary tools. I prepped my rims by using an APC and a few microfiber towels. Then I put trash bags around my rotors and calipers and dove in. Applying this stuff properly isn't going to be a walk in the park for a noob, but if you "fuck up" you can just remove it and try again. I bought 3 cans, was $19 out the door. I have 18" rims. I didn't have to do any do-overs, with 5 coats per rim I still have about 2/3rds of a can left. I'm not sure if I applied enough though. Here are the before and after pics

before - beautiful shiny chrome rims! As far as stock rims go they look nice imho, but I wanted something different. Hell, since Plasti-Dip isn't permanent I can literally go back to shiny stock in a matter of 30 minutes. If nothing else it was a super cheap way to try out another look. I couldn't do this with paint, powder coating or new rims. There's really no down side. And from what I read, if I like it I should get 1-2 years before I have to Plasti-Dip them again.

Here's 2 after pics, weather it's your cup of tea or not, it makes the car look insanely different.

The whole process including prep took maybe an hour, if I can do it, anyone can. Prior to this I was considering doing the entire car matte black. I usually dislike matte black cars but imho there are a few models where it looks killer. I'm still on the fence there, but with Plasti-Dip I could do it for cheap. And if I end up not liking it remove it with almost no effort.

Next up's removing my rims and painting my calipers yellow or red.

 

[MixMasterTang]

Looks pretty good. How is it supposed to hold up against chipping/scratches?

 

[radtechtips]

Looks pretty good. How is it supposed to hold up against chipping/scratches?

I know a couple people who have done it and both did it around a year and half ago. No significant chipping or scratching.

 

[QueBert]

Looks pretty good. How is it supposed to hold up against chipping/scratches?

With 4-5 coats, it's suppose to hold up very well. And if you get any dings you can just re-apply to those areas (I'm guessing lol) For $19 bucks and about an hour of work if I had to strip and re-do them every 6 months I wouldn't be upset. I'm not expecting a whole lot here, but reading other peoples experience, the stuff's very durable. There are people who sprayed it on their calipers and 6 months later it's still going strong. I don't think I'd do mine in anything but caliper rated paint, but that would indicate to me this stuff will hold up.

This was a science project of sorts, I'm soooo tempted to do my entire car just to see what it looks like. I'm truly blown away at a product this cheap that looks this good and holds up as well as it does. Yesterday I had about 10 people I know look at my car and ask how much my new rims cost me. In person really does look like it was expensive to do.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I was expecting not to like this but that actually looks pretty good. :thumbsup:

 

[QueBert]

I was expecting not to like this but that actually looks pretty good. :thumbsup:

The murdered look's pretty trashy on most cars. When I see Civics & Camrys like this I shudder and wonder why. But on certain Cadillac & BWMs my jaw drops. I'm torn on if I should go back and buy like 4 dozen cans and do the entire car. Probably wouldn't look good but would be an interesting way to spend a day.

 

[radtechtips]

What kind of car is it

 

[JulesMaximus]

The murdered look's pretty trashy on most cars. When I see Civics & Camrys like this I shudder and wonder why. But on certain Cadillac & BWMs my jaw drops. I'm torn on if I should go back and buy like 4 dozen cans and do the entire car. Probably wouldn't look good but would be an interesting way to spend a day.

I was thinking of getting a nicer set of wheels for my car but I haven't seen anything that looks decent. The stock wheels aren't bad but they are kind of vanilla (plain). I definitely don't want to make the car look ridiculous.

 

[Zargon]

What kind of car is it

Saturn sky




looks good OP


I keep meaning to do that to my truck wheels

 

[QueBert]

What kind of car is it

Saturn Sky Redline, good chance you've never seen one. Saturn didn't make them for many years, and have since went out of business. I don't know numbers but I think only about 10k total were sold iirc.

 

[radtechtips]

Saturn Sky Redline, good chance you've never seen one. Saturn didn't make them for many years, and have since went out of business. I don't know numbers but I think only about 10k total were sold iirc.

Oh ya, I've seen a couple. Pretty good looking. How do they perform.

 

[z1ggy]

I've got hyper-silver OEM wheels (Hyuinday Gene Coupe) and I wanted to see what they'd look like in a grey/titanium/graphite color. Wasn't really sure what color combo to use but I'd prob need some combo of white/black/silver.

The cool thing is it's reverisble. I've even seen vids online of ways to do it with out even taking off the wheels. I'd probably take them off anyway, but if one did not have a lift you can just cover up your rotors & calipers and have at it.

 

[QueBert]

Oh ya, I've seen a couple. Pretty good looking. How do they perform.

I came from a 4 cylinder Camry so at first I was blown away. Considering the starting price and the fact it's a f*cking Saturn it performs exceptionally well. It has pretty good torque and nice acceleration. Can be modded fairly cheaply to hit sub 5 0-60. It handles pretty well, but as with any car this low to the ground I've driven it's not a huge joy to drive over really bumpy roads. It's not a Vette or a 'Stang Shelby, but it's also not a car I see every 30 seconds like those 2. I'm happy with it and will be upgrading the turbo and doing some tweaks soon so I can make it go m0ar fast3r.

 

[Leyawiin]

Never like that matte/primer look. I think the original finish is better looking and classier. Fortunately Plastidip isn't permanent.

 

[SearchMaster]

I Plasti-dipped the rims on my son's 4-wheeler. It was originally sort a camo green, but he wanted a red one, so we painted it and dipped the rims. There are a lot of people on the Focus ST forums that have done it to their wheels, but black is the only color I would consider. The texture of the plasti-dip makes the brake dust stick even more, and that's not something my car needs more of.

Yours looks pretty good, OP. I've always loved those cars, if they had come around when I was young and single 25 years ago, I probably would have bought one.

 

[QueBert]

I Plasti-dipped the rims on my son's 4-wheeler. It was originally sort a camo green, but he wanted a red one, so we painted it and dipped the rims. There are a lot of people on the Focus ST forums that have done it to their wheels, but black is the only color I would consider. The texture of the plasti-dip makes the brake dust stick even more, and that's not something my car needs more of.

Yours looks pretty good, OP. I've always loved those cars, if they had come around when I was young and single 25 years ago, I probably would have bought one.

Hummm, I didn't even think about brake dust DOH! I guess I'll be cleaning them more often. But with chrome I was having to polish to keep them looking good, so I suppose there's always a trade off,

 

[Midwayman]

You did it with the wheels still on the car?!?!? That's a whole new level of lazy. Yikes. Seems like it would be very difficult to get a even layer like that. Looks better than chrome anyways.

FWIW I've heard of people plasti-dipping and then painting over with duplicolor, etc so they can remove the paint if needed.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Uh - not a fan. Makes it look cheap.

 

[QueBert]

You did it with the wheels still on the car?!?!? That's a whole new level of lazy. Yikes. Seems like it would be very difficult to get a even layer like that. Looks better than chrome anyways.

FWIW I've heard of people plasti-dipping and then painting over with duplicolor, etc so they can remove the paint if needed.

Lazy + lack of tools lol. It was easy and with the way the came out I don't really see what benefit taking the rims off would have had. The over-spray that was around the tire came off in 1 strip. This is literally one of the easiest products in the world I've used.

 

[gorb]

I like it. Good job

 

[shabby]

Now do the windshield frame, i did mine on my solstice and it still looks good after 2 years.

 

[JCH13]

You sprayed the lug nuts, didn't you?

Whomever takes your wheels off next is going to have a nearly irresistible urge to shank you in the temple.

 

[QueBert]

Hummm I noticed 1 blotch and 1 area thin enough I could still see chrome. I tried to fix the blotch by spraying more, but it didn't help. So I tried to "fix" the spot which lead to disaster. So I'm now in the process of totally removing the shit and re-doing the entire wheel lol. I didn't read now to remove it correctly so needless to say it didn't go well, So I'm spraying WD40 on it and wiping off small sections. UGHS.

You sprayed the lug nuts, didn't you?

Whomever takes your wheels off next is going to have a nearly irresistible urge to shank you in the temple.

Why would they care? And of course I did them, I don't want shiny chrome looking bolts on matte black wheels. It's not going to make taking the wheel off any different. Only thing I can think would be the dip might get scuffed up from the socket and I'll have to re spray them.

 

[JCH13]

Why would they care? And of course I did them, I don't want shiny chrome looking bolts on matte black wheels. It's not going to make taking the wheel off any different.

That statement is laughably incorrect.

Plasti-Dip adds a non-trivial thickness to your lug nuts. Too much for the right size socket to fit on, and too thin for the next size up to work. You wind up having to hammer on the right size socket, take the lug nut off, and then hammer the lug nut out of the socket with a punch. Frequently it is extremely difficult to clean off the lug nuts as they sit on the car. I speak from experience, having had to take off someone else's wheels who had plasti-dipped their wheels on the car.

Good luck if you ever get a flat and have to change it yourself.

You also don't want to plasti-dip with the lug nuts off of the wheel, you'll plasti-dip the lug nuts' seats and that can cause a whole batch of other issues.

Note how the lug nuts are taped off in this picture. The lug nuts keep their seats clear, and the tape keeps the lug nuts from getting coated.

 

[QueBert]

That statement is laughably incorrect.

Plasti-Dip adds a non-trivial thickness to your lug nuts. Too much for the right size socket to fit on, and too thin for the next size up to work. You wind up having to hammer on the right size socket, take the lug nut off, and then hammer the lug nut out of the socket with a punch. Frequently it is extremely difficult to clean off the lug nuts as they sit on the car. I speak from experience, having had to take off someone else's wheels who had plasti-dipped their wheels on the car.

Good luck if you ever get a flat and have to change it yourself.

You also don't want to plasti-dip with the lug nuts off of the wheel, you'll plasti-dip the lug nuts' seats and that can cause a whole batch of other issues.

Note how the lug nuts are taped off in this picture. The lug nuts keep their seats clear, and the tape keeps the lug nuts from getting coated.
[/IMG]

I can't find any messages out of the thousands on the dipyourcar forums talking about this. All I see is a lot of people having problems with the coating stripping off when they put the nuts back on. I'm not saying what you're telling me isn't accurate, but I can't find a single person mentioning it. With that said, I'll probably order some matte black lug nuts to keep me from having to re spray them when I get my tires rotated.