Hey guys so i got this wild and crazy Idea to Plasti dip my whole 95 black since as you can see below she is pretty beat up. My reasoning behind this is basically I now plan to use this truck as a work horse/offroad toy and the body work wont be perfect. If i spent all the time making it look perfect only to eventually ruin it from work and play i would hate myself lol. I plan to replace my fenders and rear quarters because i need them to pass inspection but paying to paint the whole truck and get the proper body work done is going to cost more than its worth.

does anyone have experience with it? I'm not worried if it ever gets scratched off becasue i can buy a few cans and touch it up when ever i want and i can change the color weekly if i wanted lol.

This is an old pic but the best one i have she isn't very photogenic lol.

 

I used it on my bumpers and wheels. It's held up fairly well for over 1.5 yrs so far.

I scraped some off my front bumper a couple months ago when I hit a car at work. No scratches to the chrome underneath it. I just have to smooth the edges and respray it.

My wheels aren't in quite as good of shape as the bumpers now but they've taken a lot of abuse including some deep mud a few times.

For the most part though I've had no problems with it. I will probably redo the bumpers this summer and I think I'm just going to powdercoat the wheels when I have them apart for tires.

 

I knew you were the one that used it! I couldn't find your thread from before. I got rims for it so i wont be painting the wheels because i plan to run my 04's old tires on it since i can get another 2 years out of them on that truck.

Is it thick? like would it cover the bondo work that was done to the rear under it or would it still be pretty visible? It's just not perfectly smooth so i was wondering if i need to replace the metal or if i can get away with painting over it. I already have a hole on the other side of the bed that needs new metal so it's not much more to replace them but I'll save money where i can i guess.

Also how much did it take for your bumpers? I'm trying to gauge if I sgiuld juat get a bunch of cans or go with the $300 dip your car kit thats made for an average sedan.

 

It will show any bumps under it just like normal paint. It might also be more visible if it isn't smooth since it's a matte finish and it will show shadows more than a gloss finish would.

It took ~4 cans for the front bumper, ~2 for the back and 1 for each wheel. Though I had a lot of overspray and I was doing it in the cold and kept running into problems with the cans clogging up so Instead of cleaning the tips I would just grab another can and move on.

I would highly recommend doing it on the warmest sunniest day you can. The warmer the metal is the smoother the finish will be.

Since all my steel was cold I wound up with a slightly textured finish that looks similar to the molded plastic on the truck. I was actually happy with that since the bumpers have that plastic on them it helped make it match better.

If you are doing an entire truck the DYC kit would probably be a good idea. Especially if that's the one that includes the sprayer.

Watching their videos on Youtube was the reason I even attempted it.

I will say that I was scared as hell though pulling apart my week old truck and painting parts on it. I felt a lot better when I was done and saw that everything worked out.

 

Yeah the DYC kit includes the sprayer so i figured it would be nice to have. That is good to know though, do you have any pics of your bumpers up close, I'm debating using some glossifier or not.

I have been watching a lot of youtube video's on it and it seems pretty easy. It looks as if there is little to no prep work involved basically just wash the car first and let it dry.

I will probably replace and prim the rear arches then since that is cheap to do at $26 a panel.

 

I would also suggest dipyourcar.com. they have colors as well as clear and UV protectant. They have sprayers and sell it by the gallon which is cheaper. You just need a decent compressor to be able to run the sprayer at peak efficiency its a heavier nozzle then a regular paint gun.

 

Thanks Justin, I just sent them a message inquiring about which kit would be recommended to paint my truck. I though the guns were electric that they sold?

Only reason I'm doing this is because it needs to pass inspection and if I'm gonna fix the rot holes before getting it inspected I might as well paint it since dipping it is cheap.

 

Here's probably the best up close shot I have of it from before I put the brushguard on. It shows the whole thing though.



Here's some really close shots that show the textures on the Front Bumper/Wheel. It's dirty right now but you can't see the dirt much.





This shows what happens when something big rubs on it. As you can see there's no damage at all to the chrome underneath. This spot was pushing on the doors of another car. The PlastiDip took the hit and protected the surface underneath. Probably helps to have thick walled 2" steel pipes for protection as well.

 

Their sprayer is electric. Has a built in compressor system so you don't have to provide air to it.

You can see them using the same one in their videos.

 

Why don't you just paint the whole thing flat black, what results are you wanting to achieve? I may have misunderstood, you want to Plasti-Dip the entire vehicle?

 

Yeah, I'm going to use it offroad and for hauling small things. She is going to get dinged up most likely so I figured why not something cheao and easy to apply that I can touch up if I want. I was going to paint it flat black but I'd hate to spend money getting it done right and having the body work done only to wreck the body work.

 

Shoot, get some "rattle cans" at your local automotive paint shop and get after it! I would think Plasti-Dip would cost more, which, I've never dealt with it. Good Luck either way..

 

I want to Dip my SD bumpers. Do you tape off the plastic or plastiDip it too??

Yrs back I used 22 cans of Flat Black rattle cans. 3 of us completely changed my off-road K-5 rock crawler.

You had to look real hard to not think it was sprayed by a paint shop. Grab another can for touch up.

 

How about using the bed liner spray paint? I painted my galvanized boat trailer and the wheels with it, and it came out pretty bad ***. I have an old jeep that has some rust, and I plan on using it for that as well. I need something more permanent than plastidip on certain applications.

 

It's up to you you can take them off if you ant them not to be sprayed but ou can always peel it off the plastic parts.

How did you get it to not show the lines like spray can usually do? Like RT said about just getting some spray cans I had originally thought about that but found it would be hard to make it look good.

Have any pics of that? That's not a bad idea.