"getFuckedHerb" (goongetfuckedherb)
05/02/2016 at 20:11 • Filed to: wheels, plasti dip, corvette, oldblue
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"getFuckedHerb" (goongetfuckedherb)
05/02/2016 at 20:11 • Filed to: wheels, plasti dip, corvette, oldblue | 5
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Hey guys, opted to plast dip the wheels so I thought I’d bring you along on a pictorial. I’m going to be doing two stages, regular black plasti dip and then the copper metalizer on top. This gent here did it on his Audi with good results: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . As they say in paint, prep is the key and while Plasti Dip is much more forgiving (I sprayed over multiple bugs on my former mini cooper S only to have the dip stay for 12 months without effort) I still think good prep work pays off.
Some people tell you to leave the wheels on the car. Those people must be more careful than I am. I opted to remove the wheels from the car for this job. That means 4 jackstands in my case, a good quality jack, and one broken breaker bar. Woops, too tight last time I guess.
[Sorry for the lack of pictures of this part, but removing wheels and scrubbing them is somewhat un-fun to take photos of]
Once off I scrubbed them down with a 1:1 mix of simple green. I’m coating chrome-plated aluminum wheels, though I haven’t seen anyone suggest any cleaning agent for chrome vs polished aluminum vs mags vs steel. The general idea is Plasti Dip sticks pretty well to most clean surfaces. It won’t stick well to polish, grease etc. So you want to get down to the paint/bare whatever. I found simple green to do a nice job cutting the brake dust and grease. I dried them with the leaf blower and air blower (don’t dip wet parts!) and then one final wipe down with window cleaner (overkill boys!).
Then I laid them out and got ready to dip, I put them on the 3 ply heavy duty contractor trash bags which I cut open, but really any thing (cardboard etc) to keep the overspray off the floor. I do highly suggest doing this in an enclosed (but well ventilated) area. Like any paint product dust can get caught in dip.
Clean and ready to dip wheels off my 2008 Corvette
Now we’re ready to mask them. There are lots of options for how you do this. Many people use index cards/playing cards, some use “Dip Release” from DipYourCar.com and others (like me) are gluttons for punishment and use tape. Tape requires you to rip short (3 inch) pieces and thread them down between the rim and the bead to get the best coverage you can, then add more pieces to get to the edge. [again, photos of this part are not fun].
Finally, two hours in we’re clean, taped and ready to spray! I applied a light first coat to each wheel, keeping the can 5-6 inches from the wheel and starting/stopping the spray only when not over the wheel surface. I’ve seen wheels where folks did some pretty heavy coats and they seemed to turn out fine. I prefer the several light coats method.
One thing to note, as you’re spraying if you go with the light coat concept the first coat or two will look smokey or semi-transparent as though you’re not getting full coverage: that’s normal. With the first coat on I took the center caps and headed into the house and opened a beer. I washed the well and used a blow dryer to get them as dry as I could.
I then got to work on taping off the emblems.
Center Caps
Center caps with emblems taped off
Zoomed in center cap with emblem taped off
With the center caps ready for dip I went back out to the garage, put the first coat on the center caps and another coat on the wheels.
Tonight I’ll finish up two more coats of black on the wheels hopefully and then tomorrow I can start on the copper layers. I’ll do a follow up post tomorrow (or whenever they’re done) with the last coats, un-masking, and some photos of them mounted back on the car.
valsidalv, reminding you that infiniti is an option
> getFuckedHerb
05/02/2016 at 20:22 |
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Thinking of doing this to my rims as well. Waiting patiently for part 2...
MM54
> getFuckedHerb
05/02/2016 at 20:34 |
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Just a thought, but you may have issues when you peel the tape off the badges in the center of those caps with it peeling the plasti-dip off the cap as well. Probably should at least go around the edge with a knife before pulling the tape off (you probably already know this, though).
Somethin' 'bout a truck
> getFuckedHerb
05/02/2016 at 20:48 |
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I want to do this to my truck. Looking forward to part two!
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getFuckedHerb
> MM54
05/02/2016 at 20:51 |
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Yes! You 100% will have issues if you don’t re-cut it with the exacto knife like I did to cut the tape out originally. I’ll go that step in part 2 as well, but even with that it can be tricky to have it come out as clean as you want it to.
shop-teacher
> getFuckedHerb
05/02/2016 at 21:37 |
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I eagerly await day 2, because I’ve been thinking of doing this to my truck wheels.
Busslayer
> getFuckedHerb
05/02/2016 at 21:40 |
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I ‘dipped’ my winter wheels with the basic black spray. I gave up quick on taping off the tires and just sprayed over the tires. I’m lazy and it is a beater so I didn’t worry about it. But that said, the basic black spray is pretty much identical to tire rubber so you couldn’t tell. But I also found that after a day or two of driving, it all pealed off the tires in ribbons. I bet if you carefully wipe some kind of tire shine on the tires first it won’t stick at all.
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getFuckedHerb
> Busslayer
05/02/2016 at 21:42 |
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I think you’re 100% right, you just want to be careful not to get any of whatever you’re using on the wheels. Dip Your Car has “Dip Release” or something that makes it come off tires and other un-maskable parts easy too. I’m going to be doing two sets of wheels in the next couple weeks so I’ll try some 303, tire shine, and some othe products on the tires for the next set since they’re on my beater.
Life and Times of Magoo: The People's Champ
> getFuckedHerb
05/02/2016 at 21:56 |
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Love me some plastidip
