the DD gets some love

"KeedyT" (traviskeedy) 10/17/2017 at 08:48 • Filed to: None

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After a year it was time for a little change, Friday morning I had this:

By Friday evening he was morphing in a cocoon

By Saturday afternoon....

I love dip :-)

A couple more for viewing:

Carbon Red with 25% Black Betty for anyone interested, it shifts to orange in some lights.

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 08:55

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You did that yourself?! That’s awesome! When can we do the Abarth?!

cbell04 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 08:59

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That turned out not like 99% of dips I’ve seen. Looks great!

KeedyT > random001 10/17/2017 at 09:17

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My cousin and I started playing with this stuff several years ago, this weekend was no. 10 and 11, each one gets a little better. Come on over, I’ll set up the “paint booth” :-D

functionoverfashion > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 09:18

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Wow, well done!

KeedyT > cbell04 10/17/2017 at 09:24

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Thank you! You must have seen a lot by rattle can?

KeedyT > functionoverfashion 10/17/2017 at 09:24

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Thank you!

Milky > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 09:35

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I really dig that turbo snail under the dip. This is the only give a way I see:

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 09:47

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Where you located? Wanna dip my Miata?

KeedyT > Milky 10/17/2017 at 09:53

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:-) I peeled the dip off that reflector after the pic

KeedyT > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 10/17/2017 at 09:55

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I do have a little experience on Miatas too :-) - I’m in South Alabama

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 09:58

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Haha nice work! Youre in the SOUTH SOUTH. Im going through the south on my journey across america but thats another level of south lol.

KeedyT > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 10/17/2017 at 10:01

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Thanks! yeah, South South, where the mosquitoes carry small dogs away and we guffaw at “y’all” complaining about humidity :-D (JK of course...)

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 10:06

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This is why im going to California where people complain about 40% humidity as being a humid day! God damn do I hate swimming in air lol. LITERALLY do not know how you guys survive, NJ is way too humid for me.

KeedyT > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 10/17/2017 at 10:11

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Funny story - I did this last weekend in TN with my cousin/partner in crime, the humidity was at 70% and I was thinking how wonderful it felt outside. It’s been BAD around my way lately (even for the Gulf Coast)

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 10:17

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Isnt paint application in humidity like that a bad idea? Unless plasti dip it doesnt matter as much. But yeah that does sound relatively pleasant compared to 90% and up

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 10:56

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I want to go yellow. Can we go yellow? I like yellow...

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 10:57

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What the price on a job like this? I only know about Plasti-Dip in rattle cans, and dip cans I use for tool handles.

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 10:58

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What’s your durability like? I used to live in Huntsville! I just read you are way down in alabam!

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 10:58

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How many more questions can I ask before you get tired of responding?

Dasupersprint - base trim is enough > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 11:03

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I love it! Love the gecko, how did you do that?

KeedyT > random001 10/17/2017 at 11:11

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You can do everything from highlighter yellow (they call it Polaris) to school bus to dog puke yellow

KeedyT > random001 10/17/2017 at 11:18

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if you are doing it yourself the first time you need a sprayer and about $300 worth of material (doing something like yellow). You can figure ~$500 for your first, it goes down from there and you WILL get addicted to regular changes, this one cost me ~$275 in materials. I’ve used www.Dipyourcar.com for all of my needs, they have been uber supportive with my endless questions and offered lots of support to me and many many others so I continue to buy almost exclusively from them.

I have only done for myself and for a few friends but I’ve thrown out that I would be willing to do a car like mine for $200+ materials or an SUV for $300+. That’s with full understanding that I’m not a pro, they get better every time but I’d rather low expectations and high happiness. I’ve read on the FB groups the pro installers won’t generally talk to you for less than $1k for the most basic flat black job (cheapest and easiest color to do). There are very valid reasons for this but I do it for myself for entertainment and because I can stomach $300 I CANNOT stomach $1,500.

KeedyT > random001 10/17/2017 at 11:20

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Durability is basically as long as you like it, a friend’s old Taco still wears a mettallic silver I did a couple years ago and he loves it. Me, I’ve typically gotten tired of the color or the car within a year or so but applied properly (read must have enough coats) it peels off just fine in a couple/few hours.

I’m in Mobile, yeppers, way down in Alabam :-)

KeedyT > random001 10/17/2017 at 11:20

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I dunno, depends on if my real job decides I need to work harder today :-)

KeedyT > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 10/17/2017 at 11:25

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Very bad, a battle we fight with it down here. It will get cloudy and splotchy if you try doing it on the worst days. I typically haven’t even tried between May and August and close to there I try to plan it out (or flipping pray) for a day it’s not raining with the spray work done before noon.

KeedyT > Dasupersprint - base trim is enough 10/17/2017 at 11:26

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I found that and the snail on-line, my wife cut them out with her Cricut (in the ugliest vinyl color she had and I put them on right before dipping it. Thought it made a cool little “tattoo”.

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 11:52

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I like yellow. Highlighter yellow sounds like fun, but dog puke yellow sounds like a BMW.

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 11:54

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Ok, so what goes wrong, lessons learned, etc. I mean, that’s pretty reasonable to be able to do it yourself. How do you mix the colors? Like paint, before hand, or layer different colors on one at a time?

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 11:54

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Define enough layers....?

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 11:55

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Awesome. I have a great interest in this...

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 11:58

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Oh, and how long does it take? Like, is this a day job, set overnight? A weekend job?

KeedyT > random001 10/17/2017 at 12:05

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True Story - I have a friend who’s son has an M3 in said dog puke, amazing machine, rare but.... interesting... color

Lessons -

It’s not paint, don’t expect to mask off something and let it dry then peel back the mask, MUST peel anything like my Black/Red spots immediately while wet and we learned this weekend as much as you can peel while damp is easier with crisper lines.

I have an old Miata hood I use for a test-bed, very helpful. A lot of this is getting comfortable with a rhythm, speed, distance away, volume out of the gun. There’s a very fine line between dusting (so more texture) and over-wet so you get sags (I’ve done both, it gets better but..)

Base coats of say white if you are doing yellow or black or grey, you should have at least 4-5 coats on (this helps the peeling later on). I’ve learned to make sure to get all the crevices, behind door handles (much as one can) and edges really good a couple times in between coats on the base. Then you mix pearls (the color) into a clear PDS, my size cars I’ve always done 2 gallons, mixed up. Then spray the color coats, you MUST walk the entire length of the car on the sides and it’s better to try and do the hood in one pass. It’s not good to get those crevices on color more than just what falls there or you get weird patterned finish product.

It does peel off of places you didn’t want dip (windows, lights, etc) but I’ve learned it’s better for the [my] process to spend an extra hour taping off well (like my pictures above) than spend that hour picking at the leftover edges when I’m tired and ready to see the result of my hard work (*I’m old, I just refuse to grow up*)

That’s the biggies, I’d watch some of the dipyourcar videos on youtube by Fonzie, they are extremely helpful.

KeedyT > random001 10/17/2017 at 12:14

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Layers - I think I covered it but what you see was 5 coats of Black and 4 good coats of the Red mixture - the pros tend to balk and say you need more but A) they are using huge air compressors and fancy guns, maybe thinning the mixture? B) I’m 11 in and this is working so....pbpbpbpbp

Interest - yes, way too much fun for fickle car people to be able to change the whole look in a weekend for a few hundred bucks :-D

How long - and an oooo, the BIGGEST LESSON - I always wash [the living hell out of] the car the day/night before, go at it with a blower/compressor till water doesn’t come out of the cracks anymore, then let it sit over night and go at it again with said blower the next morning. The first one we did we didn’t know that, thought we got it super dry, sprayed the dip, the next morning there were big bubbles under the door handles, along the pillars, couple other places where absolutely minuscule amounts of water were trapped and it didn’t adhere, had to almost start over.

I have it down to a pattern where I can clean after work one Friday and be wrapping up late afternoon on a Saturday if I’m by myself. With a partner we handily did both in a very long Saturday.

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 12:16

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Ok, that sounds reasonable. But to peel wet....is that between coats? Or do you not let a coat dry completely, and just keep coating util all 4-5 coats are on, then peel, and everything dries?

random001 > KeedyT 10/17/2017 at 12:22

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That was going to be my next question! Do you want to clean any waxes, coatings, and sealants off the car first? Coatings, you’re probably not getting off, but they’re usually cured on like clearcoat, so no big deal there, I don’t think.

The drying part...oi. I have a compressor, so I guess that would work.

Do you use the basic sprayer, or the advanced sprayer?

KeedyT > random001 10/17/2017 at 12:37

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Peeling - No, this stuff emulsifies itself, I usually wait 10-20 min between coats (they are dry by then). The next coat will “melt” into the last. The last coat I get as wet as I’m willing (short of runs) and hit the spots I need to peel off (like a hard line or stripe) last, it will make the whole thing wet again down to the paint.

I clean really well with Dawn, then use DYC’s pre-dip spray (which I swear is windex but...). I have used the basic sprayer until last weekend where the cousin bought the new advanced sprayer. It wasn’t so much better on the regular PDS that I’d say it was a necessity, we did his in Proline (first time use) and it’s a requirement for that stuff.