After receiving quotes upwards of $1,000 for a professional vinyl chrome delete, I decided to do my own with 2 cans of black plasti dip, some masking tap, and a few garbage/plastic bags. Total cost: $35. Total time: 6 hours.
Most of the effort is in the masking of the car, which took about 4 hours of total effort. I was being extra careful (probably too careful as plasti dip is very forgiving), and it was fairly tedious. It wasn't hard, just... time consuming.
The biggest tip I can give if you're planning on going the plasti dip route is making sure to apply the right kind of coating. I kept hearing to put super thin coats on to prevent streaks and runs, and while that is good advice, I took it too literally. I put pretty thin coats on the driver side and it ended up making me put 8 coats on for things to look nice.
For the passenger side, I decided to put thicker coats on, and after the 2nd coat, everything looked good. I put two more coats on for good measure, but this method proved to be much quicker and I got less texture. You don't want super thick coats, but thick enough that the trim is quite wet but not pooling up.
I also did the handles, which came out really nicely, but we'll see how they hold up with a lot of use over time.
Anyway, here are the results...
Let me know if you have any questions! I'd be happy to answer anything and help people save a ton of money on this. Also, if you've done this yourself, any updates on how well it holds up?
Most of the effort is in the masking of the car, which took about 4 hours of total effort. I was being extra careful (probably too careful as plasti dip is very forgiving), and it was fairly tedious. It wasn't hard, just... time consuming.
The biggest tip I can give if you're planning on going the plasti dip route is making sure to apply the right kind of coating. I kept hearing to put super thin coats on to prevent streaks and runs, and while that is good advice, I took it too literally. I put pretty thin coats on the driver side and it ended up making me put 8 coats on for things to look nice.
For the passenger side, I decided to put thicker coats on, and after the 2nd coat, everything looked good. I put two more coats on for good measure, but this method proved to be much quicker and I got less texture. You don't want super thick coats, but thick enough that the trim is quite wet but not pooling up.
I also did the handles, which came out really nicely, but we'll see how they hold up with a lot of use over time.
Anyway, here are the results...
Let me know if you have any questions! I'd be happy to answer anything and help people save a ton of money on this. Also, if you've done this yourself, any updates on how well it holds up?
