I just finally found time to make a post on plasti dipping the exterior of my 20 model 3 lr awd.
Yes we dipped it in a dirty old garage. The heater for the paint booth was down and this portion of the garage was still temp controlled. We wet the floors periodically and did lots of prep work to keep the finish from catching dust/debris. In actuality we only got any kind of poor finish from the DYC gun that comes in the pro kit, when it decided to gunk up on the front and blast bits of dried dip into the finish. We ended up actually peeling(very easily) the doors on the LH side and the hood due to poor finish issues and respraying. For the hood on the second attempt we mixed 2:1 anthracite grey with some silver metalizer as an experiment. Not too much of a difference honestly unless in direct sunlight. The rest of the vehicle has a base coat of avalanche grey, followed by anthracite grey as the top color. 4 coats of each created a thickness of what id compare to having multiple rubber gloves over your car.
Clear takeaways. This is not show car quality up close, but if you dipped 1 or 2 cars you can be pretty damn close to that with mild effort and a pro could easily do a job better than a vinyl wrap. This is definitely thick enough especially after peeling and feeling the material to act as a PPF coating. That's actually what I did it for as where I live in new York we deal with intense road salting and stone chips. Prep and tape is everything, and doing thick coats helps when it comes to removal. We taped the headlamps and tail lamps because some vehicles have issues with the plastidip hazing the lenses, but everything else peeled and was immaculate underneath(emblems, door handles, rear reflectors, mirrors and window glass areas. There's lots of specifics that you need to get into to deal with any car when dipping and if you message me I can help, but they also have some really great videos which would probably help you out more. I'm happy with it, and save for some first time rookie mistakes I would recommend. They say you can't use a standard hvlp spray gun but that's how we got some of the best finish.
In the spring I may or may not peel it, it feels very rugged and is holding up well to the weather and road conditions. If anything I might peel it in the late spring, rock black for the summer, and respray a different color next winter. Once peeled the beautiful factory, and clean/prepped paint is there waiting for you.
***IMAGES NOT UPLOADED YET*****
I have some photos to show, but right now the upload function isn't working and I don't have an image hosting service at the moment set up. I'll have to get back to this later.. I'm sorry since most people want to see rather than read.. ***IMAGES NOT UPLOADED YET*****
Yes we dipped it in a dirty old garage. The heater for the paint booth was down and this portion of the garage was still temp controlled. We wet the floors periodically and did lots of prep work to keep the finish from catching dust/debris. In actuality we only got any kind of poor finish from the DYC gun that comes in the pro kit, when it decided to gunk up on the front and blast bits of dried dip into the finish. We ended up actually peeling(very easily) the doors on the LH side and the hood due to poor finish issues and respraying. For the hood on the second attempt we mixed 2:1 anthracite grey with some silver metalizer as an experiment. Not too much of a difference honestly unless in direct sunlight. The rest of the vehicle has a base coat of avalanche grey, followed by anthracite grey as the top color. 4 coats of each created a thickness of what id compare to having multiple rubber gloves over your car.
Clear takeaways. This is not show car quality up close, but if you dipped 1 or 2 cars you can be pretty damn close to that with mild effort and a pro could easily do a job better than a vinyl wrap. This is definitely thick enough especially after peeling and feeling the material to act as a PPF coating. That's actually what I did it for as where I live in new York we deal with intense road salting and stone chips. Prep and tape is everything, and doing thick coats helps when it comes to removal. We taped the headlamps and tail lamps because some vehicles have issues with the plastidip hazing the lenses, but everything else peeled and was immaculate underneath(emblems, door handles, rear reflectors, mirrors and window glass areas. There's lots of specifics that you need to get into to deal with any car when dipping and if you message me I can help, but they also have some really great videos which would probably help you out more. I'm happy with it, and save for some first time rookie mistakes I would recommend. They say you can't use a standard hvlp spray gun but that's how we got some of the best finish.
In the spring I may or may not peel it, it feels very rugged and is holding up well to the weather and road conditions. If anything I might peel it in the late spring, rock black for the summer, and respray a different color next winter. Once peeled the beautiful factory, and clean/prepped paint is there waiting for you.
***IMAGES NOT UPLOADED YET*****
I have some photos to show, but right now the upload function isn't working and I don't have an image hosting service at the moment set up. I'll have to get back to this later.. I'm sorry since most people want to see rather than read.. ***IMAGES NOT UPLOADED YET*****
