Plastidipped Aero cap vs stock wheels w/o aero caps

[ragrvs]

I really like the look of this. I am now nervous attempting it based on this failure. Perhaps it was a humidity issue?

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I really like the look of this. I am now nervous attempting it based on this failure. Perhaps it was a humidity issue?

Humidity could definitely be a factor, it's very humid here in Houston, especially today.

I think a bigger problem was my tape selection for the masking. Videos that showed masking for curved edges suggested electrical tape because it can stretch and follow the curve, so that's what I did. However, I think the adhesive is too tacky for the Plasti-Dip surface, it pulled it up along some edges, and left a residue in other areas.

I also used Frog Tape, which is a painters tape that was supposed to work better than the blue painters tape, but I wouldn't use it for this application again. I think it's more sticky than the blue painters tape, which also caused a problem and pulled up the edges.

If I did this again, I would use the blue painters tape on all edges, and would not press it down very hard. I would also tape it in such a way that you can start to pull up the tape from the center of the black panels instead of starting to pull it up from an edge. That way the tape pulls up from a place where the Plasti-Dip is fully adhered, and ends at the edge, pulling with the direction of the taper of the Plasti-Dip thickness, rather than against it.

The masking is definitely the hardest part of this and the most prone to problems. I actually got the spray and the thickness applied really well with the techniques I saw in the instructional videos. This is what made me so disappointed -- everything worked excellent until the final step.

 

[Lanzer]

I really liked this and tried it this weekend. Ordered the wheel kit from dipyourcar.com, watched tons of videos on how to apply it, followed all directions to the letter.

Ended in total failure.

Oh no, I'm sorry to see that things didn't work out for you. Here are a few notes if you wish to tackle this again:

• Most paint require you to wait at least 24 hours before masking, especially when multiple coats are applied. Depending on the thickness I would wait 2 days even.
• Unlike regular enamel or acrylic paint, plastic dip doesn't adhere as strong as it is meant to be removed without causing damage. The regular blue painter's tape is medium strength and might be too strong, you can find "low tack" masking tape on Amazon that is less tacky. Some people simply put the blue masking tape on their t-shirt first to lower the tackiness.
• When masking, you don't need to use tape to cover the entire area. It's ideal to use newspaper or plastic sheets (such as garbage bags) to cover 90% of the area, and only use tape to cover the area that paint would meet.

I hope you'll give it another shot. Good luck!

 

[AMIYY4YOU]

I really liked this and tried it this weekend. Ordered the wheel kit from dipyourcar.com, watched tons of videos on how to apply it, followed all directions to the letter.

Ended in total failure.

As soon as I pulled up the masking tape after getting all the required coats of the aluminum metallizer on the spokes, it immediately peeled up the black Plasti-Dip underneath.

No saving it at this point, will just have to peel everything off. Probably won't try this again, I spent hours getting set up for it, several hours getting the initial coats of black down, and nearly a full afternoon taping the masks in preparation for the aluminum metallizer. It looks very simple, but it's a lot of hours of work.

Quite disappointed, I was really looking forward to having this on the car.

Initial Aero wheel cover.

First 50% coverage black coat.

Several black coats.

Masking of black areas.

4 coats aliminum metallizer.

Disaster.

Hey man,
Sorry to hear about your misfortune doing this. Honestly, it was very difficult for me too and I did get rip up of the plasti dip along the edges. For the second set of wheels I did, I noticed the plasti dip was most prone to lifting up where the coverage on the edge/rim of the hubcap itself was lightest which totally makes sense. In retrospect, I should have taken time to do a perfect vinyl cut of the shapes so I could just place a cutout on it and find a couple tape points to get it to stick. Given that i had some rip up like you, I peeled off any excess that was textured and did a couple extra coats of base black plasti dip to make sure it adhered to the surface. Here's what my end product ended up coming out to look like:

 

[SageBrush]

Welcome to my world, where easy peasy DIY videos on youtube sometimes are, but often are not in my hands.
My attempts at cosmetic repair of car scratches was .... bad.

 

[Lanzer]

There are two more tips about masking that I learned along the way:

When pulling the masking tape, don't pull up, or perpendicular away from the painted surface. Instead pull the tape parallel to the surface, pretty much folding the tape back as you pull it.
Also the speed which you pull the tape matters. It helps to pull slow on sensitive surfaces, though of course it's best to just use low tack tape.

 

[Mobsidian]

I know a LOT of people were asking this earlier and I finally got around to doing this..
View attachment 305682 View attachment 305683



View attachment 305689 View attachment 305690


I only did one wheel and I also got really impatient so I managed to peel some of the black plasti dip off. Also my coverage wasn't superb when taping over so I'm going to need to take more tiem with the other three wheels if I end up deciding it's worth the effort. So barring the minor imperfections of the actual installation job (ignore the peeled plasti dip in a couple parts), what do you guys think? Which do you like better?

Did 4 base coats of black plastidip and then 3 coats of bright aluminum metalizer.

Great job! I've been looking to do this too. I have a black 3 and the grey aeros just dont go with it. Black aeros with silver to match the chrome pieces will look great imo. I'm considering getting a glossifier to go over the black to match the gloss of the cars paint instead of just matte black plastidip like you have. Masking will be an issue, like someone mentioned it might be best to have cardboard or paper cutouts that go over the black areas with minimal tape on the dipped areas. Also waiting a day or two before doing the silver might help.

 

[Schowtyme]

I gave this a shot this weekend, total failure, haha. I did probably 6 coats of black but could never get it to look smooth, even after warming up the dip per a YouTube video tip. I even bought a spray handle at Home Depot, made it drip which effectively ruined everything...

Just a warning, not as easy as I hoped and as the videos seem to make it. I'm pretty handy but didn't work out for me, didn't even get to the taping and metal spray.

Now how do you get this stuff off? Doesn't seem to want to peel off as easily as suggested.

 

[Shygar]

I did this as well, but the opposite pattern:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/plasti-dipped-my-aero-wheel-covers.115332/

 

[devilmountain]

This makes aero wheels look so much better, great work.

 

[Timmy T.]

You guys really think this looks good enough for all the effort huh?? I'm not seeing it....sorry

 

[ℬête Noire]

Thanks for trying this out. I'd done a couple quick photoshop mock-ups, considering going this way.

It's great to see it "for real", and that opposite (mostly metal) too. I do like it, I'm just up in the air whether I want to use the black, go body colour, or go off-white with Wimbledon White. This is an even better photoshop starting point for trying to suss that out.

Thank you.

 

[Roys3]