PlastiDippin' : A tutorial
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3rd Gear Member
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 906
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PlastiDippin' : A tutorial
So in case you haven't heard, (the bird is the word) painting car parts black has never been quite so easy. Plasti Dip can be bought at Home Depot/Lowes and the spray is an easy way to paint wheels or other car parts black. This new style is an alternative to chrome, which in my opinion has been done to death.
Here's a cool shot of some black wheels:
whats cool about this, is if you have a bright colored car, like yellow for example, the black wheel really makes the color pop.
As of late I have decided to take my car in an all Black/Red combo. Here is how it looked last month:
So I decided to PlastiDip the wheels. Although there are a lot of tutorials on YouTube, they left out a few aspects that I noticed. I have added in these tips to make the process easier and faster. Doing all 4 wheels will take roughly 6 - 10 hours.
Step 1 - materials:
some wheel cleaner, some isopropyl alcohol, latex gloves, blue painters tape, large masking tape, 4 cans PlastiDip
lots of rags (not pictured)
an exacto blade (not pictured)
cardboard boxes to build a spray booth (optional)
Step 2 - Clean the wheels
this will be easier if the wheels are off the car. So put the car on blocks and take off all the wheels. clean all the wheels with your preferred cleaner and sponge/brush. Then hose em off. Then use the rubbing alcohol and some rags to wipe down all surfaces of the wheel.
Step 3 - paint your calipers (optional)
i just threw this in because, hey the wheels are already off the car, plus each coat of PlastiDip takes 30min - 1hour to dry, so you might as well do something while you wait:
step 4 - tape off the wheels
As any good painter will tell you, prep is 90%. so carefully mask off the front edge of the wheel where the metal meets the tire. It's actually better to have the tape about 1/4 an inch from the metal. If the tape is too close when you go to pull it off it will pull the plastidip with it. So use your masking tape and tape all the way around the perimeter. Then use a little painters tape to cover the valve stem. You can tape off the inside edge of the wheel if you want, but i didn't. Mainly because no one really sees the inside of the wheel so it doesn't really matter if you make mistakes in that area.
step 5 - spray the inside
Again, no one really looks at the inside of a wheel so one coat is sufficient. Place the wheel upright and spray the inside section. Rotate the wheel as needed to cover all inside metal. HOW TO SPRAY : use even strokes. hold can about 10 inches from surface. you can lay this stuff on pretty thick and it will still dry smooth. just stop spraying once you get that "wet look" even surface.
step 6 - spray the front
you don't need to wait for the inside wheel to dry, just lay that bi*** down, as soon as you finish spraying the inside. Now spray the front. Circle around the wheel as you spray. Continually look into the interior of the wheel to make sure you are not missing interior spoke surface or lug not holes. Wait about an hour for your first coat to be very dry. Then spray down a 2nd coat. IMMEDIATELY after you finish spraying the 2nd coat, carefully pull away the perimeter tape. You may have to wait for everything to dry before pulling away the valve stem tape, but that is okay.
my cardboard spray booth:
step 7 - putting the wheels back on
pretty straightforward, but one little detail. before putting the wheel back on, take your exacto blade and dip it into each lug nut hole of the wheel. cut a circular pattern a couple of times into the paint. What this does it prevent Plastidip from tearing away when you screw in the lugnuts. I didn't do this with the first wheel and the lugnut tore away the paint around the hole, so I had to repaint:
^^^you can see the line around the lugnut where i repainted. The one downside of Plastidip is that if you make any mistakes you can't really retouch it correctly. Wherever you respray plastidip it will leave edges wherever new plastidip is layed down. So if you make a mistake, when you go to repaint place your tape on edges to make your touch-up less noticeable.
The Results:
...one last thing, you can lay down paint on top of the PlastiDip and still peel everything off later. On account of this I am considering some designs, such as this:
or this:
Here's a cool shot of some black wheels:
whats cool about this, is if you have a bright colored car, like yellow for example, the black wheel really makes the color pop.
As of late I have decided to take my car in an all Black/Red combo. Here is how it looked last month:
So I decided to PlastiDip the wheels. Although there are a lot of tutorials on YouTube, they left out a few aspects that I noticed. I have added in these tips to make the process easier and faster. Doing all 4 wheels will take roughly 6 - 10 hours.
Step 1 - materials:
some wheel cleaner, some isopropyl alcohol, latex gloves, blue painters tape, large masking tape, 4 cans PlastiDip
lots of rags (not pictured)
an exacto blade (not pictured)
cardboard boxes to build a spray booth (optional)
Step 2 - Clean the wheels
this will be easier if the wheels are off the car. So put the car on blocks and take off all the wheels. clean all the wheels with your preferred cleaner and sponge/brush. Then hose em off. Then use the rubbing alcohol and some rags to wipe down all surfaces of the wheel.
Step 3 - paint your calipers (optional)
i just threw this in because, hey the wheels are already off the car, plus each coat of PlastiDip takes 30min - 1hour to dry, so you might as well do something while you wait:
step 4 - tape off the wheels
As any good painter will tell you, prep is 90%. so carefully mask off the front edge of the wheel where the metal meets the tire. It's actually better to have the tape about 1/4 an inch from the metal. If the tape is too close when you go to pull it off it will pull the plastidip with it. So use your masking tape and tape all the way around the perimeter. Then use a little painters tape to cover the valve stem. You can tape off the inside edge of the wheel if you want, but i didn't. Mainly because no one really sees the inside of the wheel so it doesn't really matter if you make mistakes in that area.
step 5 - spray the inside
Again, no one really looks at the inside of a wheel so one coat is sufficient. Place the wheel upright and spray the inside section. Rotate the wheel as needed to cover all inside metal. HOW TO SPRAY : use even strokes. hold can about 10 inches from surface. you can lay this stuff on pretty thick and it will still dry smooth. just stop spraying once you get that "wet look" even surface.
step 6 - spray the front
you don't need to wait for the inside wheel to dry, just lay that bi*** down, as soon as you finish spraying the inside. Now spray the front. Circle around the wheel as you spray. Continually look into the interior of the wheel to make sure you are not missing interior spoke surface or lug not holes. Wait about an hour for your first coat to be very dry. Then spray down a 2nd coat. IMMEDIATELY after you finish spraying the 2nd coat, carefully pull away the perimeter tape. You may have to wait for everything to dry before pulling away the valve stem tape, but that is okay.
my cardboard spray booth:
step 7 - putting the wheels back on
pretty straightforward, but one little detail. before putting the wheel back on, take your exacto blade and dip it into each lug nut hole of the wheel. cut a circular pattern a couple of times into the paint. What this does it prevent Plastidip from tearing away when you screw in the lugnuts. I didn't do this with the first wheel and the lugnut tore away the paint around the hole, so I had to repaint:
^^^you can see the line around the lugnut where i repainted. The one downside of Plastidip is that if you make any mistakes you can't really retouch it correctly. Wherever you respray plastidip it will leave edges wherever new plastidip is layed down. So if you make a mistake, when you go to repaint place your tape on edges to make your touch-up less noticeable.
The Results:
...one last thing, you can lay down paint on top of the PlastiDip and still peel everything off later. On account of this I am considering some designs, such as this:
or this:
Last edited by ThaiCobra; Dec 10, 2011 at 05:44 PM.
Cut & Paste Expert
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 13,322
From: NW Arkansas
If you dont tape the tires off, the plastidip peels
right off the tires if there is any overspray.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkkAwWLgxDI
right off the tires if there is any overspray.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkkAwWLgxDI
Thread Starter
3rd Gear Member
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 906
From:
Thanks for the compliments everybody. I would like to see it be a sticky.
and like S197 said, the taping may not be necessary. Although if you pull up plastidip it will pull up any connected plastidip, so that could be an issue.
one could simply score the edge of the rim with an exacto blade before pulling up the overspray plastidip.
and like S197 said, the taping may not be necessary. Although if you pull up plastidip it will pull up any connected plastidip, so that could be an issue.
one could simply score the edge of the rim with an exacto blade before pulling up the overspray plastidip.
Thread Starter
3rd Gear Member
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 906
From:
I'm not sure. worth a shot. PlastiDip is VERY flat. so if the black on your wheels has the least bit of gloss, you will be able to notice the difference in the 2 blacks.
2nd Gear Member
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 209
From: Wisconsin
Is there a way to make it appear more glossy? Would putting a clearcoat over it work?
Im thinking of doing this to my winter wheels because they are a plain silver 5 spoke and dont look very good. But, my car is black so I dont think the matte color of this would look very good.
Im thinking of doing this to my winter wheels because they are a plain silver 5 spoke and dont look very good. But, my car is black so I dont think the matte color of this would look very good.