Plasti-Dip: A Guide for the DIY'er. FAQ's, tricks, Pro vs. hardware store.
Jul 12, 2013, 01:54 PM
#1
Plasti-Dip: A Guide for the DIY'er. FAQ's, tricks, Pro vs. hardware store.
Disclaimer: This guide applies to Home Depot/Lowes Plasti-Dip spray cans that DIY crew is famous for using.
If you want to do your whole car dipped, let a pro do it. They do not use the same Plasti-Dip that we buy on the shelf. Theirs is a commercial product that is clearcoat safe, and applied with expensive HVLP guns by professionals. Message Jeremy@SSP on the board here if you need a professional dip job. SSP has years of experience and a portfolio of Dipped cars that will make your jaw drop.
Okay, having said that, on to uses/tips with bomb-can Plasti-Dip from the hardware store!
I use this stuff a lot, for plastic repair, carbon fiber work, blackouts, emblems, interior repair, etc. Sometimes I'll coat something with it, then paint the plasti-dip. If I don't like how it looked, I can peel it off
. You can also use it to seal problematic substrates (wax spills, adhesion problem areas, cracks, etc). It's awesome, it really is.
You can refresh your scuffed up door sill plates by sanding them lightly, and recoating with plasti dip. Same goes with any interior piece. If you want to build a speaker box, and give it a non-wood, non-carpet look, shoot it with a primer, scuff it, cover with plasti dip.
You can make your own switch plates for remotes or whatever, too. Order a few blank switch plates from mitsubishi, drill the holes you want, fill in what you dont want. Scuff it, shoot with Plasti-dip. Click it into your OEM location and go James Bond style into your garage.
Got an MR and want the blacked-out GSR window trims and front grill? Wipe down with rubbing alcohol, tape off, and shoot it with Plasti-Dip. It will last years, even in the sun, even with regular car washes!
Remove tape while plasti-dip is still wet to prevent tearing! If it dries, don't pull the tape. Spray a fresh coat, then pull tape while it's wet again. In theory.
But there are some really important reasons why you should NOT Aerosol Plasti-Dip as a long term coloring over your existing paint. Hire a pro for that.
The biggest reason is damage to your clear coat. Aerosol Plasti-dip Spray Cans was never designed to color paint-it's a spray for tool handles. They make a clear-coat safe professional version, but that is not what we buy at the hardware store. You can spray it on anything, yes, but it's not safe to do long term.
Odds are, if you see someone with damaged clear coat and a Plasti-Dip story, they used the stuff from the hardware store on their paint.
Plasti dip is liquid plastic, and the way it stays liquid is through a rapidly evaporating solvent called Xylene. Only the aerosol cans of Plasti-Dip have the xylene in it. The professional version, Rubber Dip, that you see shops use, does not have xylene in it, because they use specialized equipment that atomizes plastic without xylene.
Xylene is a paint thinner. If you apply this to your paint, and leave it on for a few days or maybe a week, it probably will not affect anything. It's a low concentration of it (5-7% by volume). However, leave it on for a month, and outside exposed to heat (heat evaporates solvents into whatever they're touching...), and you will expose your clearcoat to solvents and will thin it, and eventually, destroy it completely.
Aerosol Plastic-Dip is best used on existing plastics, as a primer for cracked substrates, on your emblems, door sills, window sills, and blacking out chrome. A little overspray will not hurt your paint, but you'll want to remove it soon, using one of the methods outlined below.
It's fine for wheels that have ceramic coatings. Buy the neon stuff and knock yourself out
FAQ's:
What's in aerosol Plasti-dip from hardware stores?
http://www.plastidip.com/docs/MPDS%2...0(5-25-07).pdf
HAZARDOUS COMPONENTS CHEMICAL and
IDENTITY AND COMMON NAME (S)
% Wt.
Xylene 5-7% 1330-20-7 100 ppm 100 ppm None
Methyl Ethyl Ketone 2-4% 78-93-3 200 ppm 200 ppm None
Methyl n-Amyl Ketone 2-4 110-43-0 100 ppm 50 ppm None
How is that different than what I see shops using? Why can't I just buy a bunch of cans at Lowes and do it too? It looks the same!
Professional shops use a similar looking product by Performix called Rubber Dip Spray. It has a similar sounding name, but Rubber Dip Spray does NOT contain xylene and is not Plasti-Dip. Xylene is used to thin the aersol Plasti-dip so the spray atomizes enough at low PSI coming out of a paint can. A professional shop will have commercial HVLP paint guns and industrial compressors that provide enough air pressure to atomize the material WITHOUT adding xylene to it. That's why they can cover a whole car, without the use of harmful xylene thinners, and it lasts years and years without causing any clear coat failure.
Can you sand it?
yes, with 320 grit after it has dried
Can you thin it?
Thins with xylene or temperature (hot=thinner, cold=thicker)
How do I remove it?
Use a solvent called SEM Solve 38373. Sprays on and makes the plasti-dip run off like dirty water
http://www.semproducts.com/product-c...cts/sem-solve/
To remove without SEM Solve, use an eraser wheel on a low-speed drill:
As long as there is no dust/dirt on the paint, an eraser wheel will NOT harm your paint. It's also the best way to remove emblems, old adhesives, etc. It is literally a giant eraser on a wheel. They cost about $12 and you can get them on Amazon or at auto body repair supply stores.
Do not use a pressure washer to remove it.
If someone used the aerosol Plasti-Dip and it wont come off, then the xylene has probably affected the paint. A pressure washer is likely to remove the plasti-dip...and the paint it's stuck to. If an eraser wheel will not take it off, it's probably there forever. Take it to a body shop.
Can you paint over it?
yes, you can paint over it, then remove the entire layer later.
Hopefully this helps out some folks.
If you want to do your whole car dipped, let a pro do it. They do not use the same Plasti-Dip that we buy on the shelf. Theirs is a commercial product that is clearcoat safe, and applied with expensive HVLP guns by professionals. Message Jeremy@SSP on the board here if you need a professional dip job. SSP has years of experience and a portfolio of Dipped cars that will make your jaw drop.
Okay, having said that, on to uses/tips with bomb-can Plasti-Dip from the hardware store!
I use this stuff a lot, for plastic repair, carbon fiber work, blackouts, emblems, interior repair, etc. Sometimes I'll coat something with it, then paint the plasti-dip. If I don't like how it looked, I can peel it off
. You can also use it to seal problematic substrates (wax spills, adhesion problem areas, cracks, etc). It's awesome, it really is.You can refresh your scuffed up door sill plates by sanding them lightly, and recoating with plasti dip. Same goes with any interior piece. If you want to build a speaker box, and give it a non-wood, non-carpet look, shoot it with a primer, scuff it, cover with plasti dip.
You can make your own switch plates for remotes or whatever, too. Order a few blank switch plates from mitsubishi, drill the holes you want, fill in what you dont want. Scuff it, shoot with Plasti-dip. Click it into your OEM location and go James Bond style into your garage.
Got an MR and want the blacked-out GSR window trims and front grill? Wipe down with rubbing alcohol, tape off, and shoot it with Plasti-Dip. It will last years, even in the sun, even with regular car washes!
Remove tape while plasti-dip is still wet to prevent tearing! If it dries, don't pull the tape. Spray a fresh coat, then pull tape while it's wet again. In theory.
But there are some really important reasons why you should NOT Aerosol Plasti-Dip as a long term coloring over your existing paint. Hire a pro for that.
The biggest reason is damage to your clear coat. Aerosol Plasti-dip Spray Cans was never designed to color paint-it's a spray for tool handles. They make a clear-coat safe professional version, but that is not what we buy at the hardware store. You can spray it on anything, yes, but it's not safe to do long term.
Odds are, if you see someone with damaged clear coat and a Plasti-Dip story, they used the stuff from the hardware store on their paint.
Plasti dip is liquid plastic, and the way it stays liquid is through a rapidly evaporating solvent called Xylene. Only the aerosol cans of Plasti-Dip have the xylene in it. The professional version, Rubber Dip, that you see shops use, does not have xylene in it, because they use specialized equipment that atomizes plastic without xylene.
Xylene is a paint thinner. If you apply this to your paint, and leave it on for a few days or maybe a week, it probably will not affect anything. It's a low concentration of it (5-7% by volume). However, leave it on for a month, and outside exposed to heat (heat evaporates solvents into whatever they're touching...), and you will expose your clearcoat to solvents and will thin it, and eventually, destroy it completely.
Aerosol Plastic-Dip is best used on existing plastics, as a primer for cracked substrates, on your emblems, door sills, window sills, and blacking out chrome. A little overspray will not hurt your paint, but you'll want to remove it soon, using one of the methods outlined below.
It's fine for wheels that have ceramic coatings. Buy the neon stuff and knock yourself out
FAQ's:
What's in aerosol Plasti-dip from hardware stores?
http://www.plastidip.com/docs/MPDS%2...0(5-25-07).pdf
HAZARDOUS COMPONENTS CHEMICAL and
IDENTITY AND COMMON NAME (S)
% Wt.
Xylene 5-7% 1330-20-7 100 ppm 100 ppm None
Methyl Ethyl Ketone 2-4% 78-93-3 200 ppm 200 ppm None
Methyl n-Amyl Ketone 2-4 110-43-0 100 ppm 50 ppm None
How is that different than what I see shops using? Why can't I just buy a bunch of cans at Lowes and do it too? It looks the same!
Professional shops use a similar looking product by Performix called Rubber Dip Spray. It has a similar sounding name, but Rubber Dip Spray does NOT contain xylene and is not Plasti-Dip. Xylene is used to thin the aersol Plasti-dip so the spray atomizes enough at low PSI coming out of a paint can. A professional shop will have commercial HVLP paint guns and industrial compressors that provide enough air pressure to atomize the material WITHOUT adding xylene to it. That's why they can cover a whole car, without the use of harmful xylene thinners, and it lasts years and years without causing any clear coat failure.
Can you sand it?
yes, with 320 grit after it has dried
Can you thin it?
Thins with xylene or temperature (hot=thinner, cold=thicker)
How do I remove it?
Use a solvent called SEM Solve 38373. Sprays on and makes the plasti-dip run off like dirty water
http://www.semproducts.com/product-c...cts/sem-solve/
To remove without SEM Solve, use an eraser wheel on a low-speed drill:
As long as there is no dust/dirt on the paint, an eraser wheel will NOT harm your paint. It's also the best way to remove emblems, old adhesives, etc. It is literally a giant eraser on a wheel. They cost about $12 and you can get them on Amazon or at auto body repair supply stores.
Do not use a pressure washer to remove it.
If someone used the aerosol Plasti-Dip and it wont come off, then the xylene has probably affected the paint. A pressure washer is likely to remove the plasti-dip...and the paint it's stuck to. If an eraser wheel will not take it off, it's probably there forever. Take it to a body shop.
Can you paint over it?
yes, you can paint over it, then remove the entire layer later.
Hopefully this helps out some folks.
Last edited by ikt@evoxpod.com; Jul 12, 2013 at 02:02 PM.
Jul 12, 2013, 08:54 PM
#2
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I would like to spray my OEM rims, probably black or red. Can I just clean the hell out of them, and spray away?
Also, how should I spray? I've been told a few light coats, then heavy, then one or two more light coats for a good coat.
Thanks.
Also, how should I spray? I've been told a few light coats, then heavy, then one or two more light coats for a good coat.
Thanks.
Jul 12, 2013, 09:37 PM
#3
Go with medium wet coats, as in, yours first coat covers about half of the original wheel color. Refer to the can for "flash" times, but you can reshoot it as soon as it's tacky really. Remove the tape whiles it's wet. If it's dried completely, then use a scraper or putty knife to score the plasti-dip around where the tape meets the tire.
Easiest way to tape off a car tire is either playing cards, or, make a hoop the size of the rim out of cardboard and just set it as a circle between the wheel and tire.
Jul 17, 2013, 10:49 AM
#5
The turtle wax probably just removed the wax where you used it-try using some compound on that area it should come right back
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