tips for using plastidip on alloys :)

Hey guys, thought id do a run through on the plasti dip.

took be around 4 hours on sunday morning, and they still look great.



first things first, i bought 4 cans of matt black from the plasti dip uk website.

1 can per wheel is more than enough, but the more coats you paint the better and thicker, so you have less chance of any flaking.

jack the car up and take the wheel off, they advise washing in an alcohol bath, but i just used the wash and wax from halfords to clean these,

MAKE SURE YOU POP OFF THE CENTRE CAP BEFORE YOU SPRAY!

so get the wheel clean, pop the centre cap off and give that a good clean also, the next job is to dry and wipe off any excess dirt, you must make sure the wheel is bone dry else your plasti dip spray will bubble, so for this i used a hot air gun and dried everything out ( this also comes in handy for drying the plasti dip in between coats)

once dry, lay the wheel down flat on some polythene, if you have it up on the angle it will run, so having this flat is a must!!

give the can a good shake for 2 minutes,

now your first coat should be very very light spraying, dont get too close and defiantly dont spray too far away.

if you spray too close it will build up and run
if your spray too far away it goes bubbly

so i kept around 4/5 inches from the wheel while spraying, when you first spray the plastidip you think it looks a right mess, as its patchy and looks a mess, but dont worry, dont try and get coverage on everything first time, just a light spray then leave it to dry,

if you have a hot air gun give it a light blow over and it will soon dry within 4/5 minutes.

your second coat will go on abit neater this time including the corners and the bits you missed, let that dry,

your next few coats is just a case of building up and on your 3rd coat you will see it go black then keep giving it 1 coat all over then drying then repeat till you have used the can.

dont forget to do the centre badge in between also,

when i sprayed the plastidip, i didnt cover the tyres up or let any air out or anything like that, because i wanted to get right round the rim with the spray,

once all the spraying has been done, you need to be very careful as the first 24 hours this stuff can be marked so easy its unreal, if you dont let the centre piece dry before you pop the cap back in then you can leave finger prints in the plastidip, so make sure its dried to like a dull colour first,

the next parts are the hardest.

the dont's

DONT PEEL THE PLASTI DIP OFF THE TYRE THE SAME NIGHT,
i have the conti contact tyre, and if you look there is a line every 5 inches or so that go by the alloy, if u peel the plastidip off the tyre too soon it will pull some off the alloy aswell. so let it set, drive around for a few days like i have then it will start hanging off the tyre, then pull it off. easy peasy lol.

the biggest thing what you need to watch is putting the bolts back on, the big bar Renault send to put the nuts back on is too big and it will catch the plastidip and mark it, so i used the halfords socket set, which is loads smaller and fits inside the nut holes easy without catching at all.

its fairly easy to use, like i say from taking the wheel off to cleaning and spraying and putting the wheel back on takes around 1 hour maximum per wheel, the hot air gun will help with drying so much, just be very careful you don't catch the wheel within the first 24 hours, i sprayed all mine got the wheel back on the same day and was driving around and they look perfect still, i do believe you can spray your whole car, your badges, wing mirrors etc.. without and problems, its fantastic stuff to use and the pictures will speak for them selves,

any questions ill be glad to help in anyway i can :smile: thanks for reading, hope i wasn't too boring lol.
 

Attachments

  • IMAG0346.jpg
    IMAG0346.jpg
    88.2 KB · Views: 252
  • IMAG0347 (1).jpg
    IMAG0347 (1).jpg
    96.3 KB · Views: 209
  • IMAG0348.jpg
    IMAG0348.jpg
    93.9 KB · Views: 157
Nice little write up.

Just to add to that spray from all angles perpendicular to the faces just to make sure you get good coverage. and the more the better is the aim of the game here!! Definitely agree on leaving a good time to dry. I left two hours, put my wheels back on and caught the dip (4 hours wasted..)
 
Ill be doing my door handles and bullets with this stuff asap. Really want the glossifier but they dont sell it in spray form :worried:
 
I do believe you can spray clear lacquer over the top to make matt black shine, it just makes it a little harder to come off :smile:
 
Ill be doing my door handles and bullets with this stuff asap. Really want the glossifier but they dont sell it in spray form :worried:

Be very careful with this mate.. door handles look amazing but arent practical as youre constantly rubbing the dip when you open the door.. If you get better results than me let me know what you did differently :smile: p.s dont use a powerwasher on the bullets.. it doesnt end well..
 
See thats what i was worried about. Id rather get them done properly gloss black, but the hassle of removing them rockets the prices.
 
I've done a similar thing on my 197. Wheels, badges including rear 'renault sport' lettering. Looks much better against Nimbus than chrome imo.

I used a cocktail stick to pick out the dip between the lettering and it worked a treat!

The only problem i had was a small rip in one wheel where a stone clipped it or something, used a small amount of nail polish remover to dull the split and resprayed... bobs your uncle :smiley:

With my alloys i used the rubbish bag over the calliper method used on 'dip your car's youtube channel. Saved removing wheels, and over-spray simply buffs off with a microfibre cloth.
 
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1391359416.802363.jpg

Did mine today, covered up some nasty scratches from the gravel trap at brands hatch!

Ok it's not gloss black anymore but I kinda like the matt! Certainly saved me £280!