PlastiDip safe on paint?

sillyxone · May 15, 2016

I got my first PlastiDip job done today on the chrome trim of the AC vent (two tries, 3 layers, still looks ugly, but works well at not reflecting the light).

I'm thinking about adding a touch to the car to just have fun since it's quite easy to peel the PD off. I know people usually PD spray the wheel and logo/emblem, but I want to try adding a line from the headlight following the side curve, like this one:

I've heard of rare cases where peeling of the PD later can damage the clear coat, but most users had no problem dipping their whole car (although PD didn't list that as an application, and there's the safer PremiumDip). Do you think it's safe to try on the paint? I don't know how long I will keep the design on, maybe a year or two.

If it's not safe, I'll probably will stick to playing with the wheel and the bottom black plastic trim then.

Ride92 · May 16, 2016

I don't know how safe it is on paint but you will want to do more then 2-3 coats on anything you dip. The thicker it is the easier it is to peel off. There are horror stories about people dipping their wheels with only two coats and taking several days to "peel" it off in little pieces.

sillyxone · May 16, 2016

My concern is the extreme weather of Minnesota, it can get to 90-99F in summer, and get as low as -30F in winter. Too hot and the plasti might bond/fuse strongly to the paint, too cold and it might become brittle, crack, and might take the paint with it. Also, non-glossy black dip will absorb light/heat more, so the area under the dip might get hotter comparing to the surrounding reflective white paint, unexpected damage can happen. But those are just my speculation/reasoning, thus, asking if anyone has tried it.

On the same topic, I've seen people spraying clear/glossy PlastiDip on the hood or front bumper as a cheap alternative to protective film like Scotchgard or VentureShield. I'm still researching on this topic as a thick layer of glossy PD can be quite cheap comparing to those films.

My CX-5 is still too new to start experimenting on it

purplengold · May 16, 2016

I was pondering the same thing. I would think that a decent coat of wax on the paint will prevent the plastidip from bonding too strongly. I'm thinking about doing the front side of my rear view mirrors. I recently did my wheels with 5 coats of black then three coats of glossiffier. I've had compliments on my wheels lately from random people.

Pablorce · May 16, 2016

purplengold said:
I've had compliments on my wheels lately from random people.

i too get lots of compliments on my plasti dipped rims!

Ride92 · May 17, 2016

purplengold said:
I was pondering the same thing. I would think that a decent coat of wax on the paint will prevent the plastidip from bonding too strongly. I'm thinking about doing the front side of my rear view mirrors. I recently did my wheels with 5 coats of black then three coats of glossiffier. I've had compliments on my wheels lately from random people.

IF you wax the car before hand the dip won't stick at all. That's the whole point of wax, to make the surface more hydrophobic so that water and dirt don't stick to it and bond to the paint. If anything youd want to wipe the panel with IPA or another panel wipe product to make sure that all containments are removed before painting with dip. I'm going to say that dip on the paint is not going to hurt a thing, they do dip entire cars with no ill effects. Maybe head over to dipyourcar.com and submit a question there. They should have an answer for you.

sillyxone · May 19, 2016

At first I chickened out and intended to add a red line around the black bottom trim only, like this:

But after reading so many people have plasti-dipped their cars, I decided to try a little crazier on the paint. I stared at a jaguar face pic for a few minutes, then added an eyebrow for the headlight in Inkscape, and drew it on the car with a dry-erase marker to see how it should look in 3D. Also, because I want the grill to look more like a noise, blacking out the emblem seems to be obvious for the design.

The eyebrow is a little short in this one, I think.

This one looks meaner, also, the curvy tail matches the CX-5 curves better.

Having the whole-line upper red trim in front seems a little much:

Planning on doing it this weekend, don't know how well a thin strip of plastidip can stay, and if the color will be totally different from what I think. It's my second try at spraying PD, the first try on AC vent chrome trim didn't look good, so there's that challenge, too.

Foolish · May 19, 2016

For the kind of thing you're planning, the most important thing is to peel your tape immediately after laying down your last coat of dip, while it's still good and wet. Otherwise you'll pull the dip up with the paint.

Also, as mentioned before: many coats so it's easier to peel. Rubbing it off tiny bit by tiny bit isn't much fun.

sillyxone · May 19, 2016

Foolish said:
For the kind of thing you're planning, the most important thing is to peel your tape immediately after laying down your last coat of dip, while it's still good and wet. Otherwise you'll pull the dip up with the paint.

Also, as mentioned before: many coats so it's easier to peel. Rubbing it off tiny bit by tiny bit isn't much fun.

But wouldn't the previous layers already on top of the tape? Peeling the tape off will also pull those previous layers together. I'm planning on trying to run a small rounded-tip plastic toothpick lightly against the edge of the tape immediately after applying every layers, the paint will still be wet so no pressure needed to damage the paint. It takes a little more work, but at least will disconnect the paint from the tape completely from early on.

sillyxone · May 23, 2016

Got to play around with dipping last weekend (with some saving on the cans at Menards). The instruction on the can says to wait 20-30 minutes between coats, but I've only waited about 4-5 minutes when doing the driver side. When I peeled it off, had to use a piece of thin plastic to cut/saw vertically along with the tape, not too bad. However, the rear side is not that easy, especially the upper edge was on paint so I couldn't score it off.

Thinking about what Foolish mentioned, I thought your assumption was that the paint would still be wet when applying the last coat, so I tried the front lip with 7 coats, but with only 30-40 seconds in between, paying attention to not overspray it to drip. Peeling was much easier, no sticking to the tape at all as the PD was still wet. Same for passenger side. I might do the back again if it won't hold up due to some lifting along the upper edge.

In the photos below, the red stripes are not that red due to the sunset lighting, but they look red-er. I could have gone with white for the first 3 layers, then red on the last 4 layers, that would make the red more vivid. However, I think the bright red might be too aggressive, I like it subtle like this.

While blackening the emblem, I accidentally sprayed it on the hood, didn't take much to rub them off, so it's quite safe. I'll probably do the eyebrows today.

You can probably see the passenger side is still wet after pulling the tape off. Ignore the young lady in the background, she's just dipping her bike.

hek8560 · May 28, 2016

sillyxone said:
Got to play around with dipping last weekend (with some saving on the cans at Menards). The instruction on the can says to wait 20-30 minutes between coats, but I've only waited about 4-5 minutes when doing the driver side. When I peeled it off, had to use a piece of thin plastic to cut/saw vertically along with the tape, not too bad. However, the rear side is not that easy, especially the upper edge was on paint so I couldn't score it off.

Thinking about what Foolish mentioned, I thought your assumption was that the paint would still be wet when applying the last coat, so I tried the front lip with 7 coats, but with only 30-40 seconds in between, paying attention to not overspray it to drip. Peeling was much easier, no sticking to the tape at all as the PD was still wet. Same for passenger side. I might do the back again if it won't hold up due to some lifting along the upper edge.

In the photos below, the red stripes are not that red due to the sunset lighting, but they look red-er. I could have gone with white for the first 3 layers, then red on the last 4 layers, that would make the red more vivid. However, I think the bright red might be too aggressive, I like it subtle like this.

While blackening the emblem, I accidentally sprayed it on the hood, didn't take much to rub them off, so it's quite safe. I'll probably do the eyebrows today.

You can probably see the passenger side is still wet after pulling the tape off. Ignore the young lady in the background, she's just dipping her bike.

Looking good, I always wants to do the same thing but I just can't make the line straight. I think a red sticker line will be better solution for me, your car looks really good.

sillyxone · May 29, 2016

Finally getting back on topic: PD on paint!

Did the driver-side eyebrow first, looked at it for a few days then made some minor improvement for the passenger-side. I might redo the driver-side, but too lazy, maybe after it starts peeling off. Same technique as last time: 30-40 seconds in between coats (4 total), peeled the tapes off while it's still wet. For taping, cut the tape along its length into half, easier to curve.

Also, while I was playing around with the eyebrow, I noticed that the straight line right below the window is a little "too straight", so I drew a curvy line simulating a string flying in the wind. Not sure where I'm going with it at this moment, but I think it softened the side and added a sense of "motion" to the car. Just throwing it out here hoping to steal your ideas

sillyxone · May 29, 2016

hek8560 said:
Looking good, I always wants to do the same thing but I just can't make the line straight. I think a red sticker line will be better solution for me, your car looks really good.

I can't keep it straight in one go neither, the longest piece of tape I use was about a foot, most were just 2-4 inches, some are less than an inch for the curves. They just need to overlap a bit, and when peeling off, just peel from the side where you started so that the earlier segments (which is under) will also pull the later segments.

karlmagnum · May 30, 2016

Looks good, though I think autodip is a better choice for that kind of project. Autodip will look like a vinyl.

sillyxone · May 31, 2016

karlmagnum said:
Looks good, though I think autodip is a better choice for that kind of project. Autodip will look like a vinyl.

Autodip is a little too expensive to be my toy

I heard that it's not as durable as Plasti-Dip. I also have the glossifier and could have applied that on top, but I prefer it non-reflective to act like a dark eyebrow. Same thing with the red stripes, because they face up slightly reflecting the light/sky, they look less red so I didn't put on the glossifier neither.

Washed the car today in order to see where to rub off accidental PD, found a few tiny chippings on the front bumper and hood, probably will apply a few coat of glossifier to see if it can act as a protection layer.

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