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      04-29-2013, 11:21 PM   #40
alexwhittemore
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Drives: 2009 Crimson 328i
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Los Angeles

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The pictures make it a bit difficult to tell what is thin plasti-dip coat (such that the paint shows through) and what is thin gloss (such that the plasti-dip partially reflects).

If I were doing it myself, here's my thought:
1) thickness of coats. I agree with most here that you need *much* more coverage, but I think your main problem is that you were too far away from the work surface. I've noticed with dip for some reason more than paint that it disperses quickly. Much like spray paint, you don't want coats so thick they pool. Plasti-dip in particular bubbles with pooled coats, which ends up looking piss-poor. But you also don't want to be far away with the can to get your thin coats. My strategy, which worked great on my wheels, is fast, close coats. You maximize use of the can, but still get thin enough coats to not pool. And you want like 10 coats minimum, if they're as thin as mine were. It really has to be a nice thick sheet. Maybe practice a few times on a cookie sheet - I had to do a few parts before I got the hang of it and did my wheels well (then went back and redid the other parts, since they were crap).

2) "fit" of final look. A few others have mentioned getting the matte look on your roof. Personally, I LOVE my matte black wheels, but I think they fit well because they're right next to the matte black tires. I'm not sure how a matte black roof would look on my solid gloss red car, maybe good maybe not. Maybe a gloss vinyl would look better. I'd have to see it first. Luckily, with Dip you can try without committing to it. In the end, I'd be willing to bet that the glossifier won't get you far enough, though, so if you don't like it you're probably better off peeling it and doing a gloss vinyl wrap.

3) glossification. Like I said, I don't think the glossifier will be enough. However, I got my car back the other day from the dealer and they'd done a wash. Normally I don't use tire shine, and I thought I liked it better that way, but they used some and I think I've changed my mind. More than that, a bit bled over onto my dipped wheels and I think it's about as effective on that rubber as it is on the tires themselves. I have to experiment with the can I got after a proper wash to get rid of my current water spots, but you MIGHT be able to get far enough to gloss with tire shine, perhaps the glossifier THEN tire shine. It's worth a try - if it totally sucks, you can still peel it all off.

As for removing it, you have two options: 1. add more dip. If you spray enough, thickly enough, it'll dry into a sheet you can peel off. It doesn't matter in this case if you do a crappy job and it pools, since you just want it to grab what's already there. That's the option I'd try, since it should grab everything. But if you WANT to use chemical solvents, 2. GooGone. The petroleum distillates (I think googone is just mineral oil and scent?) dissolve dip quite well. I don't recommend this route, because you'd have to use a LOT of googone and paper towels to clean up that roof, and it'll take MANY passes (since it streaks). But it works super well. I've used it on some areas of overspray on my car when I did my badges. Just spray it on, wipe it off with paper towels, then wash the area down with water and soap as usual to make sure it doesn't sit on there (I bet it does mean things to wax and clear coat, but that's superstition).

I strongly recommend googone for cleaning up dipped rubber parts. For example, I dipped an iPod cable so it'd be black rather than white. Parts of it peeled and looked bad (the sharp corners), so I wanted to reverse it. But dip adheres VERY well to rubber, it wouldn't peel off. Goo gone took it off no trouble.
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