Grassroots Curve Masking

Roughly a week ago after searching for the right vehicle for a while, I picked up a 2007 Jeep Patriot AWD to use as a winter vehicle for myself and an AWD backup vehicle for SWMBO. I got it for a pretty low price thanks to several issues (more, in reality, than I realized at first- but still not anything I can't handle).

One of those issues is that the paint is bubbling along the rear passenger wheel well and the bottom edge of the rear passenger door, and while I'm waiting for parts to come in to fix the larger mechanical issues I'm hoping to try and take care of the nascent rust issues. Since the paint overall outside of the rusted areas is in rather good shape and I want to keep it looking as good as I can (and also take care of it as quickly as possible), I've decided that the likely best way to handle it is to sand/grind down the rusted areas and then use Plasti-Dip to seal the area.

Just using the dip on the area that is rusted would look rather bad, so I've been playing with how to apply it so the car as a whole still looks as good as possible.

Here's what it looks like now:

And here's my PS mock-up of what I think will look best:

Basically, using flat black on the lower half of the car, on the fender flares, and front & back bumpers. And the wheels, but that's easy to do.

The problem is, this will require masking off some rather difficult curves to spray the plasti-dip on and I have no experience with doing this or know how to best (and most inexpensively) do this. Hopefully some of you have experience with this and can give me some good advice! Thanks!

I feel like I have seen people using thinner tape to mask curves but I could be wrong.

The flat black will look awesome though.

Madk the whole area, trim design out with razor blade is how i normally do it.

Dusterbd13 wrote: Madk the whole area, trim design out with razor blade is how i normally do it.

Yup razor blades are the way to go if you want good results.

Edit: And give us a build thread on that Jeep. They are sooooo cheap that I'm seriously thinking of getting one for a winter beater.

Pros use 3m fine line tape.

How do you think flames are done? It is incredibly flexible.

I would suggest 1/4" wide. It is inexpensive, incredibly easy to work with and gives a much better paint edge than masking tape.

http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/3m-scotch-fine-line-tapes-p-11370.aspx

It's done all of the time for flames and whatnot.

I really like the flat black look too. Not just as an adequate coverup but as an improvement. Why not use paint? You're going to have an ugly repair to hide so you won't be able to peel it off and have a pretty truck anyway.

Or maybe undercoating or bedliner??

Whoops! Got beat to it

Dusterbd13 wrote: Madk the whole area, trim design out with razor blade is how i normally do it.

I considered this, but one of the good points of the dip would be that it could be removed easily down the line and I would be afraid of scratching up the paint (or at least the clear) with the razor blade.

jfryjfry wrote: http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/3m-scotch-fine-line-tapes-p-11370.aspx It's done all of the time for flames and whatnot. I really like the flat black look too. Not just as an adequate coverup but as an improvement. Why not use paint? You're going to have an ugly repair to hide so you won't be able to peel it off and have a pretty truck anyway. Or maybe undercoating or bedliner?? Whoops! Got beat to it

The reason for the dip vs. paint is two-fold: First, it requires less prep time and less time to be usable after, and with the weather turning colder fast both are important factors. Second, there's a good chance I won't keep the Jeep past this winter and having used the dip would mean that a potential new owner could remove the dip and have the formerly rusted area repainted to match the original to bring it back to a stock look.

I think the flat black is going to look really good- but the nice thing about the dip is that if it doesn't it's far less work to change...

Lot's of four-letter words seems to help get it just right...

WildScotsRacing wrote: Lot's of four-letter words seems to help get it just right...

Already tried that when trying to make normal painter's tape or electrical tape (granted all I had was rather wide electrical tape, but...) and it didn't seem to help any.

And yes, I should probably start a build thread on the Patriot, things have been kind of hectic over the last week since I bought it...

Is this one of the ones that can do a stoppie? If so, we're going to need stoppie video before we can actually help with your question.

its a jeep wouldnt bed liner be both more robust and keep it from rusting a little better?

I don't know if it would work, but... would putting knifeless tape down first and then applying the plastidip would allow you to cut the line after application and then tear off the "overspray" side? I've been able to do some pretty nice curves with knifeless tape when applying vinyl.

Oh. That's another idea. Why paint it when you could wrap it? Lay out the curve you want with the tape, apply vinyl, then pull the string to have your curve. That's probably what I'd look to do.

wae wrote: I don't know if it would work, but... would putting knifeless tape down first and then applying the plastidip would allow you to cut the line after application and then tear off the "overspray" side? I've been able to do some pretty nice curves with knifeless tape when applying vinyl. Oh. That's another idea. Why paint it when you could wrap it? Lay out the curve you want with the tape, apply vinyl, then pull the string to have your curve. That's probably what I'd look to do.

I've never done any kind of vinyl work so this is the first I've heard of knifeless tape. Looking at it, it looks like it would be possible to lay it down on the curves, lay down normal painter's tape over the top of it, and then pull up the knifeless tape to leave the curve on the painter's tape. Will have to remember that for down the line.

Likewise, this is why I haven't considered vinyl- I've not had any experience with it nor do I know how it compares cost-wise with the plasti-dip while I could easily get the aerosol plasti-dip and know how to use an aerosol spray.

I did run out over lunch to a local auto body supply shop, and picked up both 1/4" and 1/2" detail tape- I'll see how well I can make that work this evening/tomorrow to mask off the curves to try spraying when it warms up midday. Surprisingly both rolls of tape cost under $10 collectively.

The good news is you are following body lines. That means if your curve isn't perfect it will be ok because the mind will just see the big picture of "this side light that side dark" and no one will notice. Seriously.

I would just tape it up best I could and lay down the dip.

Jumper K. Balls wrote: Pros use 3m fine line tape. How do you think flames are done? It is incredibly flexible. I would suggest 1/4" wide. It is inexpensive, incredibly easy to work with and gives a much better paint edge than masking tape.

I have a roll of this tape that I used on my race car. It is all you need. You can overlap the tape with regular masking tape but the paint edge will be smooth and sharp.

Mask the curves with the thinnest tape that will take the curve. Then overlay the thin tape with wider tape (in short segments). Keep overlaying and making the area wider until you are a safe distance from the over spray. Widest can be done with newspaper or paper masking roll.

Didn't have time to do the whole car yesterday before we headed out for some much-needed away time in the woods (at a cabin with wifi ), but did get at least a start on prep and some dipping- pasting the photo links is tedious, but the photos are in the build thread.

Had time after we got back from the cabin to do the two sides of the Jeep- I didn't quite get the technique right on the first (driver's) side, but got it pretty much spot on for the passenger side. I think I know how to fix the driver's side without pulling the dip completely off and re-doing it- we'll see how well it works.

Hopefully this link works, I can't check it from work, but if so some of the pictures are here.

Thin painter's tape is your friend. I don't think it will be too hard since the patriot has few major curves.

Managed to get the Photobucket links working...

Here's the line from when I didn't quite get the technique right:

Here's the other side where I learned from my mistakes and did it properly: