Well I finally received my order. Three gallons of white plasti-dip arrived today.
If the weather cooperates I would love to get it done this weekend.
The car is in various stages of sanded original paint and primer where I've been chasing the rust away. I did a test section on about a 6"x6" area of the hood which had both primer and original paint on it. I sprayed four coats of black let it sit for a day in the 100*+ heat and it peeled of fine.
The main reason why I am attempting this is the E21 is my only car. I have been working on it as time and money allows since spring with a goal to have it painted by fall. I'm getting fairly close with the car prep but being my only transportation I can only tear it down so far. I really need to pull the windshield and rear window to fix some rust in the channel. And the windshield is in desperate need of replacement. I need to upgrade my air compressor and build a temporary spray booth, all of which are not in the budget for the foreseeable future. So to buy me some time to get some more money saved up and protect my fresh body work with something other than just primer I thought I would give this a shot. I'm going to try and make it last until this time next year.
I'll go ahead and post up some before pictures. These are the newest I have but I have done quite a bit more work on the car since I took these.
I am going to go ahead and paint the window trim semi-gloss black as well as the mirror.and door handles.
Hoop
SuperDork
7/20/12 12:54 a.m.
Awesome! Good luck; can't wait to see how it looks!
It's almost desert-camo in those pics. While I'm absolutely thrilled you're doing the plasti-dip(I'm strongly considering it for one of the Europas), I can help but think a nice Desert Fox motif would be perfect for your E21!
I like where this thread is going
Wasn't going to say it, but because everyone else did, I kinda like it the way it is 
But actually painting it is probably better on a number of levels, too.
I'm considering plasti-dipping one of my projects. Did you go the Wagner/ dipyourcar.com route, or are you going to thin it and spray it with a HVLP gun?
RossD
UltraDork
7/20/12 10:02 a.m.
What are the pros/cons for this?
Interested in how this goes
JThw8
UberDork
7/20/12 11:00 a.m.
RossD wrote:
What are the pros/cons for this?
Pro's easy application, you can literally spray over trim and windows then peel it off.
Semi-permanant, it stays put on the car but you can peel it off when you are ready for real paint or just a change of pace
Cons....um...well it's not real paint, I guess that's a con. And I don't know what the life expenctancy is for it.
Watching this one too, I think my miata is gonna get dipped.
m4ff3w
UltraDork
7/20/12 11:14 a.m.
This thread is relevant to my interests.
stay away from gravel trucks on the freeway...will end up looking like a pumpkin taking a blast of buckshot
PHeller
SuperDork
7/20/12 1:21 p.m.
I'd be worried that somehow water could get under the coating and rust even quicker.
I know a guy that plasti-dipped his MR2 Turbo a year ago and it still looks good....still peelable and not pockmarked.
Tyler H wrote:
I'm considering plasti-dipping one of my projects. Did you go the Wagner/ dipyourcar.com route, or are you going to thin it and spray it with a HVLP gun?
I plan to spray it with my HVLP primer gun. From what I've seen it seems to be close to the consistancy of 2K primer. If the test's don't go well I can always use my regular HVLP gun or play with thinning it more. I bought it pre thinned from dipyourcar.com.
petegossett wrote:
It's almost desert-camo in those pics. While I'm absolutely thrilled you're doing the plasti-dip(I'm strongly considering it for one of the Europas), I can help but think a nice Desert Fox motif would be perfect for your E21!
HMM I seem to recall them having some camo colors available.
Jaynen
Reader
7/20/12 4:17 p.m.
They do have some camo colors
Looking forward to this one
nicksta43 wrote:
I plan to spray it with my HVLP primer gun. From what I've seen it seems to be close to the consistancy of 2K primer. If the test's don't go well I can always use my regular HVLP gun or play with thinning it more. I bought it pre thinned from dipyourcar.com.
I'd like to do the same - can't wait to hear/see how it works out.
This is the most hater-free, unanimous post I've seen in a while. Smells like article material. Quick...someone go sell advertising to dipyourcar.
Well woke up this morning with a 30% chance of rain all day. Spent the morning helping my father in law build a clubhouse for my boy. At noon as I was eating some lunch the power went out. It stayed out until around seven. There went spraying the car today.
I did take the opportunity to paint the window trim, mirror, wiper arms and door handles with semi- gloss black paint.
I also used a couple cans of black plasti-dip to black out the rear panel between the taillights, lower rocker panels and the front spoiler. When I paint I plan to tape them off and stay away from the tape until the end then load it up along the tape line and quickly pull the tape off so it doesn't have time to skin over and peel off when I pull the tape.
We have the same chance for rain tomorrow and it's been stupid humid so I should probably wait until a better day. Knowing my impatient ass though I'll try to get it done tomorrow.
Here are some pics of the progress.
Really wish I had a garage, I would have so stayed up all night and got this done tonight. I'm starting to get excited.
Good luck. I'm in love with the concept of plasti-dip.
Jaynen
Reader
7/22/12 9:06 a.m.
Here is hoping for better weather today
In reply to Jaynen:
There is nothing worse than getting too anxious and going for it when the weather is not quite right and having to do it over again. I just did that (way too hot) and got the most orange peely clear coat over what was a really good repair and base coat.
I am excited to see it as well. This dip may just be what the doctor ordered for off road days and track days in lieu of painters tape.
