Rubber shadowline paint

[Rodoni]

yes they were, not sure how well the light shines through though

[kamotors]

looks good,were the signals with plasti dip also?

[Rodoni]

It took me about 4 hours from set up to clean up. Im pretty pleased with the results. I have a couple spots where it peeled, but it was too bad. I think Ill get a can of the dipping stuff and just brush up the mess up parts. I did it while the pieces were on the car. Here are some Pros and Cons of doing that.

Pros:
-Dont have to take it apart
-No worry about breaking the trim pieces.
-Less time (maybe Ive never taken of the trim)

Cons:
-The pieces arent 100% black.
-Cant get inside the nooks and crannys
-When peeling tape, you could peel off the paint
-If not covered properly, theres over spray. (Had some on the windows comes off with alcohol)

I also took off the front turn signals and sprayed those while I was waiting for the other coats to dry. While I was taping up my windows I deiced to do the trim part in between the doors, instead of waiting and re-taping everything

Used Plasti-Dip
Total Cans used for Trim, Signals, and Test pieces: 1 and theres like 1/8 left in the can.
Total Tape Rolls: 6/8s
Time: ~4 hours
Sunburns achieved: One on the upper back/lower neck. :D


Here are some before and after pics:
BEFORE:


DURING:





AFTER:





BEFORE TURN SIGNALS:


AFTER TURN SIGNALS:


Comments? :P

[jackbenny]

since you have to pull the dash anyhow, why not just have a better non-cracked one waiting, since you did all that work to pull it. otherwise, you'll put the dash back in, some idiot will scratch it and you'll have to pull the whole dash to fix it again. seems like a terrible idea for a hard to remove dash.

This is a perfectly reasonable belief and one that I'm wrestling with as well. If the durability of the stuff isn't there, why would I make my life miserable and pull the dash multiple times.

Dashes are getting harder and harder to find though. I've had two purchases fall through either because of shipping difficulties or other issues. my dash is going to come out eventually. most likely after i get my s52 swap running. The question is whether a different dash gets swapped in or the existing one gets repaired. The only way the repaired one would go back in is if the durabilty is there.

I put two coats on my e-brake surround last night. It looks decent but would look better with a couple more coats i think. Josh is right in that it shows all the imperfections. The paint goes on with little prep but the more prep you do, the better it looks. I want to throw this piece around, wipe it down and treat it roughly to see what it looks like.

I'm still a bit skeptical but still want to experiment with it.

<edit>

It certainly scratches easily after being applied for 12 hours. I am assuming its cure time is longer than that so I'll let it dry longer. But if it scratches in a similar manner this will probably be a no go for me.

fingers crossed.

[straight6pwr]

since you have to pull the dash anyhow, why not just have a better non-cracked one waiting, since you did all that work to pull it. otherwise, you'll put the dash back in, some idiot will scratch it and you'll have to pull the whole dash to fix it again. seems like a terrible idea for a hard to remove dash.

[Beach Bum]

It's rubber based, right? Say goodbye to shit sliding everywhere on your dashboards. Increase the effectiveness of our dash trays tenfold.

[madformx5]

I am replacing my impact strips right now with used ones and I am going to Home Depot tomorrow to get som of this stuff so I can do mine before I put them on.

[jackbenny]

I had this exact same thought about dashboards when I first got this stuff, I bet that would work perfectly. The only problem there is this stuff will make ANY imperfection look 10 times worse, it follows countours of materials perfectly. So you would have the textured areas of the dashboard, then the area you fixed, which would be smooth from filling it. The only way to get around that would be if you somehow textured the part you filled, and you'd probably still be able to see the edges of your fix.

Would the alternative be to sand the dashboard completely smooth and let the texture of the paint itself be the "textured area" instead?

or sand the dash, roll on a coat of the plastidip in in the quart can with a textured roller and then spray a few coats to even it out?

This product seems to be the "holy-grail" for a lot of our issues. With good prep, it seems to work fantastic. I think the tough part would be the prep of the dash to get a consistent result. I don't know if the factory texture can be reproduced short of filling the crack and using one of those vinyl repair kit texture swatches to replicate the bumps and creases by pressing on the filled areas before they dry.

I would like to try this but would just try bouncing some ideas out there first to make sure i'm not a complete idiot.

[Jand3rson]

I had this exact same thought about dashboards when I first got this stuff, I bet that would work perfectly. The only problem there is this stuff will make ANY imperfection look 10 times worse, it follows countours of materials perfectly. So you would have the textured areas of the dashboard, then the area you fixed, which would be smooth from filling it. The only way to get around that would be if you somehow textured the part you filled, and you'd probably still be able to see the edges of your fix.

[jackbenny]

I'm curious if this is in fact the solution to those of us with cracked dashboards? This seems to be a popular solution with the porsche 924 guys when their dashes crack:

http://www.9xauto.com/plastidip.htm

So can we just pull out our cracked dash, fill in the cracks with some sort of epoxy based flexible filler or even urethane and then put 3 or 4 coats of this stuff on and we have nice new looking dashes for the cost of around 20 bucks and a painful weekend of pulling the dash? Has anybody tried this sort of repair on the dash because my searches brought up nothing?

I pulled the vinyl off of my e-brake surround mainly because it isn't being used right now and sprayed a test coat on it to check out. My biggest concerns are durability (will it chalk up over time, etc...) and being able to match the finish/texture across any repairs. I'll try and report my findings later this weekend but my intention is to try and repair the dash and use this as my vinyl coating.

Any thoughts?

[Jamster]

man i wish i saw this b4 i finished painting my platic bumpers and extra grill...

oh well, still gotta do the lip, door trim, and window trim...

subscribed!

[norcalE30]

i havent got around to taking any decent pics yet, but im really happy with how it came out. i need to touch up a couple places where i screwed up pulling off the tape. overall i think it made a huge improvement

[Rodoni]

6.99 a can here in SF bay

[straight6pwr]

here they were $7 a piece. picked up black and clear. going to test the clear to see its possibilities (use it like lamix to clear headlights/ clear taillights/ etc)

[Rodoni]

well if its 6 a can, ill prolly by 3.

Do you guys think the clear one could be used for a clear coat??

I hope so.