Rubber shadowline paint

[Stephen]

i see. i guess everyone will just have to find the limits on their own. my first experiment will be coating the headlight/foglight lenses with the clear plasti-dip. i hope it will fill the pitting a bit and also be a thick enough layer for protection, like lamin-x.

Post pix after. Id like to protect my ellips, at least a little

[Jand3rson]

It's not going to be crystal clear, and it's also going to be textured. It will probably come out looking like frosted glass.

[rodrigo]

i've used this stuff a lot on grille modifications for Volvos and it works well, but god forbid you need to remove it completely, especially in hard to get areas like tight corners. also, if it ever does get chipped/scraped (which it probably will since we park in parking lots) you will need to remove ALL of the stuff from that entire piece or else you will always notice the chip mark as a divit in the coat of material. I experienced that on several grilles I modified. It can be a BITCH to get off.

i wouldn't use it on the shadowline, but grilles, spoilers, the black oil cooler vent trim, mirrors, etc. shadowline: never.

black SEM trim paint and etching primer are still the best i think. if it gets hit with a chip, hit it with some black magic marker until you can paint it again.

has anyone in here consider looking into sanding and powder coating for the shadowline?

[Stephen]

i've used this stuff a lot on grille modifications for Volvos and it works well, but god forbid you need to remove it completely, especially in hard to get areas like tight corners. also, if it ever does get chipped (which it probably will) you will need to remove ALL of the stuff from that entire piece or else you will always notice the chip mark as a divit in the coat of material. I experienced that on several grilles I modified. Its can BITCH to get off.

i wouldn't use it on the shadowline, but grilles, spoilers, the black oil cooler vent trim, mirrors, etc. shadowline: never.

black SEM trim paint and etching primer are still the best i think. if it gets hit with a chip, hit it with some black magic marker until you can paint it again.

has anyone in here consider looking into sanding and powder coating for the shadowline?

Well youd have to take them off the car, and from what i understand, that is a bitch and risky

[rodrigo]

Well youd have to take them off the car, and from what i understand, that is a bitch and risky

it takes time to remove the trim, but it's not too bad. Removing the trim, I think, is also the proper way to do it. its not too bad, but you'd need to get some clips for the c-shaped piece on the rear window winglet...they seem to always break. :-/

and the joiner piece on each rain gutter!

use a wood spatula and a few towels strategically placed and everything comes off!

[Jand3rson]

Its can BITCH to get off.

i wouldn't use it on the shadowline, but grilles, spoilers, the black oil cooler vent trim, mirrors, etc. shadowline: never.

I don't agree with that. I messed it up the first time, the whole passenger side, had a bunch of runs all over. I let it dry overnight, and peeled it all off the next day in 5 minutes, with each section almost in all one continuous piece. It's not hard to remove at all.

I did the aluminum/chrome inserts of my side moldings using adequate sanding, self etching primer, and SEM trim paint. Within 6 months, there were chips everywhere in it.

And removing the window trim isn't the hard part. It's getting it back on without bending it that's a bitch. At least it was in my experience.

[rodrigo]

I don't agree with that. I messed it up the first time, the whole passenger side, had a bunch of runs all over. I let it dry overnight, and peeled it all off the next day in 5 minutes, with each section almost in all one continuous piece. It's not hard to remove at all.

I did the aluminum/chrome inserts of my side moldings using adequate sanding, self etching primer, and SEM trim paint. Within 6 months, there were chips everywhere in it.

my trim is holding up really well so far...we'll see what the winter does to it. thats interesting that it comes off so easily...you think it will stick to the shadowline longterm??

maybe the stuff just sticks to ABS a lot better that to the anodized finish on the trim.

[MexicanDragon]

Another though...

What about the cheap bastards who's front plate holder was knocked off and lost off a DB and has a now unsightly silvery strip in the front. I wonder if that would be happy being black? Hmmm...

**BRENT**

[MexicanDragon]

why not just use the tested and true magnetic numbers?

It's all part of the reason I'm genius, guibo. :)

Don't really come across this problem with autocrossing, as the speeds are almost always lower than the speed limit on the interstate (even for the faster cars), but say you're doing a track day or some even where your cars are numbered on-car. Magnetic numbers work great at lower speeds, but once you start hitting, we'll say, 100 or so out on a track, the magnets tend to fly off. I'm thinking that this won't, but I haven't messed with it yet. I have 3 cans sitting in a bag, a pack of razors, and some free time scheduled tomorrow. No stencils, though, and Lowe's only had black (but they had 7 cans of it).

I really think it'd be fun to be out at an event and be out there "spraypainting" numbers on my DD. ;)

**BRENT**

[Jand3rson]

There are guys that autocross around here in pretty fast cars that lose their magnetic number all the time.

I'm going to try doing it tomorrow on my side window glass, just to see how it comes out. I'll get pics. Here's the stencil I just made:

[Jand3rson]

Ok, I got impatient and had to try it. This will actually work really well on glass. This was using black, but it looks pretty good:



Obviously there's some overspray, but that's just because my stencil wasn't super tight against the glass. I think a few little pieces of regular double-side scotch tape will fix that. I'm going to go see if they have some white tomorrow and try that, and try getting the stencil a little flatter against the glass.

Seems like an awesome way to do something a little different for numbers. Then they aren't on the body, and look better than shoe polish on the glass.

[kronus]

...

I foresee a future where the spraypainted autoX number is the next drop&iS lip.

[Jand3rson]

And in 30 seconds, I peeled them off in one piece. Took a razorblade to the overspray, and it's like they were never there.

...

I foresee a future where the spraypainted autoX number is the next drop&iS lip.

I don't get why there has to be negativity about it, but whatever.

Besides, half the "drop & iS lip" crowd would never actually put their money where they mouths are and race their cars, anyway.

[kronus]

I'm not necessarily knocking you, I just see this attaining "fuhraze" status fairly quickly.

(that said, I am contemplating Hartge stripes with this material. Does it fuck up 1-stage paint any when you remove it?)

[Jand3rson]

Brent, go back and look at the pics I posted, specifically the ones of the side window rear corners. That little body-colored fin/vent behind the window trim? I didn't even mask it. I just peeled the overspray off once it dried. Looks fine.