Plasti Dipped Speedlines
07-08-2013, 10:13 PM
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Plasti Dipped Speedlines This past weekend TechCam97 and I Plasti-Dipped the Speedlines on my 2002 WS6 T/A. We also set out to remove the factory intake and replace it with a lid and remove the air pump and its hoses. My T/A is 95%stock and I have only had it for a few months. We are doing little things on the weekends and the next thing planned is to drop it about an inch, getting it away from the 4x4 stance, but all in due time...
So here is the T/A and the wheels we started off with on a beautiful Texas morning:
We started with the rears first. When we took them off we found that the back side of the wheels were caked in 11 years of brake dust and road grime. We were able to get the majority of the crap off with simple green and elbow grease.
Here is a picture of the back side of the wheel after cleaning (the entire barrel was the same color as the back of the spokes)
We have used Plasti-Dip before and i have liked the results but neither one of us had used the glossifier before and i assumed it would be alot like clear coat. The idea was to black out the center of the wheel and leave the aluminum lip exposed and then glossify the whole face of the wheel. When it came to blacking out the center everything went great but, when we got to applying the glossifier we noticed that it did add gloss to the black areas but seemed to make the exposed aluminum cloudy:
My guess is that is why it is called glossifier and not clear coat. But, to be fair we could have applied it wrong. When it came time to put the wheel back on the car one of the lugs tightened down on the platidip in a weird way and tore it of the face of the wheel. At that time we decide to redo both the rears and the fronts with black centers and just forget about the glossifier. I love the results:
(in some of these pics the suspension looks really tall because the other side of the car was on a jack)
Thinking about making it a permanent look by powder coating...
So here is the T/A and the wheels we started off with on a beautiful Texas morning:
We started with the rears first. When we took them off we found that the back side of the wheels were caked in 11 years of brake dust and road grime. We were able to get the majority of the crap off with simple green and elbow grease.
Here is a picture of the back side of the wheel after cleaning (the entire barrel was the same color as the back of the spokes)
We have used Plasti-Dip before and i have liked the results but neither one of us had used the glossifier before and i assumed it would be alot like clear coat. The idea was to black out the center of the wheel and leave the aluminum lip exposed and then glossify the whole face of the wheel. When it came to blacking out the center everything went great but, when we got to applying the glossifier we noticed that it did add gloss to the black areas but seemed to make the exposed aluminum cloudy:
My guess is that is why it is called glossifier and not clear coat. But, to be fair we could have applied it wrong. When it came time to put the wheel back on the car one of the lugs tightened down on the platidip in a weird way and tore it of the face of the wheel. At that time we decide to redo both the rears and the fronts with black centers and just forget about the glossifier. I love the results:
(in some of these pics the suspension looks really tall because the other side of the car was on a jack)
Thinking about making it a permanent look by powder coating...
07-08-2013, 10:19 PM
#2
It took a better part of the day to get them done correctly, but all the masking and re-painting really paid off in the end. The pictures do not do these wheels justice, they look AWESOME in person! If they were to be re-done with powder coating they would look even better, but for now these will do just fine!
07-10-2013, 07:07 PM
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My wife wanted hers plasti dipped so I tried one for her...where did I go wrong? How could I make them as smooth as the way you sprayed yours...minz has a lil gunk that didn't dry off....
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07-10-2013, 08:43 PM
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When we did mine we cleaned the wheels with simple green and rinsed them thoroughly with water and then towel dried them. When we started spraying we used very light coats. The finished wheel is the result of five thin coats. The first coat was so light the wheel just kind of looked "smoked". We let it sit for 10 min between each coat but that was in the Texas summer sun. How many coats were on the wheel in the picture? How heavy were they?
07-11-2013, 08:20 AM
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I just sprayed. I will admit that it probably was a little heavy and probably rushed...the center came out good but it looks like a lot of excess around the lip. I cleaned them and wiped them dry with a micro fiber towel. I wanna say two good coats and touch UPS. I've read that it will look like that but then it would dry and settle. It didn't work for me. So you sprayed a think coat and let it dry then sprayed again but when you sprayed it wasn't continuous? I sprayed the stock lugs for the wheels. The top looked good but the sides and where the thread is is kinda looked crappy.
07-11-2013, 04:53 PM
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I think that your coats are to heavy... After the second coat is should still look like you have missed some spots. It won't start to look really good until the forth coat and you have to give it that 10 min flash time between coats. Yes when you spray it on it will look al little uneven and usually smooths out as it dries. If it stays uneven then your coats are to heavy. Do it when you got some time to kill. The last coat was measured by beers. (1/2 a beer is about 10 min)
