ssjunkie

iTrader: (3)

So my blacked out front grills were not looking so good. Paint was chipping off, pealing etc. This was the case for the upper and lower grill surrounds. So I picked up some cans of plasti dip, took the front bumper off so I could get the grills apart, scraped off all the old paint(took a while!), roughed the parts up a little with 1200 grit sandpaper, cleaned the parts real good with prep solvent and then applied three coats of Plasti dip following the directions. The parts looked great. But the Plasti dip did not dry/cure like i expected. I just doesnt seem to get hard enough. I wound up waiting a whole day before trying to put the grill back together. Even after a day just barely touching the plasti dip feels like its going to smear. Sure enough while putting the grill carefully back together the mesh touched it in a couple places and messed up the plasti dip some. I went ahead and put everything back together so I could drive it today. Anyhow, im not real happy with the softness of the plati dip and have a feeling it isnt going to last very long. Seems I will be taking it back apart and just painting with regular paint.

Did I do something wrong? Or is this the experience others have had? Suggestions?

sgtdestruction

iTrader: (1)

What kind of prep solvent did you use? Wonder if maybe it formed a chemical reaction with the plasti dip, causing it to not dry correctly.

I plasti dipped mine a few months back and had zero issues. However, my only prep was washing the car.

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

Dip dries very quickly. Should only need maybe 30-60 min to fully dry, depending on the temperature. I also didn't do any special prep, just a quick wipe down with soap/water.

ssjunkie

iTrader: (3)

Prep solvent is made for removing oils etc before painting thing. It evaporates almost instantly. Would not think that is a problem

bmylez

iTrader: (3)

Ew, your bumper is drilled for license plate bracket. You should look into the Creative Steel bracket and get your bumper repaired. Looks so much better.

bigti99a

iTrader: (16)

^ welcome to MD. mine is the same ******* way. was when i bought it.

jcollege

iTrader: (2)

I had no issues with the plasti-dip, been holding solid for a year now.

thefullmonty_07

iTrader: (1)

I used alot of it and on top of that did a few coats of clear, I've had mine on for about 2 years now no issues.

BBr87

Yeah did my grill and has held up great for almost a year. No special prep just rubbed it down with some alcohol.

rhd

yep....pretty sure your prep is what ruined it

for my grills, i didn't do ANYTHING....just picked out the biggest pieces of trash and sprayed away. i only did the grate part of each grill, left the trim shiny

54inches

iTrader: (4)

Me too.

I actually media blasted mine and it came out nice.

xbladr

iTrader: (2)

Also have mine done a year and a half later i had a couple small little marks a quick clean up and spray of more dip on the grill and its back to new