Alrighty so I'm new to this.. plastidipping & fogs 101?

V

vifilingeri

Member
Location
Long Island, New York
Hi guys!

So I have a black 2004 Fx35 and since I'll be commuting to college next year figured I'd stand out a bit .I'm new to this so try to bare with me heh. Everything is stock on stock on stock.. My plan is to basically plastidip the rims and grille in black, and do all the emblems purple (mind y'all purples my favorite color :glasses-cool:.) I'm just debating whether I'm going to like the matte black grille and rims or glossy, so if anyone has pictures of each, that'd be awesome! Kind of debating how many cans to buy of the black, gloss, and purple as well. I'm also looking to buy an HID conversion kit for my fog lamps but with 12000k bulbs (since from what I was reading, that gives a "purpley" light output?), just wondering where to buy or how to go about that. Might black out the headlight assembly as well, and I still need to match my front window tint with the back :shut-mouth: Thanks.
 
Um...no. Just no. Wow...no. To actually answer your question, matte is sort of ugly in plastidip. The gloss isn't actually gloss, it's more like a shiny rubber look. Plastidip has horrible texture no matter what color. And 12K bulbs? No point, you'll have no usable light output. It will be purple though...

Just leave your car stock. Your plan for it won't make it look better. Colored emblems have never looked good in the history of car modding, especially not purple. FWIW, have you seen the purple Plastidip's actual color? I've seen it in real life and it's terrible. The shade is more of a lavendar than purple.
 
yeah I might just go straight black after looking at a few pictures, and suffolk county!

---------- Post added at 09:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 AM ----------

thank you for the input hahaa, I'd rather have an honest opinion then go through with all of it and it not come out the way i want it too.:smile:
 
I say get glossy black rim paint from rustoleum and do them that way. Also, the plastidip looks kinda bad so id also do your grille glossy black. It will look even worse if you do matte on your glossy black painted FX. My opinion though.

And personally, I think it would look cool if the emblem was like a glossy purple. :)
 
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That was harsh, but I get worked up whenever I see plastidip. :tongue: One of those things where it looks good in pics and people brag about it, but in real life it's horrible. Do as Dave said and use real paint on your grill/rims. It's more work in that you have to do some sanding and prep, but it's worth it. My car is black and I had the grill color matched at a body shop. You can get similar results from a can if you take your time. You cannot get good results from plastidip. Good luck.
 
shadow191 said:
You cannot get good results from plastidip.
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This is completely untrue, if its your opinion than so be it, but it is far from fact. So please don't present it as so.

I have seen show cars laid with plastidip and you would not be able to tell the difference from vinyl until you saw them peel back a panel.
 
Hmm, my perceptions of plastidip is same as shadow. Very interested to see a good plastidrip job!
 
I've seen dozens of cars done in plastidip. Everything from 911's to Range Rovers to BMW's and lots of cars in between. I'll stand by my statement. Other than one matte black 911, the rest of them looked bad. Some of them were obviously terrible spray jobs and blotchy. But even the ones that were sprayed evenly looked terrible. It's the texture, it looks like rubber and since that's basically what plastidip is, I don't expect anything different. The only reason people use plastidip is because it's easy and reversible. There is absolutely no other reason to use it. Period. It doesn't have the durability of real paint or even vinyl, it doesn't have the gloss of real paint or even vinyl, it has a weird texture, it's hard to lay down evenly, etc.

In pictures, the cars always look decent. But I've seen some of the same cars in real life and they don't look like the pictures. I think anyone could tell plastidip from 20 feet just based on the texture/sheen. It's really obvious. When I was in Boca a few months back, I saw a lavender dipped 911 turbo. In the sun, it was atrocious. Even my wife asked me what was wrong with the paint. I spent probably 10 minutes just looking at it. The dip was done well, no overspray, even coverage. But the texture was strange - it wasn't matte, they used glossifier, but it wasn't shiny. It had the same texture as a rubber cell phone case.

I have a fully vinyl wrapped car. I considered Plastidip before having the wrap done. I did a ton of research (in person, on dipyourcar.com, and so on); the results weren't even remotely in the same ballpark so I went w/ vinyl even though it was a lot more expensive. Even with vinyl, it's nowhere near the same as a real custom paint job. There's a depth to real paint that vinyl can't match.

So I apologize if you found my thoughts offensive, but I would honestly love to see a dipped car that looks good and not obviously dipped. It would be so much easier to use than vinyl.

meme405 said:
This is completely untrue, if its your opinion than so be it, but it is far from fact. So please don't present it as so.

I have seen show cars laid with plastidip and you would not be able to tell the difference from vinyl until you saw them peel back a panel.
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I dipped my wheels black which are in the pictures from the Chicago meet thread. I have to agree that it looks bad. There is a textured look to it that makes it look cheap....because it is. I know some who do a good job can make it look reasonable but it just isn't worth it on such a nice car like the FX.

I felt like I shamed the FX community with my ghetto plasti dip wheels. Not to say some dont look good or ones done properly don't come out nice...but the fact is it is plastic in a can so you get a rubber look regardless of how good it is.

Like many have said I would go paint. Spend the extra money to either get it done or extra time personally to do it.

As for the purple do what you want. If you want purple accents on logos and stuff go for it. I wouldn't do an overkill though because it would look cheap. But if you have the logo on the center caps purple and in the back I don't see it being bad. Especially if you got the Infiniti shade of purple.

That being said it is your style and car do what you want. Not everyone agrees with what looks good but it's just a opinion.

Rock the black and purple but if you do so don't go cheap because you will regret it.
 
if u had a mitsu evo mr 8 or wrx sti id say purple the shit out of it but on an fx you will actually get laughed at bro. Learn from the best young grasshopper :)
 
I hate plastidip and I completely agree with shadow because he actually knows what hes talking about. Btw your bmw looks sick lol. I've seen dipped cars in person and they look terrible. Plasti dip has a really cheesy look to it and you can spot plasti dip from a mile away. Just go with paint and do it right the first time, you'll be happy with the results.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 2
 
sukhi105 said:
I hate plastidip and I completely agree with shadow because he actually knows what hes talking about. Btw your bmw looks sick lol. I've seen dipped cars in person and they look terrible. Plasti dip has a really cheesy look to it and you can spot plasti dip from a mile away. Just go with paint and do it right the first time, you'll be happy with the results.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 2
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Mile away, really?

Like I said, you guys are used to seeing backyard jobs form people that buy a kit from dipyourcar.com or even worse rattle can an entire car. If done right the only way to tell the difference is to touch it and feel that slight rubbery feel.

Otherwise you can get plastidip without any bumps, and it can be very smooth (as smooth as any matte vinyl). Its all in the correct mixture of glossifier, mettalizer. I have never seen it work out to well with pigmented dip, not to say it cant be done but I think black and white are just better for this.

The other thing that is important is how it is layed down. Even on Dipyoucar.com that guy is laying the first coat far to quick and with far too much product, and he is always doing it in like a warehouse or even worse outdoors. In the same manner that you would not lay down a proper paint job in the outdoors (or atleast any self respecting body repair person wouldn't). You should not be laying plastidip in the open. You just get dust a particles in the dip (this is especially noticeable with dip cause it really grabs dust and particulate from the air).

The thing about plastidip is that people are still learning how to use it, and how to use it correctly. And with all these tools who spray their entire car with this shit in their backyard without knowing what they are doing, really ruins the perception for others.
 
Yes to the right eye one can tell if something is plastidipped no matter how its done. It looks cheap IMO and that dip suggestion goes for painting anything at home, obviously you can get dust particles lol you can get dust in paint too. Once again just stating my advice to the OP..paint it and save yourself the hassle..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 2
 
I've seen ones done by "authorized shops". FWIW, if you have to go to all the trouble of using practically a paint booth, then you're most of the way to just getting a real paint job. I guess I just don't see the advantages. It's not as durable as vinyl or paint, it fades in the sun, it's hard to apply, and the list goes on. It's not even that cheap. It's $300+ for enough to do your car plus labor if applicable.

Saying that people are still learning about how to use Plastidip would mean that it was actually meant for automotive applications. And it's absolutely not made for this. Paint is made specifically for cars - there's house paint and then there's car paint. Vinyl is made specifically for cars - 3M, Hexis, Avery, Oracal specifically make automotive vinyl. When people first started using 3M Di-Noc which isn't made for cars but for architecture, there were shortcomings. So 3M came out with 1080. Plastidip is basically still meant for regripping tools and providing rubberized coatings. Other than adding some colors, they haven't done anything to make it work better on cars. It's like if I decided to use latex wallpaint on my car and used a paintbrush. Then when people criticized my work, I'd defend it by saying "it's new and people just need to learn how to use it". Anyways, we'll just agree to disagree.

To the OP, sorry for the offtopic. To keep all this relevant, here is what a color matched grill looks like. It was painted OB by a local shop.

DSC_20871.jpg

meme405 said:
Mile away, really?

Like I said, you guys are used to seeing backyard jobs form people that buy a kit from dipyourcar.com or even worse rattle can an entire car. If done right the only way to tell the difference is to touch it and feel that slight rubbery feel.

Otherwise you can get plastidip without any bumps, and it can be very smooth (as smooth as any matte vinyl). Its all in the correct mixture of glossifier, mettalizer. I have never seen it work out to well with pigmented dip, not to say it cant be done but I think black and white are just better for this.

The other thing that is important is how it is layed down. Even on Dipyoucar.com that guy is laying the first coat far to quick and with far too much product, and he is always doing it in like a warehouse or even worse outdoors. In the same manner that you would not lay down a proper paint job in the outdoors (or atleast any self respecting body repair person wouldn't). You should not be laying plastidip in the open. You just get dust a particles in the dip (this is especially noticeable with dip cause it really grabs dust and particulate from the air).

The thing about plastidip is that people are still learning how to use it, and how to use it correctly. And with all these tools who spray their entire car with this shit in their backyard without knowing what they are doing, really ruins the perception for others.
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I for one love plasti-dip. I have had my wheels dipped for over a year now and they are only starting to getting that dull look, I usually plasti-dip my wheels once every year . I have all my handles and my rear dipped and on countless occasions I have had people ask me where I bought my emblems and rear infiniti piece from. The wheels have held up perfectly fine only chips are from when I got new tires put in and it did a slight line around my rim. other than that the spokes are in perfect condition (it is plasti-dip). Im sure I'd like to get my wheels powder coated but when your comparing $250+ for four wheels to about 30 bucks for 4-5 cans of plasti-dip theres no harm is to just giving it a shot. I do have my front grille painted at a body shop and theres chips all over from rocks and what not but the color match is nice. My personal opinion to you is to give it a shot and try it out, take your time don't rush it and when they say 4-5 coats in reality do like 7-8 coats it just holds on much longer and gives you fuller coverage. at the end of the day if your really upset with the results you could always peel it right off. and also please don't do 12k HID those do no good for you in the night time and just bring unwanted attention to your car. I haven't updated my car post but look it up "FXchosen's updates" maybe it could give you some ideas.

P.S pay the 4 bucks and get yourself the handle for spray cans, it helps out greatly if your looking for that smooth surface without bumps.
p.s.s if your spraying and start to get bumps get a tooth pick and clear the spray nozzle if you put a can down for 10-15 minutes or so the dip there tends to dry up and you get that bumpy uneven spray.
 
It's really a matter of personal preference. It's plastidip so it's going to have that grainy look up close, like a pickup trucks bedding, no matter how evenly it's sprayed. A lot of people like that look. I happen to be one of them. If plastidip was more durable I probably would have done it to my grille and emblems rather than painting them. I ve had to touch up small areas on my grille from rocks hitting it on the highway and I cant imagine how I could have done that neatly with plastidip. Someone at my job has a white Altima and his plastidip job was done really well and the spray was done really even. He has his rims and emblems done. The emblems look really good with that grainy look up close. The rims on the other hand have already gotten spots where they are chipping from rocks and road debris making them look bad.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you like the grainy look plastidip will give you, it will look really good when its done right and has a brand new coating on it but when it stars to show signs of wear it will look equally as bad. Just save the money and do it with paint, especially if you have to redo it every year or so to make it look good. As for show cars looking good with plastidip. Like I said I've seen cars plastidipped that look really good but I don't know if I'd compare a show car to my everyday car. Most REAL show cars are not driven often and therefore will not go through nearly half the paces your car will dealing with the elements of everyday driving.
 
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