The insanity is building. Why would I do this???
 

I have clearcoat failure on the hood of my DD Audi. I don't care much, except that it looks like schitt. Well, if my car is going to look like schitt, why not look like schitt all over???

Plastidip.

More than that, Plastidip sprayed on in a DIY fashion. Am I insane for taking my airless sprayer and just splashing that stuff on all over the car? I mean, why not? Hell, I could go really nuts and spray it on in splinter camo pattern, except instead of different colors, different glosses.

Or is that going full retard?

I believe that it peels off easy if you hate it. My plow truck may get this treatment this year.

Full retard?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1398136368.jpg

I vote for Olive Drab... Can't go wrong IMO.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1398136413.jpg

On my daily commute, I once saw a new Dodge Challenger that was matte black, then less than a week later (still to this day) I see in the same place a Dodge Challenger that's matte red. It's not my thing, but it doesn't look bad, and I guess it will preserve the paint.

I'm fairly certain that I've seen at least 5-6 cars with plastidip paint jobs. It looks better than a crappy paint job or multicolored paint job. I've seen cars with the clear coat failure, they do look like crap.

Go for it. If it already looks bad, it can't get any worse, right?

Just another thought, how much would it be to have a shop fix the hood? I'm guessing it wouldn't cost more than $500 unless you get someone that puts the Audi tax on the estimate.

You could get a film for the hood. They come in most any color..some match VERY closely too. If I couldn't have a match, I'd rather go 3M DiNoc in carbon rather than plastidip.

It would cost $500 - that was the quote. But the deal is that for $500, I can do the whole car in Plastidip and have a new(ish) airless sprayer to add to my tool collection. :)

And It sounds like something that might be fun to do, or a giant PITA. For a 24-year-old car, it runs well, and looks good inside. But outside, it drives me nuts. Nuts enough to go full retard.

Not full retard in skulls on the hood, but close, LOL.

Olive drab - now that sounds like fun. Plastidip sells the stuff in camo colors - now I'm seeing an M90 splinter camo scheme in my head...

Wrap it in 3M DiNoc carbon. I've seen it on high dollar cars, and it's pretty convincing.

http://www.carbonfiberfilm.com/wp-co...n/15548355.jpg

You might consider vinyl wrap; shouldn't be too difficult on a UrS6 (nice, flat panels) and you have more color choices. The plasti-dip will probably fare better in the sun in Eastern Washington, though.

Actually, that was one of my thoughts. That, and Plastidip is easier to remove. It might be harder to put on, however.

I have a similar dilemma with my wife's vehicle. It is an old Montero Sport that is mechanically tip top, clear coat is fried. She is not really interested in any new/newer vehicles, she likes trucks. I was thinking camo, forest colors rather than the desert tan, paint is green underneath the burned up clear. But plastidip would probably be pretty cool.


Flat black would look pretty tough, and if you don't like it, you peel it off and do something else.

I've dipped the wheels on both of my rovers in matte black. The stuff takes a good 48 hours to really cure, but after that it's pretty tough and fairly easy to touch up. I'm actually thinking about dipping my Series rover entirely....probably in olive drab.

If you have a compressor: Buy a cheap spray gun or borrow one of mine (heading thru E. WA Sun/Monday).....Wet sand and spray clear.....Be a fun afternoon project....

Oh, there are solid reasons the clearcoat is failing, and not just because it was a crap job. It was a crap job on top of a crap prep. The hood should go to to bare metal, but I am not going to do that for any reason.

I figured to have a little creative fun with the car that works very well as a solid DD and winter duty car. BTW, quattro + snow tires ROCKS winter over here. Snow, ice, whatever - this car gets up and gets after it.

How many miles on it? I have a '99 Camry V6 for a DD/Winter car....Does fine with 4 Studs....211,000 miles and drives like new...

143k.

Just getting broken in. :)

Yep....Keep it forever.......

That was my thinking. And just for the heck of it, doing something unusual that's not permanent. :)

Don't.

I'm starting to see a lot of Jeeps getting the whole body Rhino lined. Im going to have it done to the rockers and lower door panels on my Ram

.

Makes great sense on an off-road truck. Also popular with the Land Cruiser crowd.

Beware the "plasti-dip peels right off". I've seen some feedback that it's a royal PITA to peel off, especially off of wheels and other complex parts. Something like a hood might be easier. Otherwise, what do you have to lose?

BTW, love the UrS cars. I have come very close on several occasions to buying one. That 5-cylinder is bulletproof, makes a great sound, and can provide crazy HP on stock internals.

Just to add, our Honda Accord's clear failed back in 2002, rep looked at it for 2 seconds and told them to paint the whole car. I was shocked, after 6 years of ownership.

My experience (with small components--door handles, specifically) is that indeed does peel right off. I plasti-dipped the door handles on my 350Z black, and when the job was done, a corner of one handle was already lifting (I'm gonna bite the bullet and say I didn't prep well enough). I peeled it off--took about 30 seconds to remove the 6 coats of black and clear--scuffed it up a bit more and resprayed. Had no issues since.

You do have to wait a considerable amount of time between coats with plasti-dip. If I remember correctly, it was 30 minutes between coats for the color, and may have been longer for the clear. And then you need to let it sit for at least 8 hours before using the part (using the part in my case was putting the handles back on the door).

I've heard stories of Plasti-dip staining white paint. Not sure how badly, or if it is even common.

The clear on my 911 is finally shot. Only took 33 years...

I've been tossing the idea of a vinyl wrap around, as I'm not in the mood for a $10k repaint. There are several shops in town that seem to do good work. One of them had a new Corvette getting chrome wrap. It looked pretty good.

I've seen several dipped cars - one even done "professionally" (the owner runs his own dipping biz). They all look like ass, IMHO.

rat rod? LOL, that's terrible.

What's your Audi worth? I would guess not a lot considering the condition and age. (no offense intended)
Considering its value how much money do you really want to spend on it?

Maybe you're over thinking the whole thing. Wrap the bonnet and be done with it.

You'll get at least 5 years from the wrap and if you don't like it, you can always rip it off.

Not much is exactly right. As a daily driver, there is no way I could replace it for five times what it's currently worth on the market. The payback on doing this would be that I would do something a bit different and learn a new skill. At the same time, I would address some of the body issues the car has during prep - stuff that I would have to do anyway if I were to repaint. It's something I could do in a weekend, I think - a long weekend, probably.

Probably. I have seen some nice plastidip jobs, but most look like ass.

I'd rather put the money into painting the hood, and retain a modicum of adult respectability. LEOs love to single out cars that look like they belong to young adult males. They correctly assume that most young guys will be easy marks. IF you are going to do a plastidip job, do a great job and add the gloss or satin overcoat or don't do it at all.

Go big or go home.

Actually, I think I've been targeted because of how bad my car looks. I don't run a front plate on the Porsche, and I drive everywhere at ten over. Cops don't even look at me. I drive the POS Audi and I get cops looking me over like I'm Scarface.

"Say hello to my little friend!"