Thinking about dipping the Charger

So I gave my Charger its first bath in the last few months to get some of the winter grime washed away. I was saddened to find a couple new dings and marks in the black paint.

So this got me thinking about the possibility of dipping my Charger. So of course this thought brings me to the stand by of automotive knowledge, you bunch of crazy animals.

Anyway I know that there are several of you that have dipped your cars and I was wondering how things have turned out and how they have held up over time? My other question is how many gallons do you all think it would take to cover the Charger as it is not exactly a small car?

I still need to convince the wife that this is something I should do to help preserve factory paint.

It looks a wee bit worse because of a couple of chips, so you want to make it look uniformly horrible?

Maybe just dip for the winter?

Streetwiseguy wrote: It looks a wee bit worse because of a couple of chips, so you want to make it look uniformly horrible?

Sounds like a guy who hasn't dipped anything, yet.

Appleseed wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: It looks a wee bit worse because of a couple of chips, so you want to make it look uniformly horrible?

Sounds like a guy who hasn't dipped anything, yet.

That's what she said.

Charger? What charger?

plance1 wrote: Charger? What charger?

'07 RT in black, MOPAR exhaust (on it when I got it), Spectre CAI and Diablo tuned. It actually sounds like a proper Charger and my 5 month old loves riding in the back.

I've dipped my rims and my lower half of the body. Prevents rust, grime, chips, etc and is shielding my 30yr old paint. It doesn't fade, it peels right off if you screw it up, and it costs a few bucks. Do it, don't listen to the morons that speak without any experience. Mine has been on for a year, looks just like the day I sprayed it. Here is my first hand experience http://www.celica-gts.com/forums/index.php?topic=27604.0

I plan to dip my car...I've dipped some other stuff, including a computer mouse which is an excellent test of abrasion resistance. It holds up well.

Dipped the front bumper of my Miata to hide where some paint peeled off. I can attest to the rustoleum product working pretty well. Thinking about doing the whole car.

Appleseed wrote:

Yep I saw that one. And I do like the way it looks at least in the pics.

I saw the rustoleum bumper stuff here and have thought about using that for the front bumper to help protect against rock chips in the winter. Out here we don't salt roads we dump a metric crap ton of gravel on them.

So anyone have an idea of how much of the stuff it would take to cover the big beast?

In rattle cans with the rustoleum plasti-dip I used 1.5 cans for the front bumper.

My experience with whole-car dipping is in the thread below. Not much more to add except it's holding up fine living in the garage and only seeing a couple thousand miles a year. They have a new dip hardener spray that supposedly makes it more robust to scratching/tearing but I haven't tried it yet.

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/plasti-dipped-my-rx-7/54350/page1/

Apexcarver wrote: Dipped the front bumper of my Miata to hide where some paint peeled off. I can attest to the rustoleum product working pretty well. Thinking about doing the whole car.

That's a damn good idea. My front bumper's paint is garbage--well, there's almost none of it left because of a horrible PO respray. I might have to do this in the spring.

I like the Eastwood stuff seeing that they gave about 400 cans of it to us.

DON'T DO IT!!!

Notice that everybody with experience doing it says that it holds up great. That's true. It even looks good (if flat/satin is your thing).

However, when you go to peel it off, you will rue the day you ever heard of Plasti-Dip, ruin the actual paint on your car, and then give up in such horrible frustration that you will either sell it at an extreme loss or dump it in a river for the insurance payout.

Okay, hyperbole over, it really does suck to take off. On nice, flat, smooth areas it pops right off, even after 6+ months and seasonal changes. If there's any kind of crease, transition, or lip it will catch and not come off easily. You will have little chips of the stuff everywhere. Note that it does not come off of rubber. Ever. So don't get it on any trim. Also, if it rock chips (and it will), it will stick in and around the chiphole.

I would never do wheels or front bumpers with this stuff (or any other similar product) based on my first-hand experiences. The top of a hood might be cool, just be sure to keep it away from any and all rubber and unpainted plastic.

My 4 cents.

I Dipped(black) all trim, wheels, window gaskets and the black part of my 97 legacy outback bumper. It all looked great and peeled just fine. If you are having trouble getting it off you did not put enough on.

allot of people just don't understand you still need to do prep work and spray ALOT of then layers. Its not the amazing no prep pray and spray fix-it-all aerosol it is often sold as. But if you do your part it is worth the work.

Proper surface prep. Light coats. Don't do it when it's cold.

I sprayed the plastics on my motorcycle with The Rustoleum version. I wish I would have listened to my steps above, and I wish I would have sprung for the real Plasti-dip. The panels I prepped properly and sprayed light coats on came out great, smooth satin finish. The panels I rushed prep on came out chunky or wavy.

But with that said it was easy to do once I got the hang of it. I plan on stripping mine and doing it over in a different color, the red wasn't quite as dark as I liked.

The plastics on the motorcycle were already jacked, I personally would be a little weary of doing clean car panels that don't have any issues.

Good luck though and take some pics

If you use dip-coat, and better yet give it an annual single-layer refresher coat, it'll peel off easily even after many years. There's also a spray they sell to help it come off easier.

How do you get good sharp edges? I've only tried a few things, but the only way I can figure out is to peel the tape when it's still wet. This means that I need to mask and spray 5 or 6 times. This sucks.

mazdeuce wrote: How do you get good sharp edges? I've only tried a few things, but the only way I can figure out is to peel the tape when it's still wet. This means that I need to mask and spray 5 or 6 times. This sucks.

Yeah masking Plasti-Dip is not nice. I think a better approach, wherever possible or practical, is to spray right over the thing you don't want to spray as if you intended to dip it, and then peel that thing.

If you must mask, I find that it's best to mask once, spray all the layers and then peel as soon as the last layer isn't wet anymore, or even sooner if practical. If you end your masking at some kind of edge that would naturally terminate the peeling it also goes much easier.

Javelin wrote: DON'T DO IT!!! Notice that everybody with experience doing it says that it holds up great. That's true. It even looks good (if flat/satin is your thing). However, when you go to peel it off, you will rue the day you ever heard of Plasti-Dip, ruin the actual paint on your car, and then give up in such horrible frustration that you will either sell it at an extreme loss or dump it in a river for the insurance payout. Okay, hyperbole over, it really does suck to take off. On nice, flat, smooth areas it pops right off, even after 6+ months and seasonal changes. If there's any kind of crease, transition, or lip it will catch and not come off easily. You will have little chips of the stuff *everywhere*. Note that it does not come off of rubber. Ever. So don't get it on any trim. Also, if it rock chips (and it will), it will stick in and around the chiphole. I would never do wheels or front bumpers with this stuff (or any other similar product) based on my first-hand experiences. The top of a hood might be cool, just be sure to keep it away from any and all rubber and unpainted plastic. My 4 cents.

in my case, with the paint allready peeling I wouldnt feel too bad doing some scotchbrite to get it off if need be

Havent attempted removal, but it has been on for about a year now

As stated above, they sell a dip remover that dissolves the stuff to the point it can be rinsed away with a pressure washer. Good prep and good coverage (6 or more coats) is required for peelability. Over time the product will harden and become more difficult to peel. I have heard that you can spray the entire car with a light mist of thinner which will return some of the softness to the product and also allow for easier peeling. Tight corners and places where you got overspray or insufficient coverage will indeed be a huge PITA to clean up mechanically.

If you have problems pealing it off, you cheaped out and didn't spray enough. A big car like a Charger should use between 4-6 gallons, depending on the base color. I can't comment on it reacting with rubber trim.