My new car!

Brigdh · Postby **Brigdh** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:14

At 3000lbs, you could probably power some electric motors that would put a tesla roadster to shame

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:14

Sounds like a plan, Dave. Your acceleration might suffer though. You'll need a bigger turbo.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:14

Was obviously a gorgeous day out today, so I decided to put some mileage on the FD and take a short drive up Rist Canyon.

It was awesome- roads were empty when I left around 10am so zero traffic, and of course, the nice weather. I hit some construction so I ended up having to roll through a few gravel roads and there was lots of dirt on the roads, which made loosing rear end a little too easy on more than one occasion.

Otherwise, the car ran perfectly the entire time, I was really happy. Afterwards, I swung by Matt's house and we took the car to Five Guys for a burger and again, it was perfect.

Hot start issue is all but sorted except for trying to restart the car immediately after shut down. If I stop the car, let it sit for a few minutes, it seems like it will restart pretty easily now. But I shut the car off and immediately attempt a re-start, it will struggle mightily. So I need to figure that out, it still could be tune related.

I also did a few things last week cosmetically to the car. I finally painted the brake calipers black with a G2 caliper paint kit I bought a few months back (been too busy/lazy to do this). Results are great, very pleased.

I've also been wanting to change the color of my wheels for some time, I've honestly never been a fan of the bronze color but due to me purchasing the last set of matching color 17x10 FN01R-C rims left in the United States, I had little choice in color. I was about to pull trigger on powdercoating them, but for over $500 including dismounting and remounting the tires, I didn't want to sink that much coin in a set of wheels I will probably end up replacing, and it won't add any value to them.

So I heard about a product called PlastiDip, which is basically rubber paint in a can. You spray it just like spray paint and dries like paint, but it's completely reversible! I know Geo on this forum did his entire car with the stuff- pretty cool.

I was worried about durability and such of the PlastiDip, but I also found the website DipYourCar that has tons of videos and how-to's on "dipping", which convinced me I had to dip my wheels. I ordered up a black matte kit, some "pre-dip spray", and some wheel cleaner that works on both dipped and non-dipped/regular wheels.

Got the kit last week and got to work dipping the wheels. I took the prep seriously- decreased the wheels with dish soap and a wash, let them dry completely, then sprayed them down with the DYC Pre Dip Spray and dried them completely again. I can't even remember how many coats of PlastiDip I did, it was 3 cans worth. Sprayed them over a 2-day period and let them dry for 24 hours before putting them back on the car.

Of course my camera died so I only got a few pics of the process, which is nothing interesting (want to watch paint dry, anyone?). The other neat part is you don't have to mask off your tires. Before dipping, I simply sprayed some tire shine on the tires so when I was done the dip just lifted off in one big sheet- pretty cool.

Anyways, here's some after pics:

So far the finish seems incredibly durable. I took them on my drive through Rist, which included heavy braking, gravel roads, loose dirt and gravel surfaces, muddy water- the lot. I pulled over at the end of the run and the wheels were FILTHY! Literally caked with dirt, grim, and brake dust. I was actually worried I had ruined the PlastiDip finish.

The rest of my car was in a similar state, so I pulled into a self car wash and pressure washed the car off. I figured if the PlastiDip is going to fail, it might as well be now, so I applied high pressure soap and rinses them off with pressure washer. No sweat for the PlastiDip, the finish is still perfect! I was really impressed. In fact, the pictures I posted are after the wash.

So I'm pretty sold on the PlastiDip- very durable, easy to apply, and the stuff peels right off with no damage to the surface/finish underneath when you're done. Pretty cool!

VRx8 · Postby **VRx8** » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:14

At a first glance at the Pics a thought you hit a curbed! by the way the bumper looks.

Looks bad ### man! now you need some feed(shine) sides and a diffuser ! smoking

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:14

Haha, yeah the lip isn't fitting perfect (need to work on that...) and the bumper isn't 100% bolted on so fitment is eh right now. But it works. I agree though- I'm going to do the Shine FEED carbon sides and RE-A carbon diffuser sometime soon!

I just finished dipping the front emblem. Matt had commented it was too bright, and it was, the chrome finish on it was really bright and not "blending" well with the theme of "all black everything!!" LOL.

Dipping the emblem was incredibly easy. Took literally 1 hour, just did 2 coats since coverage was so good.

Starting by masking a box with painters tape:

I ran out of tape so I masked the rest of the car with cling wrap. Turned out this was unnecessary as the PlastiDip spray pattern is rather tight. Rather safe than sorry:

First coat:

2 coats fully dry and cling wrap removed:

Peeling the border, this stuff is awesome!

The rubber like leftovers:

Before peeling the inside:

And Done!

So ridiculously easy to do! I'm going to do the rear emblems this weekend as well.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:14

Wow, PlastiDip is the way to go. I might do that on my rear emblem.

JTurton7 · Postby **JTurton7** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 9:14

PlastiDip ALL THE THINGS!

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 9:14

speedjunkie wrote:Wow, PlastiDip is the way to go. I might do that on my rear emblem.

Sweet, wish we lived closer, I have a can you could use. Good thing though is a can is cheap.

JTurton7 wrote:PlastiDip ALL THE THINGS!

LOL I'm about to.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Sat Mar 09, 2013 9:14

Hey I drove up there for assembly lube, what's another trip for PlastiDip really? lol

Operator · Postby **Operator** » Sat Mar 09, 2013 9:14

Not even a text to go up Rist canyon!!!! (I was at work anyway).

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Sat Mar 09, 2013 9:14

speedjunkie wrote:Hey I drove up there for assembly lube, what's another trip for PlastiDip really? lol

Haha true, except we met in Denver LOL. Want to meet up for the PlastiDip?

Operator wrote:Not even a text to go up Rist canyon!!!! (I was at work anyway).

Sorry man completely spaced it. Next time for sure! I think it's supposed to be this week maybe we hit it up??

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 9:14

Hmmm, maybe. However I'm probably going to get the car wrapped at some point and might take off the emblem completely to do that anyway. We'll see.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:14

Really, a wrap? Interesting!

You could PlastiDip the entire car- not too difficult, cheaper than a wrap, you can do custom colors, plus it's completely removable, etc.

iani1.1 · Postby **iani1.1** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:14

plastidip is cool if you dont leave it on for longer than 8 months. becomes a pain in the ### trying to peel it off lol.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:14

Well I'm not sure how well PlastiDip holds up against rock chips, if it's as sturdy as a wrap. That's one of the reasons I'm doing it.

My new car!

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