Plastidipping your Goblin

[Ark :D]

Good morning Goblineers,

It recently occurred to me that there's threads on this forum discussing painting and wrapping Goblins, but nothing on the subject of plastidipping them. Being that I went for the plastidip route and am in love with the results, I figured I would detail the experience here, at least to some degree.

The full story is available in my build log, HERE.



My mantra when building my Goblin has always been, to do absolutely everything I can possibly do by myself, by myself ... including the finishing touches. I've had limited experience with wrap, mostly in the form of tinting windows and applying wrap/decals to commercial vehicles, so I was intending to go that route vs. paint (I have no painting equipment and was also worried that my lack of experience would produce a non-optimal job). Then I started reading about plastidip.

I ended up going with a Snow White top coat over an Avalanche Grey base coat, with a pair of Lava Red racing stripes down the middle. The vendor I went with is DYC (DipYourCar.com). I am not affiliated with them, but my experience was very good so I wanted to share that.

Dipping was very easy. It's very forgiving to the novice, and is not expensive. One gallon of each coat is all you need, and you'll have some left over. I used a little over half a gallon each of Avalanche Grey for the base, Snow White for the top, and less than a quart of Lava Red for the stripes. The finish is matte and pretty basic, but I did not want to get too crazy on my first attempt, so I stayed away from any of the gloss/matte topcoats and no crazy hyper/colorshifts or anything like that.

One of the biggest benefits, in my mind, of going the route I did is that it's very easy to change the color of your car, anytime you feel like it. If applied properly (per DYC's instructional videos), the dip job peels right off in 5 minutes. My next color will be their newest color-shift, which is red-to-black. It goes on a plain black base, with 25 grams of ZBR hypershift powder mixed into a gallon of Glossy TopCoat. It will be a bit more expensive than my first dip job, but will still be cheap relative to paint, and should look amazing.

 

[Carbon Soul]

That's gonna look AWESOME! I've been watching those DYC videos. Everytime he puts out a new video, it gives me another idea!

 

[OptimizePrime]

TIL, you and I were going to do the same hypershift.... I loved the end result too.

 

[Ark :D]

TIL, you and I were going to do the same hypershift.... I loved the end result too.

I'm also strongly considering some of the other ones also, like there's one that's an aqua-to-deep-blue for example. They look a lot like the color-shift wraps from Avery-Dennison that I was considering before I went the dip route.

 

[Ross]

I am ignorant as to the advantages of plastidip, so help me understand.

Isn't plastidip the same amount of work as painting a car?
But it doesn't last as long as paint? (it can stain, holds more dirt, UV degradation, etc)
Is it even an option for me, as I have a 1/2 mile gravel road to my house?

If your goal is to have a new livery every 3 years, then plastidip may be a good option,
but if you want the same livery for 9 years, then isn't one paint job a lot less work?
Is plastidip any cheaper once you include the costs of 3 plastidips, 3x the consumables for cleaning and masking, 3x the labor?

If you are okay with a basic matte plasti dip finish, then you should be comparing it to a similar paint job finish.
A plastidip gallon is about the same cost as a gallon of Rustoleum metal paint or other basic automotive paints.

 

[OptimizePrime]

I'm also strongly considering some of the other ones also, like there's one that's an aqua-to-deep-blue for example. They look a lot like the color-shift wraps from Avery-Dennison that I was considering before I went the dip route.

Yea man there's a ton of other great options so please don't factor me in (and I'm still quite a ways off from getting to this project) - I'd love to see the end result and what your thoughts are on the color shifts. Great minds think alike

 

[Ark :D]

I am ignorant as to the advantages of plastidip, so help me understand.

Isn't plastidip the same amount of work as painting a car?
But it doesn't last as long as paint? (it can stain, holds more dirt, UV degradation, etc)
Is it even an option for me, as I have a 1/2 mile gravel road to my house?

If your goal is to have a new livery every 3 years, then plastidip may be a good option,
but if you want the same livery for 9 years, then isn't one paint job a lot less work?
Is plastidip any cheaper once you include the costs of 3 plastidips, 3x the consumables for cleaning and masking, 3x the labor?

If you are okay with a basic matte plasti dip finish, then you should be comparing it to a similar paint job finish.
A plastidip gallon is about the same cost as a gallon of Rustoleum metal paint or other basic automotive paints.

I don't really know the answers to your questions. I will have to revisit after my car has been on the road for a year or three. As of right now, it's only been in my garage.

In terms of costs, if you already have the equipment to paint a car properly, it's probably cheaper to go with paint. But, good paint guns are expensive, and the dip sprayer system was .... $160 I believe, if my memory serves.

It's obviously up to each individual to discern which path is right for them, I just wanted to make sure the option is adequately represented on the forum.

Yea man there's a ton of other great options so please don't factor me in (and I'm still quite a ways off from getting to this project) - I'd love to see the end result and what your thoughts are on the color shifts. Great minds think alike

Yep, not at all. I'll be keeping my current look for at least a year or two, regardless!

 

[Rauq]

I'm probably going to go vinyl, but plastidip was/is my close second choice. From my understanding and limited experience, the biggest advantage of plastidip over paint is ease of application - for a novice, it's probably as easy to get plastidip right as it is to get paint wrong. Dip has really come a long way in terms of durability as well.

 

[WYGoblin]

I have noticed on the one car I did plastidip the finish kinda has the rubbery feel to it. I always wondered if it would hold up to rocks bouncing off it better than paint.

 

[Ark :D]

I have noticed on the one car I did plastidip the finish kinda has the rubbery feel to it. I always wondered if it would hold up to rocks bouncing off it better than paint.

That's what I've been wondering about the most. Time will tell.

 

[jaredthenav]

My cousin plasti-dipped his 818 about a year and a half ago. He has driven it a fair bit since around southern CA and it still looks really good. He spilled some fuel outside his filler cap and that discolored a noticeable bit, and the bottom edge of his side panels (that face the ground) have some chips that you can feel more than you can see. It still looks really good though. I'm going to use his sprayer to do mine here in a few weeks. Ark, thanks for the info; wasn't sure exactly how much I'd use and was hoping not to have to buy their 'kit'.

 

[Ark :D]

My cousin plasti-dipped his 818 about a year and a half ago. He has driven it a fair bit since around southern CA and it still looks really good. He spilled some fuel outside his filler cap and that discolored a noticeable bit, and the bottom edge of his side panels (that face the ground) have some chips that you can feel more than you can see. It still looks really good though. I'm going to use his sprayer to do mine here in a few weeks. Ark, thanks for the info; wasn't sure exactly how much I'd use and was hoping not to have to buy their 'kit'.

No, absolutely not, a gallon of each coat should cover you, even if you do the side panels unlike me (wrapped mine). But you do have to take seriously their recommendations for base coats. For example, if you were to mimic my scheme and go Snow White, the white will not lay down properly without the grey base. Just look up the kit you like, and shrink the quantities all down to 1 gallon each.

 

[Mayor West]

You can always wrap your goblin in shower curtains like I did

 

[Cdot]

Hello All,

Plasti dip durability is actually really great with a couple of exceptions:

Surfaces that get grabbed at or touched, the dip will peel a bit if you are rough with with it. Also, If you don't put enough coats down it may peel away easier.

Overall my Dip job pictured below is about 10 months old and looks great with the exception of the door handle areas where some thinner coats are peeling.

It holds up to stone chips better than paint though, Rocks tend to bounce off.

I chose to dip instead of wrap on this car because I could get a good result in one day. It took about 7 hours from masking to final coat of dip.

But for the Goblin, I will wrap as there are no overly complex curves to deal with as well its a simple way to get a shinier finish.

Corey - Future Chassis #281 - Canada

That's what I've been wondering about the most. Time will tell.

 

[Ark :D]

Hello All,

Plasti dip durability is actually really great with a couple of exceptions:

Surfaces that get grabbed at or touched, the dip will peel a bit if you are rough with with it. Also, If you don't put enough coats down it may peel away easier.

Overall my Dip job pictured below is about 10 months old and looks great with the exception of the door handle areas where some thinner coats are peeling.

It holds up to stone chips better than paint though, Rocks tend to bounce off.

I chose to dip instead of wrap on this car because I could get a good result in one day. It took about 7 hours from masking to final coat of dip.

But for the Goblin, I will wrap as there are no overly complex curves to deal with as well its a simple way to get a shinier finish.

Corey - Future Chassis #281 - Canada

The nose of the hood is tricky, I hear.

 

[r3drckt]

Hello All,

Plasti dip durability is actually really great with a couple of exceptions:

Surfaces that get grabbed at or touched, the dip will peel a bit if you are rough with with it. Also, If you don't put enough coats down it may peel away easier.

Overall my Dip job pictured below is about 10 months old and looks great with the exception of the door handle areas where some thinner coats are peeling.

It holds up to stone chips better than paint though, Rocks tend to bounce off.

I chose to dip instead of wrap on this car because I could get a good result in one day. It took about 7 hours from masking to final coat of dip.

But for the Goblin, I will wrap as there are no overly complex curves to deal with as well its a simple way to get a shinier finish.

Corey - Future Chassis #281 - Canada




View attachment 20286

God I miss my m240ix. always regretted getting rid of that car.

 

[Cdot]

God I miss my m240ix. always regretted getting rid of that car.

Yeah, That's what mine is. Fast in the summer and a beast of a car in the winter too.

 

[Mayor West]

The nose of the hood is tricky, I hear.

It is, I wrapped mine with quilt batting and shower curtain and would not want to do it myself with wrap. Plus, the hood's too large for a single 5' wide sheet so there's gonna have to be seams somewhere, in addition to the nose.

Basically, shower curtains.

 

[Fozda]

My wife's plastidipped Civic after sitting outside and being driven through all of the seasons for 4 years. It holds up if you take care of it!

 

[Ark :D]

I don't even know what to say about DYC's latest "Mood Ring" dip video...

It's pretty amazing, unlike anything I've seen on a car before. A Goblin with THIS would be absolutely nuts. Now, it's not a finalized product yet, but if they find a way to eventually bring it to market with like matte topcoat or something to seal it, I'd definitely do this!

One big downside is, people wouldn't stop touching your car.