When I did mine I just bagged each side of the car off and masked around the handles and sprayed. Never did the index card trick, but the plasti-dip came off easily between the rubber on the door handle and masking tape

 

you went all out ha ha.

 

Yeah thats when I first painted them with high heat engine paint (liked the look of the paint on the exhaust tip, but wasn't as nice on the handles and rims because the baking gave it the good look, but those pieces weren't bakable) so I wanted to make sure it didn't get on the car since that paint is not as forgiving as the miracle child plasti-dip

 

lol Good call. I got tired of my plasti dipped handles so I ordered some Aesthetic Creations handles and they are amazing

 

Yep... the AE covers rock IMHO. Takes a while to get them... but worth it in my opinion... look great - easy to install - 100% reversible... and can eliminate the keyhole if you like.

 

Thanks for the quick responses. I think I'm going to try and spray them myself, lots of taping and I thing I should be fine. Just have to wait for a less windy day, no garage. The card trick sound interesting and I'll give it a shot. If all fails than i'll go for the AE covers, how close are they to the color and texture of plastidip? Just looked at AE's web site, wait time for the covers is 6-8 weeks. WOW

 

Why did you "get tired" of your Plasti-dipped handles?

 

i got tired (of having to fix them) because my parents would rip on the Plasti-dip and it'd peel back and I wanted the AE creation handles.

 

Can you post close-up pics of your AE handles?

 

Funny story, I just got back to school today and left the car at home (4 hour distance.) I will ask my little brother to snap some shots and flickr them to me.

 

Wow 17 pages later and i read pretty much every post.

So Gonna try this over the may long weekend. Sounds good. And the beauty is if i don't like it ...it comes right off.

I think i am gonna take my time and remove all the peices. Gonna pick up some surper strong double sided tape.

Doing everything except the little bit of a chrome in the tail lights and the joey mod. Gonna leave that. But gonna try plasti dipping the "A" frame cover as well as the belt line and mirrors. And naturally the other chrome peices including the emblems. Also gonna do the center caps on my rims. They really shiney. Gonna leave the lug bolts alone as the add a little pizzaz to the car ithink since there is a metal like finish on the outside of the rim.

 

You left the car at home . . .

 

I know, i've had to go through my first year of college without my mini. it's the reason why I drive 8 hours on weekends... 4 more weeks and it'll be summer days!

 

I just finished my grille chrome with plasti dip. I think it looks decent but it really makes the headlight rings stand out so those are next.

 

I bought a set from the very first batch made. They look great but don't plan on using your key in the lock very often. You can do it in an emergency but the clicker becomes very important.

 

On my fourth trial of plastidipping the rear chrome rings and 2nd try on the gas cap. I've tried spraying from 12 inches, from up close, single layer, multiple layers. I just cannot get it to 1) not clump and/or 2) get out the little air bubbles.
Any other suggestions about what I'm doing wrong?

 

if by "clump" you mean that you're spraying and all of a sudden u spray a couple big blobs on your item it means that your finger is hanging over the nozzle of the sprayer by like a quarter of an inch and the plastidip is accumulating on the tip of your finger because of the wide sweeping angle that the plastidip comes out at. and basically that accumulation of plastidip is dripping into the stream when your spraying, creating a huge blob of **** on ur chrome peice, making you redo a couple hours of work so just keep the very tip of ur finger on the spray nozzle and you wont get those "clumps" anymore. I hope this all makes sense, if not ill post a picture lol, just dot let ur fingertip hang over the top of the nozzle.

 

Pics? Are you prepping with rubbing alcohol or some other cleaner? Like Watson said, make sure your finger isn't hovering over the nozzle.

P.s.- Use a hairdryer on low. Turns a couple hours of work into 20 minutes...

 

Finger definitely not hanging over the edge. Booger picker is clean. No paint on it
Been trying the few thick coats method (as opposed to the several thin coat approach). Guess the overrun is accumulating in the corners/edges. But I tried the other way and I get air bubbles galore.
Hairdryer may solve some of these issues though.

 

Clean the area with alcohol. Clean the nozzle of the plastidip. Do 2 coats with really light sprays. Always keep your hand moving when spraying. Then do a heavier coat.

 

Forgot to mention I also cleaned the surface first with alcohol.
I'll try your method next time around. I'm running low on the stuff and it's getting dark out, so it'll have to wait till the weekend. I'll post up with results. Thanks.

 

Good luck. Motion is always good when spraying anything. Drips are one of your worst enemies... That and kamikaze bugs.

 

Thanks all for the advice.
Gave it another try today and success...for the most part. Not perfect, but much better than before. Cleaned the nozzle (think that was a big factor), 2-3 light-ish coats. I was too impatient so I didn't wait 30 minutes b/w layers, but don't think the results suffered too much. Still some air bubbles, but fortunately in areas where you can't see them very well when the pieces are mounted on the car.



Taillight rings (also DIY silver bulb'd the rear turn signal. Light coat of silver engine paint. Still blinks amber Sorry, forgot to take a before pic):




Side Scuttles (taping off the 'S' didn't come out very well. Good from a far, but far from good. Will do for now, but may redo that if I can motivate):





Gas cap:


Quite a day. It's Miller time!

 

has anyone tried baking their gas cap and/or door handles to make the plastidip stick better?

 

Ive never had a problem with plastidip sticking. not sure how baking would make it stick better......it does help it dry faster..just make you let it air out a bit before you bake it our you'll find yourself choking on some noxious fumes.