Latest fad......need something to make some subtle appearance changes on your ride?

Installation Help & Advice Miscellaneous
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I wanted to do some subtle paint on my Trailblazer SS…and recently found this ‘fad’ that has been gaining popularity in the automotive world. The BMW guys have been doing it for a while now, but its finally progressed into about every aspect of the auto world. So just in case you guys haven’t heard…

Its PlastiDip. You can find it in your local hardware store. Its cheaper on Home Depot or Lowes…but it can be found in several other smaller stores too. Its available in black, white, red, and yellow. It dries to a flat…almost satin finish, that has a rubber/plastic texture.

Here is my front end before. The brake ducts are chrome plastic, and cracked when you look at them close. I’ve been wanting to do something with them, and found you can’t really remove them too easily.

Here is after…

And the biggest thing that people PlastiDip…the emblems. If you clean around them really good…use a toothbrush and some good cleaner, then let it dry well. Mask around like I have done, and apply your first coat pretty thick. Lay it down thicker than you would if you were spray painting. When you have laid down your first thick coat, apply as much as you feel is needed to get good coverage. Then remove your masking tape after its dry…and roll a corner of the painted section. You can then peel the excess off from the body…and it will usually stay intact, and allow you to peel around the emblems with no cutting or anything. Its awesome.

Peeled the masking tape off, then peeled the excess PlastiDip off of the body…here is what it looked like just after peeling the excess body paint off. Just a little weeding inside…

So I decided to do the rear fascia too. Here is before…

And here is after…even painted right over the hitch too. If you look REALLY close under the hitch, you can see the draincock from my HB 5 gallon tank sticking down. :smiley:

Figured I’d share, in case you guys haven’t seen this stuff yet. It works great on all sorts of trim also. There are guys painting their ENTIRE car with PlastiDip. Also wheels…all kinds of stuff.

The best part? If you don’t like it, you can peel it off. :cool:

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Do you anticipate being pulled over with a license plate like that…LOL

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I get a good reaction from LEO…except for the North Carolina Highway Patrol…they aren’t too fond of it. :smiley: Local LEO loves the tag though. I just have to be alot more cautious when driving home after having a beer with dinner.

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When you say you can peel it off, is it easy? I mean it’s stuck good enough to stay on it’s own right? I like the texture.

I have been using duplicolor bedliner for my interior panels with some ok results. You have to do quick “spritzes” from a distance. There haven’t been too many other options besides rustoleum texture.

Here is a tweeter pod:

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Yeah, it sticks fine. It would take rolling of an edge to get it to come off…but it sticks great. I’d even suggest maybe PlastiDip’ing over that pod you made…it’d look more like a factory panel.

This stuff is awesome. I am going to do my entry kick panels tomorrow.

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Am loving the number plate:D and you ride is mega cool!

Over here the latest craze is “wrapping” - cars wrapped in chrome foil or matt black.

How does your license plate system work? Over here in the UK, all plates are registered on a central database (DVLA). If we made up our own plates, we would get tugged by the police straight away. Luckily we can have personalised plates, but there are contraints and have to be registered, some of you saw my old plate “K30 HRN”:smiley:

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personized plates are ordered at the state level. They’re screened for questionable content but I’ve seen a couple that made it through the process. I haven’t seen any for a long time and those I saw maybe had to be replaced.

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Yup, they are cracking down on letting some go through too. And if someone sees your tag out on the street in NC, and they find it offensive…they can complain to DMV and get your tag removed. Rediculous. A friend of mine had DNKYPNCH. While it is more or less a perverted sort of act (Donkey punch), its a joke. The fact that someone KNEW what it was…and complained, just kills me. The state sent him a letter in the mail, saying that someone complained that it was offensive. They were questioning him on what the intention of the plate was…and he had owned that tag for 8 years. I ended up writing a 2.5 page letter for him, explaining to DMV that the tag actually stood for Dinkey…his Doberman Pincher dog, that supposedly died of cancer when he got the license plate. That SOB didn’t turn my letter in, after all that…I should have beat his oven. lol

Here is the tag I had on my Mustang a few years ago. I used to do a little street racing, so this tag was obviously beneficial. I transferred the tag to my GMC Jimmy, after I got rid of the Stang…but decided to let this tag go…mistakingly. After I got my Trailblazer SS, I wanted this tag back…so I reapplied for it. I got a letter in the mail a week later, telling me this tag is unsafe for law enforcement. I applied for 3 different variations of this tag also, got a letter for each one. So I decided “HI OCIFR” was the final attempt.