shervinj

Hi Guys,

Took a big step closer in my attempt at darkening up a lot of my 530i. I Plastidipped the rims on side of the car last night. I used the Anthracite which is a color only available from dipyourcar.com

I had a lot of prep work compared to most people. My rims had 9 years of etched on black spots from brake dust. Regular rim cleaner would not get it off. DYC.coms break cleaner would not get it off. IronX helped a lot. It is $25 a bottle on amazon. It smells terrible. It got a lot of it off. I ended up using an abrasive pad which helped. Maybe a little too much in some places. But the heavily protruding bumps are gone. The Plastidip went over all the imperfections nicely.

I opted to take the wheels off mainly because I wanted to be able to be in the garage and clean the rims nicely. I didn’t want overspray on the car or brakes. I did it at night so the garage light helped a lot. I found wheels off the car as an easy way to ensure I got full coverage with minimal clean up. I used index cards to keep the overspray off the tires. I was hesitant to do this thinking the point of contact would not get painted but it ended up perfect.

I did about 6 coats of Plastidip followed by two coats of Glossifier. It looked good after 4. But I found a hair (eyebrow) on one rim and removing it nicked it so I did two coats to blend it all in. I wanted the dark look but didn’t want the supper matte finish. I also think it isn’t obvious it is Plastidp when there is some gloss. They say if you do 4 coats of gloss it will have a wet look. I opted for two what they refer to as satin.

I must say Plastidip is very forgiving. It dries smooth and fixing mess ups is pretty easy.
I dipped the exhaust tip in black. I used the Glossifer on that too. I stuck some balled up painters tape in the tip to keep the spray from going too far.

At the end I used dipyourcar’s after dip spray which is supposed ot harden the dip and prevent nicks and scratches. Stuff is expensive. 28 a bottle. But I figured I might as well do it so it stays on. It goes on like quick detailer.

Pics have the final results.

Bigjule111

Not bad. U need to go shadow line trim now

shervinj

Yes, That is all that is pretty much left. I started this at 10 pm last night. Finished those two at 1:30. Woudl have taken a lot less time if I didn't have to use that iron x and then wash them and dry them.

Here is my dilemma. Use black right out of the can (matte) or use black plus the Glossifier to make it slightly glossy.

shervinj

Stopped by my trusted body shop near me to get a quote about the oxidation on the roof. He was floored that I did the rims myself (I suck at arts and crafts). He thought a shop powder coated them and he wondered why i only did two. He likes the idea I can easily return it to stock when I am done. He said it was nice how I did the tip in black to match the emblems and did the rims in grey.

He asked how I taped everything off. I said I just used index cards and had no over spray to deal with. He laughed. I am sure he thinks that was ghetto as hell compared to true prep work.

Duperstar

That is hilarious. Nice job BTW.

shervinj

All done. Second two were much easier to do. I didn't wait overnight like I did the first time. After second coat of Glossifer I waited an hour and then carefully put rims back on. i wrapped tire iron in blue tape to prevent scratching it.

Woke up today and did the after dip hardener spray and drove away quite happy with my 9 year old car.

j2112

Nice job!

Bill109

what did you spend for the materials. i was thinking about this as a test run before i decide on a true powdercoated color

shervinj

I would seriously consider this instead of powder coating. You have to be gentle with it but it looks really good.

I bought everything from dioyourcar.com for a couple of reasons even though they are higher priced.

First off they are the only place to buy anthracite which part of the metallic collection.

They sell the after dip spray to help harden the dip.

Now that I am a bit older I like to purchase from people who take the time to make the instruction videos and answered emails.

What you need

3 can of plastidip (I bought their wheel kit which has 4)

After dip spray. It sucks it is 25 bucks for the bottle

1 can glossifier. You can get this at Walmart. One of few BandM store to sell it

20 Note cards(index cards)

Brake dust cleaner or similar product. I bought the dyc.com branded one. Works okay but buy what you like.

I would suggest buying the 6 dollar snap on sprayer which makes it much easier to use a spray paint can.

So if you went cheapest method and did black you can spend 28 bucks and get three cans from Walmart and 1 can glossifier.

Note cards are a dollar. Cleaner ranges from 4 dollars for windex or 8 bucks if you buy a brake dust cleaner.

Good luck.