A good buddy of mine asked me to help him Plastidip his Pathfinder so we went to town on it today. To start his truck had a lot of rust and the exterior paint wasn't in that awesome of shape. He started by wire wheeling and sanding most of his rust. By the time I got over he had most of the prep work done. Here's how we made his truck look like a whole new rig. He ordered 5 gallons of flat army green for the truck and 2 gallons of flat black for fender flares and wheels. The kit he ordered also came with a paint gun.
First off I used chassis saver on his fenders. They were REALLY bad. The Chassis Saver probably won't help a bunch but I figured it couldn't hurt
What we started with this afternoon
We started by dipping his wheels and fender flares flat black
We then wiped down the whole truck with pre dip spray and got to town. So far we have 5 coats on and will continue with 3 or so more tomorrow.
I'll post finished product tomorrow. If my truck wasn't so rust free I'd LOVE to do this. A really great product that gives the truck a whole new attitude. One thing I will say is do light coats. It takes all day but it's well worth your time and effort. All the dip, pre dip spary and gun cost him around $700 which is obviously a fraction of what a new paint job would cost. The gun was surprisingly very consistent, did a good job. I dipped my 4Runner emblems and was impressed but this really sold me.
Awesome. Please get some good "after" photos once it's all done. Also, wow at the driver's fender if that's jagged from rust. I would have picked up a less rusty junkyard fender since he's dipping it anyways.
Awesome. Please get some good "after" photos once it's all done. Also, wow at the driver's fender if that's jagged from rust. I would have picked up a less rusty junkyard fender since he's dipping it anyways.
I would have myself but he's a fairly short sided kind of guy. Just wanted to make it look better. I'll definitely snap a few pictures tomorrow once we get all the excess dip pulled off. I'm pretty excited to see how it comes out.
Finished product. I think it's a good solution for someone with pretty worn out paint but I wouldn't choose it over my stock color. Lighter coats would have made a much better end result but my friend who owns the truck had his own idea of how to do it. Anyway onto pictures
Just a personal PlastDip story- Had a 2012 Silverado, It's a giant chrome mess.... I plastidipped the whole center grill that was chrome flat black, never took care of it and it lasted the 2 years I had the truck no problem.... I did the outside of the bumper white to match the whole truck, it was extremely durable but the white stained... Easy to touch up by just spraying another coat but it didn't hold it's luster like the black.... I did the rims on that truck as well, all the badges on it, the badges, rims and trim on a 2015 tacoma, and now the rims and badges on my '17 4runner... Black PlastiDip holds up amazing! with rock hits it will peel but is more durable in my use that powder coat and super easy to touch up.... My ex crashed my tacoma and the best paint in the areas that were damaged was the plastic dip... Well worth the money and fairly easy to peel off... It's not extremely easy to remove especially if it's on thin but the ability to change colors for a bit of labor as opposed to $1,000 at a body shop is well worth the effort and it never left any residue!