2014 Limited Stormtrooper Plastidip Chrome Delete

[EasyAndy]

Hey all, it's Easy here, long time lurker first time poster. I know it's almost sacrelgious to start a new thread for my first post but I have have done plenty of searches and have not seen a 2014 Limited 4Runner Stormtrooper/plastidip thread as of yet.

I finally bit the bullet and took adavantage of Colorado's fine weather and decided to Plastidip/chrome delete my Blizzard Pearl 4Runner.

After a lot of prep work I was finally ready.

After what seemed far too long I was ready to plastidip... Which was already started above.


Here are the end results:

Lessons learned;
-Sharpie does not cover mess-ups, in fact it does quite the opposite and lifts up the Plastidip. I only ran into this issue in one spot, I might try to cover it up tomorrow.
-No need to mask very close, 1" - 2" would be perfect, the stuff really does peel right off where you want it to.
-Clean up is easy, budget yourself about 3 hours for the painting process and for drying time between coats.
-The longer the plastidip dries, the easier it is to rub off stubborn areas.

And here is the mess up

I am really wanting to Plastidip the Toyota and 4Runner Emblem white with a pearlizer finish or possibly the same green as the tape I used to mask it. Do any of you have any sugestions as to how to Plastidip on top of other Plastidip? I have heard tire shine works but would like to get your opinions on the matter.

BTW... After this mod, all the guys look at you like they want to kick your ass and the ladies look at you like they want to f*#k you. :ban: :girl:

Till next time... Easy out

 

[bimrunner]

I think it is much improved without all that nasty chrome! I'm glad to see the LE can be made to look less funky! Nice job!

 

[TOY2G]

I am really wanting to Plastidip the Toyota and 4Runner Emblem white with a pearlizer finish or possibly the same green as the tape I used to mask it. Do any of you have any sugestions as to how to Plastidip on top of other Plastidip? I have heard tire shine works but would like to get your opinions on the matter.

BTW... After this mod, all the guys look at you like they want to kick your ass and the ladies look at you like they want to f*#k you. :ban: :girl:

Till next time... Easy out

Here is a link that may help... Not sure if this is what you are talking about, but it looks good.
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/154502-jrwards-stormtrooper-***2014-build-thread***.html

 

[philsey]

Very nice, I've always liked this look. Now, about that roof rack ....

 

[EasyAndy]

Here is a link that may help... Not sure if this is what you are talking about, but it looks good.
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/154502-jrwards-stormtrooper-***2014-build-thread***.html

This is exactly the look i am going for, that thread is what got me started down this road, but the Trail addition already has a factory painted back plate so all jrwards had to do was Plastidip one color. I am specifically trying to paint a different color of Plastidip on top of the black Plastidip. Surprisingly hard thing to google for as I have not ben able to find anything concrete. I am hesitant to mask off the areas that I don't want to Plastidip as i don't want to masking tape to pull up the original Plastidip afterwards, not to mention it would be an absolute pain to mask off such a detailed area. If anyone of you have heard of a way I would be much appreciative for a solution.

Very nice, I've always liked this look. Now, about that roof rack ....

I know, I really wanted to tackle the roof rack yesterday but after I started I figured I would be much easier to completely remove and Plastidip on the ground. Does the front plastic piece come off a simply as the back when installing cross bars? I read something yesterday about a roof rack delete kit from toyota, any idea how much this costs? I will definitely want the roof rack next winter for skiing but do not really have a use for it in the summer. Is the entire roof rack fairly easy to remove?

 

[KCcarguy]

BTW... After this mod, all the guys look at you like they want to kick your ass and the ladies look at you like they want to f*#k you. :ban: :girl:

You mean that's not normal? :shrug:

 

[DannyLlama]

I somehow missed this post... Very nicely done with the Plasti Dip.. It looks a 1000 times better... Good job! :thumb3:

 

[nguyenn]

looks 100 times better ;-0

 

[EasyAndy]

Very nice, I've always liked this look. Now, about that roof rack ....

Finally had some time this weekend to Plasti-dip my roof rack and color match my front emblem. The roof rack was a breeze to remove thanks to these two threads.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/58863-how-install-roof-rack-crossbars.html

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/79563-diy-roof-rack-delete-w-pics.html

I used the bike tire remover technique and the whole assembly was off in 10 mins. As far as sliding the cross bars back into place after plasti-dipping I would recommend using some sort of lubricant so they don't tear up the finished work. I used Vaseline and it worked great.

I attempted to color match the "4Runner" and front emblem to Blizzard Pearl, and had success with the latter. I was able to match the color almost identically by doing a layering technique of white Plasti-dip and the pearlizer Plasti-dip. I first laid down three coats of white then alternated with the pearlizer for every other layer until about 10 coats.

I self tested a few methods to keep Plasti-dip from sticking to itself, to dip the "4Runner" emblem. The best method was again Vaseline. Others attempted were tire shine and white lithium grease. My initial thought was to tape off and cover the whole area with Vaseline and remove the old Plasti-dip from the letters and then re-dip. Well the whole thing was a big mess and it turns out the once the Vaseline is on Plasti-dip it does not remove quite as easily because your fingers are a greasy mess. In the end I had to remove the whole thing and re-dip black. I might attempt to tape the whole thing off and dip the letters but to be honest I am getting quite fed up with putting make-up on my car after so many hours. All in all I am happy with how everything turned out, and will post again if I do have success with the "4runner" emblem.

 

[Stifler]

I like the look better but I would be concerned about durability especially the handles.... anyway I think the huge front chrome piece would look better color matched white. Thumbs up for doing it

 

[bimrunner]

Great idea on the white! Now that the OP is probably feeling good about the handles, take off the dip, redo with Krylon Fusion flat black. Holds up so much better and not much more difficult to apply (just need to do a nice tight tape/playing card job and it is much more durable and you can touch it up easily.

 

[Archicam]

I had the same problem when I plasti-dipped my roof rack. The cross bars tore it up in a few locations but I found it was pretty easy to just put a few more coats on where it ripped. And it isn't visible from the ground anyway. The roof rack looks so much better after being dipped.

I am planning on doing my handles and wheels in the next week or so. How are the handles holding up? Was it difficult to get plasti-dip on the back side of them?

 

[EasyAndy]

I had the same problem when I plasti-dipped my roof rack. The cross bars tore it up in a few locations but I found it was pretty easy to just put a few more coats on where it ripped. And it isn't visible from the ground anyway. The roof rack looks so much better after being dipped.

I am planning on doing my handles and wheels in the next week or so. How are the handles holding up? Was it difficult to get plasti-dip on the back side of them?

Everything is holding up surprisingly well actually, but painting on the back side of the handles was not too easy. I ended up pealing the top section of them because of it. The area that gets the most wear is the chrome strip on the rocker panel. People's feet drag across it quite often, mine included, but the worst offender would be my girl and her heals. Here are some pics of the wear spots. Best of luck with your dipping.

 

[EasyAndy]

Finally finished the project this weekend and now have a Plasti-dip color matched 4Runner emblem in the back. The biggest challenge was masking off the areas I didn't want the white Plasti-dip to stick as those areas already had black Plasti-dip that i wanted to keep. I finally decided that if I wanted to get it done right I would just have to bite the bullet and pull the whole thing, or actually mask it. I decided on the latter. I used a piece of printing paper and made a stencil of the letters and cut out the negative spaces and shoved the cut paper into the tough to mask areas. I used a dental pick to work the paper under the edge of the letters. I then Plasti-diped using the same method I described above, pulled the masking and was done. It turned out surprisingly well. After pulling all the masking I did notice a couple of spots where the black came up with the tape. I used an artist detail paintbrush, Plasti-dip sprayed on paper and fixed the spots. I would highly recommend using this method to touch up any areas where Plasti-dip has worn off.

 

[4RnR Grl]

That looks killer! I am looking forward to doing my Grey 2013. I am glad to see the side pieces are holding up well as that's by far the most wear and tear on my runner. VERY nice job.

 

[4RunninHog]

Anyone thought about doing the black plastidip on the lower part of the fender flares? Think it would look pretty good and cheaper than adding actual fender flares

 

[bimrunner]

Anyone thought about doing the black plastidip on the lower part of the fender flares? Think it would look pretty good and cheaper than adding actual fender flares

I did that. I'm going to line x it permanent. I have pics in my build.

 

[EasyAndy]

Hey All,

I've been meaning to give an update to this thread for a couple months now but have been so busy I haven't have the time. I finally put on some new TRD wheels and Nitto G2 tires last week and figured I would update everyone on the durability of the Plasti-dip job that I performed about 14 months ago. I really can not praise the product enough. It has held up miraculously through out the last year, even on I-76 in Denver, for those of you that know how gravely that road is. I have touched up a couple spots on the front bumper where rocks have slightly dinged the dip and also where a couple of people have scraped the black strip on the rocker but these repairs took all of 5 minutes total with a artist brush described above. Hopefully this thread can be the straw that broke the camels back for those of you who are still on the fence about rattle canning you expensive rig. Next up is some Trail rockers and Shrockworks sliders, came really close to messing up my rockers last weekend and figured that was the weakest link at the moment. Happy modding!!

 

[Jhalko]

The black trail rockers really transform the look, I have the OE over the shrockworks version. I bet with your white it'll be even better. Are you going shrockworks step sliders? It's a good combo and worth every penny plus you gain some good ground clearance there as well.

 

[EasyAndy]

The black trail rockers really transform the look, I have the OE over the shrockworks version. I bet with your white it'll be even better. Are you going shrockworks step sliders? It's a good combo and worth every penny plus you gain some good ground clearance there as well.

Yep that's the plan. Going to do OEM trail rockers and Shrockworks step sliders.