plastidipping the chrome front grill?

[Mattd938]

Hey everyone, i am looking at doing this but im wondering those of you that have done it how do you get right in to the chrome between the side edges of the bumper?

im worried that if you look down the edges you will see a slim line of chrome, also do you mask the grill part right after the chrome ends? or can you pull the plastidip paint off the black plastic yet it still sticks to the chrome?

Lastly, any tips so i dont make a mess?

Cheers everyone

 

[CalJames]

You can get a "predip" which you apply to areas you want the plastidip to stick to and also one that is applied to reduce adhesiveness.
As long as there's a break in the areas you can pull the dip of pretty easy.
To avoid a mess, mask off all the the surrounding areas with tape and plastic sheets/news paper, or if you want a really clean and good job, remove the grill.
The front bumper is really easy to drop off, there's plenty of tutorials floating around on YT.

 

[Thomas Swart]

Hey @Mattd938 , I did the same project on my car a while back and have a picture of how I masked the grill surround.

For the outer edge (blue line), it doesn't matter much where you mask it as you will be pulling the plastidip layer off of the paint anyway. By doing it like this, you can get good coverage of the sides of the chrome that you're concerned about. Spraying from a different angle for each layer helps with this as well.

For the inner edge (green line), I tried to mask as close to the chrome as possible without covering it, since it's more difficult to remove the plastidip from the grill than the paint (purely because of the tight spaces, not the material). If you miss a piece it won't matter much, since the gap is still big enough to remove any overspray from the grill (which I had in the upper corners). Just make sure you spray enough layers (I did 6) so it'll be thick enough to easily remove. To make my life a bit easier, I covered the rest of the surrounding area with plastic so there would be less clean-up afterwards.

Here's a before and after comparison. I've checked and don't see any chrome down the sides of the grill surround. The color I used was: Performix Plasti Dip True Metallic Anthracite Grey. It's been on there for about 10 months now, goes through a car wash at least once a month, and still doesn't show any signs of damage.

 

[Mattd938]

Hey @Mattd938 , I did the same project on my car a while back and have a picture of how I masked the grill surround.

For the outer edge (blue line), it doesn't matter much where you mask it as you will be pulling the plastidip layer off of the paint anyway. By doing it like this, you can get good coverage of the sides of the chrome that you're concerned about. Spraying from a different angle for each layer helps with this as well.

For the inner edge (green line), I tried to mask as close to the chrome as possible without covering it, since it's more difficult to remove the plastidip from the grill than the paint (purely because of the tight spaces, not the material). If you miss a piece it won't matter much, since the gap is still big enough to remove any overspray from the grill (which I had in the upper corners). Just make sure you spray enough layers (I did 6) so it'll be thick enough to easily remove. To make my life a bit easier, I covered the rest of the surrounding area with plastic so there would be less clean-up afterwards.

View attachment 22337

Here's a before and after comparison. I've checked and don't see any chrome down the sides of the grill surround. The color I used was: Performix Plasti Dip True Metallic Anthracite Grey. It's been on there for about 10 months now, goes through a car wash at least once a month, and still doesn't show any signs of damage.

View attachment 22338

That is brilliant thank you, so where the blue line is you're basically just spraying onto the car paint then it comes off afterwards? stupid question but how do you start to get it peeling off the paint? make sure it goes onto your masking tape so when you start pulling that up the paint comes with it?

awesome thank you

 

[Thomas Swart]

That's correct. When you spray enough layers, Plastidip forms a thin flexible film which has a stronger bond within itself than with the substrate it's sprayed onto. In this case it will likely tear off with the masking tape making it easy to remove. If not, you can simply rub it a bit with your finger untill an edge let's go.

In some unmasked areas (if you're trying to remove the inside of the 'O' in the LEON badge for instance), you'll need a toothpick (or anything else that won't damage the paint underneath) to start prying away the Plastidip layer. Once you get a piece to lift off of the painted surface it's easy to remove.