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[alexwhittemore]

I've been meaning to plasti-dip my wheels for a while, but I finally two weekends ago managed to get a (vigorously, maybe 250-300 ft-lbs) over-torqued wheel bolt off and replaced. (Ended up having to drill it out with a cobalt bit, led up to that by welding a wrench to it, but even that broke the wrench.) So after that, I was to the point of being able to remove all four wheels last weekend.

Saturday I got to it!

Set up using the note card tip. I ended up taping them all together with some guys down to the tire to keep them from blowing away in the light breeze.


I was pretty excited at the way it turned out after taking the cards away. Just after this picture, I flipped the wheel over and did a quick spray of the inside wall. From the front, the area between spokes gets sprayed reasonably well, but the spokes cast a shadow of spray onto the wall behind them, which is bright and painfully obvious from the front. You can sort of see on the northwest two spokes in this picture. Of course, that's only because I scrubbed the brake dust off the inside, so as soon as it fills up again it'll be dark. But that's why I only did a light coat.


I finished *late* in the day Saturday, ended up taking me maybe 6h total. Then it was grey out Sunday so I finally got around to a quick wash and photos this afternoon.





The last one was taken a bit later with the sun lower, the backlighting on the fence wasn't doing the camera any favors. You can tell the white balance is a bit different looking at the concrete. The red really does pop like that in the sun, but mostly because it's a warm direct dusk lighting.


Final thoughts: if I did this again, I'd probably give the back a nice, thick coat. Not necessarily the entire inner wall of the wheel, but I'd spray the back sides of the spokes pretty well. Reason being, the plasti-dip is super strong when it's in a sheet, but it doesn't adhere all that well to things (which is why you can peel it off). At those back, sharp edges, there's nothing to hold it down, so if you're in there with a rag washing the wheels at all, that edge is a bit fragile. If I had to guess, when I have to re-do these in a couple months or a year, it'll be because the spokes are peeling up from the back.

The other thing is, the bolt holes. I sprayed directly into them on my strokes. (I did strokes targeting the sides of each spoke, outside to inside finishing spraying through the hub hole, starting on the spoke next to the valve, going in a circle, then doing the other side of each spoke in the opposite direction.) I'd recommend this, since obviously unfilled holes look obvious and crappy, but when I went to remount the wheels, I didn't think about the sheet in there. Sure enough, as soon as I torqued down the bolt at all, it peeled up the sheet and twisted the entire bolt hole up into itself, peeling away up to the rim of the hole when I backed off and tried to get the bolt out to rework it. I ended up respraying that hole (which hasn't held up, in the sun and heat swings the original sheet has shrunk away from the respray opening up a visible crack, I'll likely need to re-do that one wheel) and then using a razor blade to carefully cut the cone out of each bolt hole on the other wheels. That was a big PITA, if you've sprayed your own wheels how did you avoid that?

All in all, though, I'm super pleased with the result! Only things left are to paint my exhaust tips and to lightly smoke my side markers and maybe headlights.

[kdbryce]

came out nicely

[napeHbNYC]

Red and black looks awesome, great job. Tints would complement the wheels

[StevenY.]

Nice job.

[e92ninja]

nice real nice

[eradicate]

dipp'd

[e92oholic]

I over sprayed the shit out my winter tires. They are kinda red now too. Looks good!

[alexwhittemore]

Thanks!

Originally Posted by napeHbNYC

Red and black looks awesome, great job. Tints would complement the wheels

I agree. At some point in the medium future, that'll be in the cards. Too much other fun stuff to spend the money on in the mean time. Ski season isn't over yet

Originally Posted by eradicate

dipp'd

I don't know what to make of that... You realize the apostrophe stands in in place of an e, right?

[e90Nate]

turned out great

[bplewis24]

How long does plasti-dip last on wheels before it should be replaced? Assuming that wreckless tire-washing doesn't accidentally accelerate the peeling process.

[alexwhittemore]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

How long does plasti-dip last on wheels before it should be replaced? Assuming that wreckless tire-washing doesn't accidentally accelerate the peeling process.

People around here seem to have really good luck, on the order of a few years. If I had to guess, even with careful tire washing, I'll have to replace mine before that, maybe 6mo or a year just because of how fragile that edge really is without the back sprayed.

But in general, there's not really a lot to wear them down. Being a big sheet of rubber, it's pretty resilient to sharp forces like an occasional rock hitting it on the highway. It's not like it's going to chip. I actually had to work quite hard with the razor blade to get the centers out, granted it was dulling quickly on the metal.

Of course, I can imagine any sort of curb rash will trash the whole job pretty quickly. Even if one localized area peels up, it's not like you can sand it smooth. You could cut away the peeled bit then spray over it, but you'll get a really obvious annoying ridge at the edge of the original coat.

[Spun Crankhub]

good job.

[Hybrid For Life]

Looks good even for platidip

[fatnhappy]

good job. do a gloss over it and it'll be perfect. That and some tints

[evoix]

nice came out great. just did my boss's wheels. Add a clear coat otherwise it will look dry and fade over time

[alexwhittemore]

Thanks, although this thread is so old I'm planning to redo them soon.

FWIW, I never used glossifier, but tire shine on them after a fresh wash looks FANTASTIC.

[NYBulldog]

That came out pretty sharp against your red exterior.