Has anyone tried to plastidip this area of the grill?

http://imgur.com/W2YNziT


I have the 2013 Pre-runner with the chrome grill and wanted to plastidip it white so that it looks like the grill on the sport model. Has anyone tried this before? Any advice?

 

I dipped my chrome grill black and has held up for about 5 months now. Its just hard to wash the bug spots off.

 

I have mine whole grill plastic-dip black. It should be the same no matter what color, it worked fine foe me and has not chipped since i did it about a year ago.

 

If your truck gets dirty or you smash an excess amount of insects, don't dip it. Just color match it and be done with it. The derp holds dirt and bugs like nobody's business and chips off eventually.

 

I did mine almost a year ago, and it has held up great. But as High Voltage Taco said, it is a bit harder to get the bugs off of.

 

Don't Plasti-Dip that part of your truck.

Do what I did.

Remove grill from truck





Use This to paint your grill




And it will turn out like this










​

 

Yup, agree with the ^above^ comments on keeping it clean but I'm happy with it.

 

I dipped my front grill and lower valance last summer. Turned out great. Other members have done it here as well.

 

How many coats did you do? Any advice for a noob working on this type of stuff for the first time?

 

For the longest lasting results, Sand the chrome with some fine grit sandpaper first. Or use self etching primer. Wipe it down after sanding with some rubbing alcohol to get the grime off. Then hit it with the primer/paint your using. For better results hit it with a couple coats of clear (in whatever finish you want, matte, satin etc)

I'd say 4-5 nice light coats of your main coat of paint with 15 min or so to dry in between.

EDIT: use my method for spray paint and the below post for dip

 

- Remove the grill from the truck. Other members and I can help you with that since we've done it. I never removed the lower valance since I didn't know how. So I taped and dipped.
- Prep the area. You can use Pre Dip spray through DYC(Dip Your Car), Windex or a mixture of rubbing alcohol and water(50/50). Put it on a towel or paper towel. Don't put the prepping spray right on the project.
- Make sure that the project is clean and dry. If it's wet and dirty the dip can, will bubble and lift the dip up from the project and the PD will not cure to the project.
- You do not need to sand, scuff, prime the area. It's not like paint. If you use an aftermarket clear coat the dip is going to be a lot harder to take off. It's going to come off in little pieces. There is clear PD and Glossifer that you can use. It still makes it easier to take the dip off whenever you want.
- Put the can into warm to hot water. If the dip is cold then it could plug the nozzle. Bubbles can also spit out onto your project. You don't really want that.
- Make sure the project is warm too. If it sat outside all winter and is cold. The dip isn't going to cure to the project, it's just going to come off.
- Start off with thin coats and as the more coats you add, the thicker they should be. The more coats you add the better off it's going to be. It's better protection and if you want to remove it you can. if the dip is thin then it's a big pain in the ass.
- The stock nozzles that come with the cans are not very good. You're going to have to do a lot of passes to get those heavier coats. You can get an aftermarket nozzle through DYC if you want. It's better coverage, less passes(compared to a stock nozzle) and you get better coverage.
- Wipe the nozzle after every pass. If you don't then the dip can dry in there and then you'll plug the nozzle as well as have really bad spray patters.
- If there is anything that you don't want PD on, cover it(mask it off).
- Wait 15-20 minutes per coat to dry.
- Have a few inches from your sprayer to your project. If you're too close it's going to run. if you're too far away then you're not going to get the coverage.
- On your last coat take off the tape and other masking. If you take the tape and other masking when the dip is dry, the masking will take the dip with it.
- Qtips are good to get into small areas with prepping if a towel or your fingers can't.
- Toothpicks are good to take dip out of places where you don't want it(like the inners of emblem letters for example). It doesn't scratch or wreck the paint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8zyzxKWM70 - DYC nozzles vs. stock nozzles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvkq-qyY9aY - Clear coat(aftermarket) on the top PD.

 

I did this using Windex for the first step. You should be pretty anal during this step as any oil will cause the dip not to stick. I found that by wiping off the nozzle between coats it helped keep the spray uniform. I painted mine over a year ago and it still looks solid.

 

Also adding to that if you wash it and then decide to dip right after make sure everything is 100% dry. I washed my door badges on my first attempt at dipping them and a few collections of water droplets totally screwed me over. This past time I blew out the badges with an air compressor to make sure it was dry.

 

Everyone has their own way to when it comes to dipping. Majority of the techniques are the same(prepping for example). Some people will choose to use different products then others. It's what works for you and your application. I personally use Pre Dip Spray and that works for me. Some people will use Windex or the mixture of rubbing alcohol/water(50/50).
But remember, what works for one person doesn't mean that it's going to work for another person. PD is a trial and error type of hobby. Once you get your own technique down, the things that someone can do is amazing. Practice, practice, practice.

 

I've dipped mine and we have tons of dust and bugs in texas. I just spray with a pressure washer to get the heavy stuff from a foot away and then use (meticulous matte) cleaning spray from chemical guys. Does an excellent job just lightly rub with the spray and microfiber towel and good as new

 

Also if you have a heat gun u can use it and it will cut your drying time down big time.

 

You can also use Simple Green as well to clean dip. You really have to be careful when you're using a towel and rubbing the dip. If your dip is thin or you rub too hard you can end up taking the dip off. A pressure washer will not take your dip off. The only way it will take the dip off if you have a piece in it missing etc. There are videos on youtube that you can find that other people who use PD have ran through car washes and never have had any issues.

I personally have never used the product this poster is talking about so I can't really say if it would work for me or my application. It could work for someone else and their application though.

PD is only rated to 200F so you really have to be careful if you wanted to this. I just think that by doing this that you're risking your project. In 15C/59F you can wait upto 15 minutes for a coat and it's going to dry. To me, doing this would be like someone cleaning their PD with gas. Never use gas to clean your PD. Gas will ruin your PD.

 

The stuff I named has cleaned my plasti dipped grill and valance and my buddy's rims. It's for plasti dip or any matte type finish. Not trying to be an infomercial but it really is a great product. I never tried simple green but I'm sure it does work good. Op just make sure to not use any solvent type or petroleum cleaners.

 

Haha! I am not questioning you or anything. I just personally never have used it. Some products work for some people, other products work for others. Yeah! Using anything with petro is a bad idea.