plasti dip your tacoma! i did

time wise i spent about 6 hours including washing it, quick wax job, and then i cleaned the surface with invisble glass spray can cleaner

i used 18 cans (discount by the dozen online) cost about $130
bought 24 but 6 were red. bed has 5 coats but i ran short on the cab and only did 3 coats, thats why the bumper never got finished

i would rather buy it by the gallon and spray it from gravity or can feed gun but i cant get the water out of my cheap compressor even with twin filter/seperators i just gave up. then one bursted a diaphram and i ditched the whole setup

 

maybe ill get some foam and heat it to a bend for a dorsal fin like free willy for halloween

 

I like it because it's functional, saves your truck from a lot of the wear and tear you run into off-road, and it's not permanent. I don't think I'd ever do it to mine, but it doesn't look too bad. Only thing I'd do different is dip the rest of it except for the roof to the cab, similar to the FJ paint scheme. Should help keep it cooler, plus I think it would look a lot better. Just my opinion.

 

This outfit derps entire cars all the time and also sells kits. Here is a link to them dipping an Audi R8 V10 .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Ta1KTrzqg

 

i plan to dip the front bumper at least. still undecided on the hood. i just have to get more material

and yes one thing im learning with my no regrets lifestyle is sometimes it pays off in stress later if i take a few precautions along the way... like putting my seatbelt on changing the drivetrain fluids and greasing things ive always been good about the oil etc. but im getting alot better about fixing things BEFORE they break.. unless we are talking about the 81. i preffer to see how far it will go broke before i fix it. then it gets a round of repairs and hammerd on some more.

the 81 is pretty much a less is more phylosify. 31x11.50 tlb, 4.37 gears, 5 spead small lift, and more heart than any of my previous toys. I know my spelling is terrible, im sorry if i offend anyone seems to be alot of that on the forums ive been ready lately. A large part of it stems from either typing on my phone or this stupid laptop. Both of which suck.


EDIT: i forgot to add. I have thick skin, and the only reason im on the forum is to hear the opinion, good or bad either way

 

ill race the r8 for pinks!

disney world parking lot one end to the other!

right down the center where all the medians are

 

If you're going to plastidip your truck, take pics, post them in a thread, and include a poll asking what people think of it, I would expect you to have VERY thick skin. hahahahahaha

 

Well it takes a special kind of person, i dont even have to wear my helmet to school anymore

 

You waxed it before you plasti-dipped it? Why? So it would peel off easier? Invisible glass contains alcohols, which strip wax. You waxed your truck, then you stripped the wax, then you plasti dipped it. I'm not trying to be a dick, but just wondering what your reasoning was for waxing it first.

If the stuff is easy enough to remove, then I really like the idea of plasti dipping for paint protection. All of my trucks are scratched to %#@* from wheeling and that looks like hell when you're trying to resell one. My newer one hasn't even seen dirt yet because I haven't had a chance to get away from work, but it would be nice to be able to protect the paint from those tree branches before hell goes down on it.

The only alternative to this that I can think of would be to have a shop apply 3m Clear Film to the entire truck, I wouldn't want to see the price tag on a job like that...

I'd be curious to see how things go when you decide to peel that stuff off of there in the future.

 

I plastidipped my rocker-panels and fenders... used 8-10 cans too; so, it wasn't light
Every time I or someone else whacks their boot against it, it peels up in that area; and I have to touch it up
I can't imagine how often you're going to be touching this up; and unless you take a lot of time to perfectly blend it; how patchy it will eventually look

 

the wax was to help with removal, but mainly to get some of the residue from the mud that had left the clouds on the clearcoat (some nasty clay like mud) it didnt take much just some polish wax junk from a tin and bottle not coarse like rubbing compound but still pasty. and i used the invisi glass spray because it was close and it was aerosol, it just so happened that it worked out really well, in the pics of the bed you can see one pic where the lights are black, i didnt mask them, well i did on one coat, realized there was a little overspray and i just sprayed them too and peeled it off when it dried. if i end up pulling the bed off (5 coats) ill find some way to show you, the cab is a little bit to thin to peel correct but a few tricks im gonna try that i have heard work great, wd40 and goo b gone, if not it does peel off just in small pieces. i will deffinately take some pics and all that jazz. overspray is easy to get off with a little rubbing when its freshly dried, if you leave it for a long time like i did in a couple places its a little harder to rub off but it still does.

when i first decided to do it i planned to leave it on long term and i was worried that it would bond or lose the removeability but so far (4 months) it has not really changed.

more coats is deffinately better

if you use spray cans use the whole can, or you will have to clean the tip, i tried setting one down halfway through for half an hour or so and it was gummed up so i stole the nozzle off a new can.

edit: and no worrys on being a dick im not an expert ill tell ya what i did how i did it lol, and it worked pretty good if anybody has anything good or bad to add well thats why were here bsing about it right the window spray was pretty light and i used the same clean lint free cloth for the whole truck and it stayed pretty much residue free.

one thing that is irritating is right at the fender flare line when it cools off the flare and rubber gasket thing shrink a fraction of a inch and the body color lline shows. then when the day comes it goes away. i think next time around i will spray it with the flares off and then istall the flares on top leaving no seam

 

i have not touched it up at all yet, and yes thats a good point right on the door sill it rubbed off on mine too, the solution i was thinking (brainstorming here so laugh away) is putting the thicker coat on the cab, then in the high traffic area where my boods etc rub i want to get like 4 inch vynal (the kind that comes on a roll on ebay and ricers use for rally stripes) and applying it over the dip on the rocker, super cheap and tough, and theres no compound curves so should be easy to put it on without bubbles, and with the plasti dip layer the vynal wont be hard to peel off in the future. hell the vynal will probably pull the dipp off with it!

the white on the back of the fender flare is where my mud flaps were.. they pissed me off so they went, and like i said i havent touche it up yet.. been right at 6k miles and 4 months

 

haha! sweet picture!

that's about how long I've had mine on
i was actually thinking about vinyl, too; hadn't thought about putting it directly over the dip... wonder if that would work
there was also a time i pulled the gas nozzle out too quick and a small amount of gas poured on to the dip... it softened it right up; and i thought it was gonna just melt it; but, it eventually rehardened, and you couldn't tell anything happened

 

its funny you say that. i splashed a little gas all down the side in a line with my busted gas can and for a minute, thought for sure it would run off but i left it bee and it dried out just fine. there is one spot about the size of a fingernail right under my drivers window where something i spit out or dripped on it who knows made a small droop mark i though it was like a bird poop shadow (dont know how else to describe it) but its barely noticable at all now that whatever it was the color has blended back in,

the body shop manager at toyota was very nice older man and he was pretty worked up stressing that he couldnt get the marks from what looked like they sprayed the truck with armoural then tried to spread it off but when i went back (they forgot to fix the frame) it was normal looking not sure what they did. i told him its fine i just use regular water and soap in the pressure washer to clean it i dont scrub it or wax it or anything like that

and thanks about the pic.. thats my super duper "paint" skills coming out it get the job done

 

new tires

 

fixed/finished the plasti dip since the accident today

 

Makes no sense

 

these pictures show the thin issue I talked about, it couldn't peel off.

today I tested the wd40 theory and

A PAPER TOWEL AND WD40 ARE THE EASIEST WAY TO REMOVE PLASTI DIP that wont peel off!

spray the wd40 on the dip generously and let soak for a few minutes then scrub away with a rag, once the big stuff is gone I spreayed wd40 on the rag and it wiped the residue clean off. then I washed the wd40 off with soap and water.

then I resprayed the truck.

 

I also rewired and fixed the switches for my rigid light and took a pic of how the switches fit in the cut blanks

 

sub'd to read later when I'm not at work