I needed to do something about the peeling clearcoat on my C4 and after stripping it off decided to try dipping. Pretty happy with how it turned out. I mixed a custom pearlized blue to approximate the original factory medium metallic blue. Wheels are anthracite with black centers and emblems.

 

Looks good. Im curious about the plastidip but I dont know if I could do a whole car. Thats a lot of peeling to do! I may try a stripe at some point.

 

I haven't peeled a whole car yet but the secret is getting it thick enough. I put on 5 coats and that seems to be a bare minimum. 7 coats is probably ideal for peelability.

I started with a rattle can to do some tests and was happy with both the finish and the peelability. It doesn't cost much to try.

If you do try a stripe make sure you peel the tape while the dip is still wet or you will end up peeling the whole stripe off!

 

Thanks for the tips. What did you use to do your car?

 

Not sure I know what you mean by "what". If you mean what materials, I mixed 4 gallons of PlastiDip Spray and put just over 3 on the car. If you mean what mix it was 50% blue, 25% black, 25% pearl plus some bottles of black tints. If you mean what sprayer it was an Earlix HVLP from dyc.com. If you mean some other "what" let me know.

 

Yeah I meant how did you apply it. Can or gun. Sorry I only had one cup of coffee when I asked. Thanks for the info.

 

Some have attempted to spray a whole car with rattle cans but I haven't heard of any that have had good results, and would definitely not recommend it myself. Even the Earlix sprayer, which holds 1 L, is only enough to spray part of the car.

That plus it is not possible to mix a custom color with cans.

 

I'm about to do the same thing on my '90 for the same reason, clearcoat is peeling and a paint job ain't in the budget! Your's looks great!

 

Update: about 18 months later the C4 is still dipped blue. Overall I am happy but will point out a few considerations for anyone else thinking about doing this:

1. It scuffs extremely easily. Things like clothing rivets will readily mark the surface, much more so than paint
2. It tears/peels back from edges with even moderate contact. The outside edge of the side mirrors the door frame are casualties of this. I may try to touch those up this spring and will report the level of success.
3. It shows up every water mark and they can't easily be removed. Spray wax helps but I now immediately squeegee and wipe down the surface with a dip washer foam rubbery cloth thing any time it gets wet.
4. The pearl additive changes the tone of the paint significantly. In bright light it looks considerably more "teal" compared to scattered light which shows more blue grey. I think if I had to do it again I would use metallizer instead of pearlizer. That's just a personal preference thing though.

Keep in mind that some of the issues (1 and 3 specifically) may be worse for me because of the pearl in the dip.

 

Yup, very important to put on several coats of the dip to make sure it's strong. Great thing is, DipYourCar has come a long way. The products they have now that can protect the dip are pretty amazing. Using the spray gun kit is also a must. It makes it way faster and way easier to get a nice even coat each time every time.

The first dip I did was a flat orange, the second was the Deep Sea Blue metallic w/ glossifier.

 

[QUOTE=MrStiggy;1591302292]Yup, very important to put on several coats of the dip to make sure it's strong. Great thing is, DipYourCar has come a long way. The products they have now that can protect the dip are pretty amazing. Using the spray gun kit is also a must. It makes it way faster and way easier to get a nice even coat each time every time.

The first dip I did was a flat orange, the second was the Deep Sea Blue metallic w/ glossifier.

Jsiddall & MrStiggy,

Sincere thanks for your input here. And Jsiddall, thank you for your prompt response to my pm. I think you guys are on to something here, especially when it comes to C4s.

As Jsiddall knows, I just "rescued" a 91 Polo Green coupe from a good friend. There is some FE & side minor damage that I will need to repair. But overall, it's not in bad shape w 116k miles. Mostly everything works, except for the dead battery.

Once that is replaced, my ASE certified tech brother and I will go through the car. So although this baby should be running fine shortly, it is about a 60 footer, with faded paint, etc.

After reviewing many YouTube videos with popcorn over the holidays, I learned how to remove body panels, and sand, and sand some more. As you can imagine, I am not wild about the idea of either investing the time and/or $$ to paint this car correctly. Let's face it, there are just too many C4's out there for them to ever become valuable collectible items, save perhaps the LT4s.

I'm just not spending $4k or more, or a zillion hours for a car that probably could never be worth more than what, $6-7k? Having said that, I think these C4s are great, fun cars. Unlike the C3, you get EFI, airbag, great stereo, targa roof, much better suspension and frankly, an all around better car.

That last statement should get a rise out of the C3 guys, huh? I am sure this could be debated. But the bottom line is that C4s are great, reasonably priced & available sports cars, qualifying in Maryland as historic vehicles.

I see the Plasti Dip as an excellent, low cost alternative to painting AND wrapping. It is DIY, can be accomplished WITHOUT body panel removal, and with the new Dip Coat Protective Spray ($28), more durable than ever. A couple of Q's for you:

1. Is there any special prep for the Endura bumpers, especially since I need to sand the front extensively?

2. Is there any special primer I need to apply over Endura and body panel repairs?

3. What special prep did you give any areas of C4s while spraying? Door handles, pop up headlights, for example.

4. Were you able to spray the lower areas like rocker panels easily without removing?

Thank you in advance for your input.

Rickman

 

[QUOTE=Rickman;1591306748]I can't answer questions 1 or 2, but I can answer 3 and 4!

As far as special prep, just making sure to properly tape off anywhere where the dip is not wanted, right down to the very last millimeter. Prepping the car is one of the most important aspects of dipping. The more time you spend the better. I prolly spent about 2-3 hours just taping off trim work, door handles, lights, windows, etc... The pop-headlights aren't an issue unless your's are a bit off and rub. I've never had dip get stripped of the headlights all the time the car has been dipped which has been about 16 months now.

One tip I learned the second time around is using an X-acto blade to fine trim taping and for fine removal. You have to be careful removing the tape as if it grabs the dip you could end up respraying a body panel.

The rocker panels at the bottom weren't difficult. Just have to angle the gun right and use short bursts. I recommend putting tarp under the car or else your driveway or garage floor will end up orange, blue or whatever color you picked. And it will be hard to clean off as dip is the most difficult to remove when thin! Only things I removed to dip were the headlight covers. Much easier to take them off and dip them on some newspaper. I personally just dipped them black so that they'll compliment most other future colors and I won't have to redip them.

Hope that helps, happy dipping!

 

Believe it or not, C4s will be worth a lot more someday then they are right now. It's going to take some time though, and of course the all original pristine cars will be worth far more than most.

I agree with @MrStiggy about the prep. Don't skimp there. I scraped and sanded all the peeling clearcoat on mine and filled and sanded deep chips and scratches. I also took off the headlight covers and dipped them to match. I didn't do any primer or anything special on the bumpers and didn't remove the rockers. Wheels were similar and I didn't mask the tires although I might next time because where the dip is feathered rather than wet it doesn't peel.

One consideration for dip, even more than paint, is you need a "dry line" for anything that moves. For example if your headlight nearly contacts the hood such that the wet dip can bridge the gap then when it dries it effectively fuses the hood and headlight together. The next time you turn on the headlights it will peel up the dip on one or both panels. That's where that sharp knife comes in.

Another consideration is wet taped lines, like weatherstripping. If you let the dip dry then try to remove the tape it will peel up the dip. For those type of things you need to remove the tape while the dip is wet -- basically immediately since it dries so fast.

Getting the finish even with the right sheen takes practice and honestly I didn't find it easier than paint. The pearl is trickier as you need to prevent start/stops at the edges of panels and basically spray the length of the car in one shot.

Of course unlike paint dip is easily reversible if you mess up.

 

jsiddall
that blue looks great! - do you know if they have a clear of some sort to bring up the gloss or protect the dip any better?

Sean

 

Thanks!

They have glossifiers, but they don't turn the dip into a mirror-like finish. I think there may be other gloss clears that would work over dip but I haven't tried any myself.

 

thanks - that satin sheen you achieved in the Blue is perfect like that - really changes the feel of the car

 

They also have Top Coat now that will give the dip an even greater shine. The amount of shine is heavily dependent on how wet and thick you apply the dip. There’s a little more skill with it. This is how mine currently looks now with a Light Blue base with Ocean Blue pearls mixed into a Top Coat finish.

There’s plenty of examples of far shinier finishes from people more talented than I though lol.

 

I've heard that the clear causes issues when it comes time to peel. It makes it more prone to flake vs peel as it would without clear since the clear almost makes the dip brittle.I'm not sure if this has since been fixed but I recall it being an issue when the clears came out for the dip.