In my search for do it yourself bike design changes, I just finished using pasti dip on my Scott road bike. In a previous thread last winter (link below), I discussed vinyl wrapping my Cervelo P2. I wanted to compare the two processes, finished look, and durability.
Plasti Dip
For those unfamiliar with plasti dip, this is an aerosol specialty coating product that puts a thin rubber coating on any surface and can be peeled off. Use it like spray paint, but instead of adhering to a surface, it simply covers it. Prep time was very simple, just tapped off and covered sections I did not want sprayed. I sprayed two coats, immediately removing the tape after spraying because the product does not adhere to the surface. If you wait until it is dry then try to remove the tape, it will peel off the plast dip. After two days of letting the bike sit, it is on the bike pretty good and I’ll have to use some sort of tool to peel off a corner. Just simply rubbing my fingers over it will not peel or scratch it. Compared to vinyl wrapping, the time spent using the plasti dip was incredibly fast. I spent maybe 30 minutes total compared to hours using the vinyl wrap.
Forgot to take a before picture so I have included a stock photo of the bike. I covered everything in red, which included the fork, top tube and chain stays, with the plasti dip, so the bike would have a uniform mat black finish. Before and after:
Weight is nominal. I had to redo one side of the fork and material was extremely thin when I peeled off a section with two coats. I have no concerns about weight.
No usual prep. I washed entire bike in the driveway with degreaser before starting. After a couple days of curing, it would appear the stuff is very durable. It is made to be used on cars and spraying car rims, so my expectation is that this will have no problem lasting on a frame if a bike.
Would you just do accents with this? I haven’t done much wrenching…did you pull the crank and chain off? Looks like this is super cheap, an aerosol can is $7.19.
I only removed the wheels, then just covered everything else. Home Depot only had black, but you can get numerous colors off amazon or other sites. You could do a wild design if you wanted. And yes, for 30 minutes of my time and $7 dollars, this would appear to be a pretty good option for a DIY project.
What product did you use to tape off the letters? I was thinking of doing the same to my Felt IA, but all the various lettering and logos, I figured there was no way I’d be able to neatly tape it all off…
I’ll be interested in a follow-up in a couple months on how it holds up. I’ve used it to black out some automotive chrome but my perception is that it wouldn’t be very durable.
I tried to actually re-paint an area of my bike after I did a carbon repair and just could not get the color matched right despite a pretty good finish. Also, the clear coat was a bit crap.
I only sprayed what was originally painted red, not the whole bike. So the down tube is still the actual paint color. From a few feet away, you can’t tell a difference between the paint and dip. I used painters take to tape off the other areas. I covered the brakes in plastic bags.
I only sprayed what was originally painted red, not the whole bike. So the down tube is still the actual paint color. From a few feet away, you can’t tell a difference between the paint and dip. I used painters take to tape off the other areas. I covered the brakes in plastic bags.
Thanks. I tried similar with my Trek SC a couple years back, and had two issues.
I left the tape on too long, thus when I pulled it off, very jagged edges
You could tell something was off with the letters as I wasn’t able to match the shape of the edges perfectly with the tape…
I have a white Trek SC and was thinking about painting just one fork leg with a red stripe on the left side. Plastidip and some painters tape sounds like it might do the trick!
Do you think that stickers (new emblems) would stick to the plasti dip? My thought would be to plasti dip the entire bike and then add the emblems and maybe some color accents back on the bike.
