Thursday 6th December 2012

Turning purple for PH

How to improve the looks of a bugeye Impreza? Well, you could dip it in purple plastic (really)

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You know how it is. There you are having a quick cup of tea and getting distracted in the PH forums, and before you know it you're knee deep in YouTube clips of people failing at drifting and doing daft things with cars.

Tristan's Impreza as it was before...

It was at about this point a couple of months ago when I came across some YouTube clips of Americans spraying on, and peeling off, a rubber paint called PlastiDip. With no one to tell me otherwise, my little mind thought it would look rather tasty* on the right car.

A bit of Googling and I discovered that while the product has been around a while, there aren't many places in the UK that can PlastiDip a car, and like plastering a wall, spray painting a car is an expert job. And I also wondered how the coating would cope with a UK winter, stone chips, car parks and washing.

To cut a long story short, I decided to take one for the PH team and give it go.

On my own car.

...and after its beautifully hued PastiDip

The UK arm of PlastiDip put me in touch with JK Customs in Southampton who were happy to do the work. A few phone calls later and I managed to avoid matt black (that's soooo last season, darling), instead going for a newly available colour.

Purple.

Matt purple.

The transformation is astonishing. (You're not wrong there. - Ed.) Whatever you think of the colour**, the PlastiDip has turned my Scooby into (for me at least) a new car. Gone are all those tiny scuffs and stone chips and I'm back to being nervous about where I park it. At £1,500 for a whole car it's not pocket money but it's cheaper than a traditional respray, plus it gets to places a wrap wouldn't.

Reaches the parts a wrap wouldn't

JK Customs has done what I think is an expert job. They've also given me some advice on keeping it pristine, which mainly involves never letting fuel spill when filling up, and only ever using a sponge and wax-free soap to hand wash it.

I'll give it at least six months to see what it's like to live with and how it performs, then report back.

My only question for now is; what colour should I get my MX-5 done?

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* Feel free to disagree with this statement
** I wait for the abuse

Thanks to www.jkcustoms.co.uk

 

[MattDell]

TristanYoung said:

* Feel free to disagree with this statement

Done.

[After_Shock]

Is this removeable leaving undamaged paint?

Say you got tired of er purple!

[m7a]

Good God, that looks awful...

Would be interested to hear what it's like to live with, though.

[Hoofy]

After_Shock said:

Is this removeable leaving undamaged paint?

Say you got tired of er purple!

Just hand the local kids some chalk in the colour of your choosing, I guess.

[DJRC]

OP are you a moron or just "special" ?

[Luca Brasi]

[Arun_D]

That car really did look good in the 'before' picture. Very smart (from the back, anyway).

I cant say the same anymore, sorry. Terrible to my eye, but hey, it's removable.

[marmite monster]

you turned you rally bread turbo nutter barge into ..well a big purple bell end !!

whit would have been a better choice

[RacingBlue]

Sorry, but that is nasty.

I'm genuinely at a loss as to why.

[englisharcher]

What was a very nice car is now ruined.

[RTH]

Have you thought about seeking help ?

[Agent Orange]

Put Shaggy and Scooby Doo in the front seats to finish it off. A tenner says it'll look like a old washing up bowl in 6 months.

Never have I felt so embarrassed to say I live near Southampton. Though fair play to them for relieving you of £1500. They deserve a round of applause for that.

I may have to lobby Winchester Council to have the border moved a 100 metres up the road to include our house.

Edited by Agent Orange on Thursday 6th December 11:58

[famfarrow]

Sorry thats really nasty. But the hippy crowd will be along shortly "who cares what other people think its yours man, cool"

[carinaman]

I can see how that may have gone down a storm with children's TV Presenters and those that like to do good work for charity but didn't like to talk about it in the 70s.

How much would a proper respray in grown up paint have cost?

[mrclav]

famfarrow said:

Sorry thats really nasty. But the hippy crowd will be along shortly "who cares what other people think its yours man, cool"

Hippy crowd?

[RacingBlue]

[Dazed & Confused]

If it was a dark red or blue, I think it could look okay.

But purple?

[_Neal_]

Wouldn't have been my choice of colour, but each to their own. Be interested to hear what it's like to live with.

Also, is that the plastidip running down the left hand side of the headlight in the final picture?

[otolith]

I've used it to respray matt black trim on the Elise - works very well. I've also seen people spray entire cars with it, but the point of that exercise is that it's cheap and reversible. £1500 is not cheap.

£150 to do this, apparently;

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

[otolith]

englisharcher said:

What was a very nice car is now ruined.

It can be peeled off, the car isn't ruined (though the 1500 quid is).