Turning purple for PH

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

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?

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

Thanks to www.jkcustoms.co.uk

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MattDell

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