First off, Yes I run a vinyl shop. No plastidip has not effected my business (other than crappy removals I've done) so don't kid yourself. 99.9% of my work is commercial advertising accounts. I rarely wrap cars for personal use aside for my own and friends. Had to get that out of the way first.
So a guy comes into the shop asking about wrapping his subaru in matte black 6 months ago. We give him a cost of $2300otd. He scoffs and says he can plasti dip his whole car for about $300. I say knock yourself out then. Anyway, here we are 6 months down the road and he brings the car to us to remove the plasti-dip because "it isn't just coming off". Well long story short, it has dried out over time espically in areas of direct sunlight. and comes of in quarter inch sections. Some spots won't come off at all. They will eventually I think but we've done the best we can. after 8 hours of labor he dosn't want to pay anymore.
NOTE, The damaged paint on the front bumper is not due to the dip, That was a wreck that was being covered up.
No. Vinyl is much stronger and will not pull apart. Over a period of 10 years yes vinyl will become brittle (good vinyl, there is cheap vinyl that will not last), but you just apply heat and SHAZAM! The worst part of removing a wrap is when you get adhesive residue in spots but a little 3M 08984 Adhesive remover on a rag and your golden. This is not to say that a shop using cheap materials and doing a sloppy install will not have issues. But hey. you gotta rember, you get what you pay for.
I agree, small items i think it would be a cheap and effective way to add some flavor to your ride. but never on a large scale. It's like building your house out of MDF board... just not a good Idea...
plastidip is not a bad idea at all you just have to do the job the right way and im sure he did very light coats of it , that thing needs to be put on with 5 to 6 coats and its not something to really be kept on forever like that its cheap so you could just change it up .. my 2 cents
it was done right. well as right as something that is WRONG can be. A local shop that does spray in bed liners did it. it wasn't a thickness issue, if was an issue with it becoming brittle. @$300 every 6 months plus the pain in the a$$ to remove. I don't see you saving money in the long term.
again I know it was done "properly" I saw the car when it was new, and It looked good. I was Impressed with it for what it was. Then after some time I started seeing the issues. You can turn a blind eye if you want to. But I'm offering fair professional warning.
I would never plasti-dip my car over vinyl, but you cant deny it gets nearly the same job done and even if it doesnt last as long you can peel it off and re-do it.
This is what I'm trying to get across, it's not as simple as just peeling it off. That is why I posted the pictures. because no one really talks about the long term removability. It's all sunshine and lollypops omg it looks great the day after it's sprayed.
fuel I hear ya. . .you just can't sway the thinking of someone who doesn't see past today. I have used vinyl over plasti dipping and even fooled the dealership with the work I did. Interestimg thread though
Not so sure I agree with everything that's been said. I wouldn't so much call Plasti-Dip the problem, and would more put the blame on the user. You really shouldn't expect a $300 plastidip job to be the same as a $2300 wrap job, that's just silly.
With that being said, I still believe that plastidipping a whole car is not a bad idea at all. Look at the videos from DipYourCar.com. Sure, they dip their cars a lot, but seriously, thats awesome. A new color every month? I'd love that. Would I really wanna put the time and money into it? No, but there are people that would. $2300 every month to wrap a car a new color when I can spend $2-300 to do the same with plasti-dip?
People are comparing apples to oranges. They really are 2 different products for 2 different outcomes.
Do it right you dont have to worry about all this extra crap. I suppose it nice for a car that goes in and out of showrooms, trailers, and car shows. But serisouly... I never understood the hype around it.