Seems like there has been a lot of success with people plati dipping various parts (mostly wheels) so I was wondering how this stuff would do with the stock rear diffuser. My diffuser looks like crap from getting bumped into and leaving pressure dents everywhere. But my main concern, most importantly, is how well will plasti dip hold up against the heat of the exhaust?

 

im thinking the heat of the baking sun on wheels with them being black would make them pretty hot. not exhaust hot obviously, but pretty damn hot. they hold up pretty well considering that heat so maybe it would be ok?

 

Do it and report back with the results.
If it's doesn't work then you can just peel it off.

 

I did re paint mine black and there are a couple things you need to do to get it painted properly.
1) pull off the rear bumper and use frog tape to cover the edges and plastic to cover the rest of the bumper.
2) remove the shrouds and spray the bumper and the shrouds evenly to make sure they match. (vs. painting just the shrouds)
3) do not clear over the diffuser. It will look bad and show heat damage.

 

I just gone done plasti-dipping all of my badges and I tried to plasti-dip the rear "diffuser" as well. My terminology is weak in this department, but hopefully I can make some sense.

I had no troubles whatsoever with the badges. I roughly taped and masked them off, sprayed a couple of coats on, let it dry, then peeled the plasti-dip off the paint, leaving black badges. Beautiful.

Then, I did the same with the rear diffuser. I rougly taped the black plastic parts off from the paint, sprayed a couple of coats of plasti-dip on, let it dry, and went to peel it off. The result was that it worked great on the shroud around the exhaust pipes, as these are distinct pieces separate from the painted bumper. The middle section, however, is either the same piece of plastic, or there is a sealant or adhesive of some sort bonding the two. I quickly realized that the "seam" between the paint and the black plastic was not going to tear neatly the way plasti-dip so conveniently exploits.

So, I found a carpet knife and attempted to score the plasti-dip along the line between the diffuser and the bumper. This only succeeded in causing the plasti-dip to grab onto the blade and tear randomly between the bumper and diffuser. Fail.

I ended up peeling all of the plasti-dip off the middle section of the diffuser. What I revealed was a black plastic finish that was almost identical to the plasti-dipped exhaust shrouds, so in the end all worked out. The pieces that were faded were the exhaust shrouds, they accepted the plasti-dip perfectly, and I am pleased with the result.

I'm sure with a more strategic approach to the middle shroud portion, plasti-dip would work perfectly. Maybe mask it off exactly at the seam and let the tape do the work? But if you're doing black plasti-dip on a black shroud, you'll probably find that just doing the exhaust pieces is sufficient, as it seems the middle section stays nice and black, while the exhaust pieces fade and become pale.

 

im actually thinking about using a CF wrap to the rear.

might be interesting... I hope the heat doesnt kill the wrap

 

Interesting. Anyway, it may not hold up because of the heat of the exhaust tip produces.

 

The exhaust tips don't phase it. I've had the whole bottom of the bumper and shrouds Plasti-dipped for about 6 months and it's holding up great. Just make sure you tape it off well so that your lines are clean. The frog tape mentioned earlier works wonders.


p.s.- Make sure that you peel the maksing tape off within about 5 minutes of spraying or you will have to score the seem on the top of the bumper with an x-acto or something so it doesn't peel your plasti-dip off. It will look good if you do. Trust me, I waited too long and I ended up peeling it all off and going for a second coat because when I pulled the tape off, the rest of it came off too.