I’ll rebuild an engine if it needs it. I’ll tune a carburetor if it’s out of tune. I’ll even weld in a rust hole if there’s something that needs patching. Why, then, is removing the plastic-dip from these Foxbody Ford Mustang split-tri-spoke wheels bothering me so much? Why is this such a pain in the rear?
The Autopian’s partnership with XPEL has us installing an amazing wheel/tire combo onto our 2014 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet: Foxbody split tri-spoke wheels with incredible Vredestein all-terrain tires. I cannot wait to show you.
But I’m going to have to wait, because none of it is installed yet due to a small issue that has ruined many a car-person’s week: Plasti-Dip.
If you’re not familiar, Plasti-Dip is “an air-dry, specialty …. peelable, flexible, insulating, non-slip, durable rubber coating.” You spray it on a wheel/body panel/fence post or whatever, and before you know it, you’ve got a thin coating of rubber clinging to your object.
And boy does it cling. Really, really hard.
I didn’t even realize these Mustang tri-spoke wheels that I bought even had a coating on them until I started cleaning them in preparation for paint. Then I saw a little peeling, and figured I’d peel the rest off. It’s not happening. No matter what I try, I just can’t get this stuff off without risking damage to the rather minty tri-spoke underneath.
And this isn’t just a “me” issue (though I’ll admit I’m a Plasti-Dip amateur), it’s a problem many others are facing. Check it out:
“It. Will. Not. Come. Off.” with the horrified face is my favorite, though “Took me 2 1/2 hours to peel one wheel any faster way to get it off” is up there, too. The latter feature a few recommendations, like this one from RussianInAmerika:
Goo gone let it sit for 10 minutes; spray it again and let it sit another 10 min; right after go to local car wash with the rim brush and let it do its thing; goo gone after that again and let it sit for 10 min and then a pressure washer/scrub for minimal work/best outcome.
Goo Gone, WD-40, Tire Shine, Mineral Oil, all work good to remove stubborn dip. Tools like a toothbrush, a plastic Bondo spreader, an old credit card, I’ve used duct tape, all to get the peeling started. Once you have it started, I’ve used a heat gun or a hair dryer on lowest setting to help loosen dip too. Power washers and coin op car washes work well to spray clean dip.
For now, this whole Plasti-Dip removal process remains the bane of my existence.
I would try a drill attachment that’s like a big round eraser. Ant Anstead used one on wood-grain fake-applique stickers and it worked really well without damaging the metal underneath.
I think I’d grab some of the gelled chloro-methane that I’ve been hoarding in the rusty can. 0ops no forget it Jake it’s California.
“…without risking damage to the rather minty tri-spoke underneath.”
Those wheels have been against more curbs than a 20th Century New York street sweeper.
yeah… I agree, they don’t look mint underneath, at least from these pics.
Maybe they’re holy grail wheels.
The one thing plastidip is good for is hiding curb rash
They’re midwest mint
hahaha, yeah, i could see that
OMG, you’re right! I was looking at the spokes, but yeah, that’s a LOT of curb rash. I do have ideas on how to mitigate that, but it is also going to involve some manual labor.
I don’t even know what a rust holse is, let alone have the ability to weld it
Rust holse, easy, you fill with yourathane spray foam, then sell quick.
Three spoke wheels should automatically go in the recycle pile
These particular wheels have seen a resurgence in popularity lately and I’ve seen them put on lots of other different cars.
Three spoke wheels will be the last thing you see as an angry Saab runs you over.
Angry Saab might have to be the name of my next thrash metal ABBA cover band.
I think bands like that are required to have three names. So “Angry Saab Story” would work well.
Saab Story was IIRC the name of a Swedish car repair shop somewhere
I’ve spilled gas on my plasti-dip wheel fenders when filling up and it took it right off!
Yeah but he’s in California. They’d probably give him their equivalent of execution by firing squad for such an flagrant and egregious abuse of their environmental laws.
Plasti-Dip on wheels or just about any other part of a car looks terrible. I thought this stupid fad died.
A big part of the problem is they make an automotive grade plastidip that does look good, but people buy the $5 can expecting the same results as the $40 can. (I’ve never done it myself, but I have seen some surprisingly good looking results I was shocked was plastidip, but that was only 10% of the time I ever saw plastidip, the rest were shockingly bad)
Flat black should just be outlawed on anything aside from dashboards.
Disagree. It doesn’t chip like paint, and if you put a glossifier over it, it stays nice looking. If it ever fades, just put on another layer. My winter wheels probably have 3 layers of dip on them now lol
I really want to see what happened to the forum kids from 15 years ago who dipped their ENTIRE CARS. I have to imagine they are all in junkyards by now, but good lord if only we knew then how much of a PITA this stuff would be to get off later.
“Stepping over dollars to pick up dimes”. At the least, it is a tax deductible business expense. Even faster, your employer should reimburse it since they own the car. This is why ordinary folks have trouble becoming rich folks.
Technically he’s making more by struggling, writing an article about it, and only THEN buying the dip remover and expensing it. In the mean time he might get some good ideas from others with experience. Unfortunately that’s not me, but I would have gone straight for acetone (only not expensive place to get it is a welding supply store), but I really like the brake fluid suggestion. I’d be worried about the factory paint coming off, but he says they’re getting repainted.
Fun Acetone story: If you buy it for industrial use it comes in a metal can or drum and you’re paying for that. If you want the absolute cheapest acetone, go to Walmart and buy 8 pints of nail polish remover for significantly less than a gallon of acetone in the Paint department! It’s 99.975% acetone and 0.025% fragrance.
I’m honestly surprised by how cheap it is now having looked it up on target’s website. (1 block walk vs 4 mile drive) It’s probably now a bit cheaper instead of noticeably more expensive getting it that way. I still don’t feel that bad for paying $15-20 per gallon at a welding shop though as I get to keep the metal can. 🙂
David still got that Michigan in him.
“I will save $40 by pouring old gas on these wheels”
*Pours $50 worth of CA gas on wheels*
Brake fluid? Its nasty to paint and shouldn’t react with aluminum.
That could work, not so much dissolve the plastidip but if it gets underneath it, it could help lift it off.
Actually I just used that Dip Dissolver with a buddy a few weeks ago, and it works really, really, really well. Worth $40 imho.
Best part? Smells wonderful.
Worst part? It will kill your grass, ask me how I know.
d-Limonene! It’s made from orange peels
Brake cleaner. I use that for everything. Not sure it will work, but it won’t not not work.
Pure Citrus® Orange Air Freshener.
Spray, wipe, repeat.
Seriously, this will solve your problem fathead.
Melting it with D-limonene / Goo Gone and making it smeary sounds like extra pain. You can also spray a thick coat of Plasti-Dip on, wait a day and peel it off. Like using a good sticker to remove sticker-goo from a surface.
Ah, SN95 tri-spokes, one of the factory wheels that looks better on pretty much any car than the car it originally came on.
I have Plasti-Dipped wheels but thankfully have not had to remove it. I did use multiple light coats to hopefully make removal easier.
Not saying for sure it will help, or that you haven’t yet tried, but do you have a tighter dispersion tip for the pressure washer? Something in the 10-20° range should give more penetration power. Also soak it in anything you can.
I would try Racing Rubber Remover
Sir, excuse me, but those are SN95 wheels. 1994-1998. Fox IV if you want to get technical. I guess they also were on the 1993 Cobra R….I’ll give you that. But those were painted black, and they only built 107…. so, not exactly plentiful. But I’m being pedantic and I forgive you.
Beat me to this comment by 44 seconds.
Alright! I’m never first!
Gives a new meaning to “forever chemicals.”
Plastidip is just spray glue with dye in it, all the stuff on the SDS is pretty run of the mill chemicals used in industrial glues.
Try drain cleaner, whatever is the most aggressive type you can find.
This is probably the most aggressive one you can get:
https://www.oatey.com/products/hercules-clobber-drain-and-waste-system-cleaner–2095099000
Not a good idea on aluminum:
https://aluminium-guide.com/chemical-reactions-aluminium/?amp=1
Nor hydroxide based drain openers:
https://shop.machinemfg.com/the-chemical-reaction-between-aluminum-and-sodium-hydroxide/
Even if you end up with a passified layer it probably won’t look good.
I meant it could work, I didn’t say it would be pretty! haha.
But yea you are right, it will cause pitting or something at the least.
But will these wheels really look ok regardless? I figure he wanted to get the plastidip off then respray them in some color. You can see from the pics that its already going through the clear coat and probably the paint too, so… doesn’t seem like a huge gamble. But, I’m not an expert on this stuff.
That’s true, the wheels will probably need to be repainted anyway, especially if there’s road rash.
I feel your pain, I just pulled plastidip from my grille the other day. It’s not all the way off and I have to pull the grill (and bumper to reach it) off to finish it. That was a poor choice
Even if you think your time is only worth $10/hr, a $40 solution sounds cheap. Just think of it as deciding if getting a day with your kid is worth $40.
Near industrial quantities of isopropanol and patience, If you can, submerge the offending wheel, leave for ten or twenty minutes, pressure wash and repeat.
During the height of Covid I needed some for both some welding and 3d printing projects and it was either impossible to find or the 91% stuff was marked up to almost $20 a pint. I ended up finding 4 Gallons of 99% lab grade Isopropyl for $40 with free shipping. There ends up being a huge difference between the two both in cleaning ability and skin safety. I’ve worked with 91% for 30 minutes at a time without noticing anything, but after 30 seconds in contact with my skin and it’ll feel extremely dry for a day.
Yes, I should have mentioned the risk. The full on stuff does need care, tongs are useful things, when cleaning big bearings I use cheap gardening gloves and caution. It will get plastidip off though, and David is all grown up now, he will read all the warnings and be sensible.
The SDS on plastidip says the solvents were VM&P Naptha, Heptane, and MEK. IPA is polar like the others are, but the others are more polar (dumb chemistry nonsense) and will work faster.
“… but that’s 40 bucks. That’s not cheap, but also, time is valuable.”
I’ll happily spend an evening rebuilding a bike wheel that I could pay £25 to have done, because it’s something I enjoy. But for tedious messy jobs? Spend the money.
Also 40 bucks is cheap. If it saves you an hour then that 40 bucks has bought you an hour of quality time with Delmar, or an hour of sleep.
Hang on, this is a work project, right? That’s a business expense.
I don’t know how tax works in the US, but over here I’d be claiming that back (if my business made enough money to pay tax, which it does not).
No, it’s the same over here tax-wise.
I hope Elise (or even Delmar) holds the checkbook in the Not Her Real Name household.
Spending a weekend picking at plastidip like a meth head to save $40 makes about as much sense as shipping thousands of pounds of rotting s-box to socal.
“All you got a do is peel it off” they said. Bull. Shit.