Post YOUR Hatchback here
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By Ahkten
#315387 Well folks! I've officially had my car for a whole year! Woo hoo!

A couple of updates,

ive bought H&R lowering springs and KYB Struts!!! Finally i will be lower than good ol monster truck height!

I had a valve cover gasket leak, and i was leaking oil at a pretty solid rate. So last week i changed the gasket plus the tube seals and wow! My mind could be playing trickd on me, but the car seems very peppy and responsive. burns alot less oil too :)

Ill be buying my Honda Centre Caps for my rims, along with two new tires for my rear since rainy season is coming fast here in Vancouver.

ill post pics of the springs and struts soon!

Here is a pic of the new struts and springs! :)

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-Nick
Last edited by Ahkten on Fri Oct 05, 2012 8:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By Ahkten
#317327 Hey guys!

So i've come to bring a bit of stuff i did this week!

I PLASTIDIPPED MY ROOF!

I'm broke as hell, and I cant afford to A) Paint my roof or B) Cover it in Vinyl.

So, I decided to experiment with 4 cans of Plasti-dip.

All i can say is WOW! This shit is amazing...I used 3 full cans of the stuff to paint 9 coats on my roof, 4 coats on my duckbill and 4 coats on both of the badges front and back.

Here are some photos of before I Plasti-dipped. You can see how bad my clear coat is blistered and chipped.

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By Ahkten
#317328 Now, just so I don't bore you with small changes, I'll upload the 1st coat, 5th coat and the Last final 9th coat on my roof!

Here we go!

First coat:

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As you can see, there isn't much change. For those of you who haven't used plasti-dip, you aren't supposed to go full on thick right off the bat. You'll want to only create a very transparent layer, roughly 50-60 transparency!
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By Ahkten
#317329 Okay, now for the 5th coat!


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You can see that the clear coat is starting to become less visible.

Again, this is 5 coats in. Generally you'll want each layer to dry atleast 30-40 minutes apart to avoid a very textured finished product.
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By Ahkten
#317331 Now for the final 9th coat!


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So I didn't let the last few layers dry properly, and since we were using spray CANS, the layers became uneven in the middle of the roof. However, we plan on combating that by wetsanding down a few layers, and then spraying another 2 coats of Dip on.

You can also see small pieces of almost dirt or dust on the top of my roof. This is the result of the can getting clogged up and spaying dried dip on the roof. I did some reading and learned that you shouldn't use a single can of Dip for more than a minute, it's better if you rotate and change cans.
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By Ahkten
#317334 Now for the Final product with my duckbill installed!

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You can see that it pooled and dried out pretty strange! My dad and I figured that since it wasn't an even spray near the center of the roof, it ended up this way.

Like i said, this is the first time we've ever used the product, so we weren't sure how it was going to act!
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By rootbeer_eg
#317341 hey nick i dont know if you can wet sand plastidip cause its rubber

if anything just peel it off and redo it
but does look good bud
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By Graham
#317344 Sorry but that roof looks terrible, why didn't you just prime and paint it with normal paint? 9 layers of that stuff and it still hasn't covered it - you could have primed it, flattened it and then painted your colour and clear on no problem!
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By Ahkten
#317345
Graham wrote:Sorry but that roof looks terrible, why didn't you just prime and paint it with normal paint? 9 layers of that stuff and it still hasn't covered it - you could have primed it, flattened it and then painted your colour and clear on no problem!


im going for a quick fix here. Its not permanent or anything. it cost me a total of $30 to do. im eventually planning on properly painting it, but hey, i just wanted to experiment. I dont mind how it looks. it doesnt effect me lol. i have bigger issues on my hands than a poorly painted roof.
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By Ahkten
#317346
rootbeer_eg wrote:hey nick i dont know if you can wet sand plastidip cause its rubber

if anything just peel it off and redo it
but does look good bud


thanks man, yeah i dunno, ive looked up on some places that i can wetsand with really high grit sand paper.

i figured id paint it so it doesnt get worse over the rainy/snow season of VAN.
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By Rudeboy EG
#317386 nice build up!! :thumb:

so what u gonna do with ur roof now...?
keep it with the plasti dip stuff or give it a new OEM paint?
like 1 of them said it would be better if you did it with paint...

but beside thatt ur carr looks nice!! :thumb:
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By Ahkten
#317387
Rudeboy EG wrote:nice build up!! :thumb:

so what u gonna do with ur roof now...?
keep it with the plasti dip stuff or give it a new OEM paint?
like 1 of them said it would be better if you did it with paint...

but beside thatt ur carr looks nice!! :thumb:


yup, i plan on painting it properly eventually. i just needed a temporary inexpensive fix to protect me from the rain and salt that comes from the winter. I figured that no matter what i did, the end result would still look better than badly worn clear coat. The last thing i wabt is my roof to start rusting! :)
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By brandoff88
#317417 personally i would have went to walmart and gotten about 4 or 5 cans of flat black paint...i think they are like a dollar and change each so for about 6 bucks and a couple hours of hand sanding...it could have come out 8490572384650 times better...not hatin just giving my two cents.
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By Ahkten
#317436
brandoff88 wrote:personally i would have went to walmart and gotten about 4 or 5 cans of flat black paint...i think they are like a dollar and change each so for about 6 bucks and a couple hours of hand sanding...it could have come out 8490572384650 times better...not hatin just giving my two cents.


Lol naw i understand. I'm planning on cleaning it up this week anyways. I figured that i've missed more layers in the middle, since i didn't have proper reach. It's more like, 9 layers on the side..and "X" amount of layers in the middle!
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By Graham
#317542 Just leave it if its a temporary fix, i didnt mean to be rude but you could paint it yourself easily enough, might have cost a bit more but would look so much better!