With a dark color like black, you focus on the gloss more aka light. These easiest way to spot an imperfection is the change of light. Your eyes are real good about spotting changes in light so that dent is going to create changes in the reflection and make itself obvious. I would think the best option for hiding imperfections would be a satin/matte white
Protege5: Harder, not Smarter!
- Thread starter Tamn
- Start date
Hmmm I just don't like white cars =/
Hood as of now is flawless more or less, I was just thinking about in the future, the bondo might start to crack or flex with age and imperfections will develop.
The plastidip will probably only last about 9 months on your hood though, especially if you do a lot of highway driving. I still think it's a good choice, but just be prepared to be re-dipping in a year or so. Be sure to put a LOT of coats on and make sure the plastidip wraps around the corners so it doesn't peel up over the hood over time.
I haven't done an entire hood, but I'd imagine probably two cans. I'd pick up three to be safe, plus there's never anything wrong with having plasti-dip laying around, you'll always find a use for it (2thumbs) and definitely do it before you mount the hood to the car, it will be much easier (kind of common sense but worth mentioning)
on the can it says how many square feet it covers, but I'm totally drawing a blank on the number.... Take the word of that number over mine!
on the can it says how many square feet it covers, but I'm totally drawing a blank on the number.... Take the word of that number over mine!
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Aight cool thanks gonna be fun, always wanted to try that stuff out
^this^ he's right right right
Take his advice, he plastidipped the front of his hood as a bra so he should know. 2-3 cans sounds right. It is always a good idea to have plastidip at the house.
*Sorry, I agree so much I had to point it out lol
Yea I went out and got 3 cans, doing it now. Hoho it looks badass (wow)
you are trying to make things lighter yet you got 3 cans of plasti dip for the hood?? put that s*** on your scale. then go buy some vinyl when you see how much weight you will save. paint is heavy, liquid rubber is heavier.
very interesting build thread you have going here.
Wahaha, I can go a little extreme with the hood finish afterall the hood only weighs 4.5 pounds unpainted.
It will...hold it down better? xD
Running some adhesive backed foam weatherstripping around the bottom edge of the hood to help seal it better and also bought some rubber corklike thingybobbys I'm gonna use glue on to get the hood to lay flush since its laying below the fenders on the test run I did yesterday. I took a stroll to wally world and picked up some 6" fishing leaders in the uh....automotive section(whistle), snipped the weights off them and used them as hood pin wires. Looking pretty smexy but I'm pretty sure the gap to the fenders is gonna be pretty large compared to....*looks over at mazdaspeed3 hood*
But I honestly don't mind and I don't care what anyone says, I'm so proud of building the entire thing from scratch with zero fiber-glassing experience. In my opinion it looks like a million bucks and it weighs close to nothing. It's pretty terrifiying how light it came out, depending on what it does at race speeds I may lay some balsa wood framing below it and fiberglass it on.
Anyways....I'll post pictures up tonight, It should be totally done by then. (finally!!!)
But I honestly don't mind and I don't care what anyone says, I'm so proud of building the entire thing from scratch with zero fiber-glassing experience. In my opinion it looks like a million bucks and it weighs close to nothing. It's pretty terrifiying how light it came out, depending on what it does at race speeds I may lay some balsa wood framing below it and fiberglass it on.
Anyways....I'll post pictures up tonight, It should be totally done by then. (finally!!!)
I applied adhesive foam weatherstripping around the front edge and sides to help defeat the evil air trying to catch the edge of the hood.
Used existing holes when I could for the pin posts, just enlarged the holes already there, except for the drivers rear side post.
Used fishing leaders for pin leashes. Hell yea
Fit actually came out ALOT better than I expected, I think its totally wicked. I didn't even adjust the fenders position, but I'll do that later to get the gap even smaller, I believe I can get it even closer to stock fitment.
Kind of hard to see the color, I was taking the pictures as the sun was setting and the flash makes it hard to see. But...It looks AMAZING, 3 coats of black plasti-dip turned out awesome.
Seems pretty tough from initial handling too, I think it's gonna hold up well. It actually stiffened the hell out of the hood, probably reduced flexing by half or more? Hood is extremely solid and there is zero gaps below after putting the foam on for air to catch the hood. I honestly don't think any more bracing will be needed.
Took an incredibly long time to make, much much longer than I expected but I really think its very cool. 100% made by myself with 100% no fiber glassing or composite experience ever. I weighed the hood before the plasti-dip it came out to 4.5 pounds counting the metal reinforcements around the holes. Comparison to stock hood weight is non existent, totally blows it out of the water. The stock hood hinges weigh about the same as the entire hood now...
Another thing...on second thought I might not want to adjust the fenders to sit tighter. It's totally hard to get the hood off of the hinges by myself with nothing to grab onto. A larger gap would actually help in that regards. I'm thinking of maybe some kind of pull wires on each side or something....
Oh god...rambling (eek)
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Jackie chan
Member
- :
- Pro5
Props! That came out soooo Good! Nice work im jelly.
Yea! I might put another rubber spacer in the middle of the side of the hood...theres a tad bit of sag on the passenger side, but besides that...
CheeseHelmet
Member
Good job Tamn, it turned out much better than I expected 
