Changing up your bike’s color with Plasti-Dip

I’m sure you’ve all heard of Plasti-Dip. It’s that rubber coating that you can dip your tools into so you’ll get a rubberized surface. If you have pair of pliers that have a rubber handle, that stuff is like Plasti-Dip.

However, what I did was use the spray can version of it. Since I’ve been watching Youtube Videos on how people use Plasti-Dip (dip) on various car, wheel, motorcycle and anything that people want dipped. My first experience with it was my motorcycle.

I wanted to change up the way it looks, and what better way to do that than the color. I went with the matte black. I bought 2 cans from Home Depot for $5.97 each.Below are my side covers and tank.

Here’s how they turned out.

Knowing that it was easy to use and the dip was readily available, I decided to try it on Burt Reynolds. Stripped down the bike to it’s frame. Gave it a good washing by using soapy water and some degreaser.

As I started working, I noticed that there was a texture starting to develop with the dip. Not satisfied with it, I decided to rip off the 4 coats that I just did and start over. Look, it really does just peel off!

By the way, I didn’t bother removing the headset cups and bottom bracket cups. I made sure to spray directly on them because the dip easily peels right off once you’re done.

After 5 coats, that’s 1.5 cans of Dip, I got this.

Remember the bottom bracket cups? Well all I had to do was cut around them with a sharp knife and peel. I did the same for the headset.

Here’s the finished product. Not bad eh. I’m not entirely convinced if I like the way this color covers. You can still see the REDLINE logo underneath. Not that I don’t like REDLINE, love those guys, but the black dip covered up everything on my motorcycle.

Here’s a closer look of the frame.

My Chris King headset nice and clean, no dip residue.

I’ll be riding this weekend to see how well it holds up. By the way this stuff gets EVERYWHERE! But the good thing is, its easy to clean up.

One thing to keep in mind when working with dip. Do it where there is very little wind. Also, I learned that you have to hit the spray nozzle before you spray the frame. If you point the nozzle to the frame, then hit it, you’ll get globs. So remember, hit nozzle, spray, then pass over the frame. You can find basic colors of Plasti-Dip at your local Home Depot for $5.97. I happen to get lucky with the Blue Blaze color, they normally don’t stock that. Plasti-Dip offers a variety of colors and you can order them online, but be prepared to pay as much as $10 a can plus shipping.