Alright so I pulled the trigger and bought 3 cans of Autodip (if you're unfamiliar with it, it's basically a similar idea to Plasti Dip except it's vinyl based instead of rubber) to dip my stock rims. My question is: will I need to strip the rim completely of paint and clear coat to get down to bare aluminum before I dip my rims? The guy who owned it before me rashed them up pretty bad so I was going to have them sanded down and smoothed before I dip them, so should I just have them stripped entirely? I realize that it would be pretty expensive to do this and I'd much rather just have the rash sanded out and then dip the rims

 

Just grab some different levels of sand paper, starting with 150 and work your way up to 2000 making it nice and smooth. Takes a little time but saves money and the finish will look great...well pending your painting skills.
Add a couple coats of paint adhesion or primer to help with the dip.

 

^^ I mean it depends how long you want it to last. You really only Need to sand down to about 400 grit to apply dip based paints, anything smoother and you have to primer.

 

Most rattle cans I've used have instructions on the can, what does it tell you to do? I'm sure it says something about being clean, very clean! So I'd use Dawn detergent and a pan scrubber pad both inside and out. (back/front of wheel) Once the wheel is dry then you can use masking tape and news paper to cover those areas you don't wish to dip. This is almost like using the real thing...paint!
Gary

 

Post pics of the autodip when done. I've always wondered how it looked

 

just curious as to why you are sanding them?
they are the same premise as plastidip then you should do any prep work besides cleaning them.
its supposed to protect the factory finish.

if you are sanding and doing prepwork, then just paint it and clear it and have it look 1.5 million times better.

 

+1 here...with any of these types of sprays you shouldn't be sanding anything. Just clean them very well and/or clay bar them then 70/30 alcohol+water spray them to make sure they are clean, mask and spray. If you sand them might as well actually paint them at that point.

 

It'd be a waste of time even to dip over the rash...still noticeable

 

I mean it depends how long you want it to last.

 

Based on the video. No need to sand the surface. Just clean it thoroughly before using autodip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnpl...ature=youtu.be

 

I wanted to sand them down to get rid of the curb rash. I didn't want any scraps and bumps to show through the dip so I was going to get them smoothed out.

 

The reason I want to use autodip instead of paint is because (besides being cheap) I wanted to have a temporary addition to the car that still looks good.

 

if you are sanding them you need to paint them.
is there something getting lost in translation that im missing or

 

Why do I need to paint them if I sand them? I'm not going to be sanding them to aluminum, I just want to buff out some scratches