Having seen lots of people using plasti-dip to coat their car wheels, and even entire cars, I wondered how it might work on a uni frame. Got some gunmetal color plasti-dip and sprayed a few coats on my KH G26er frame, and after several MUni rides it’s holding up great with no peeling or noticeable wear.
Unlike paint and especially powdercoated surfaces, it can be easily removed by getting under an edge and simply peeling it off. That means no sanding or stripping required! Also coated the bar ends to match, for an instant, no-slip grip!
Should stay on fine unless you have a rim brake. People coat their car rims with it and a car rim is exposed to the elements a lot more severe than a uni rim.
Here’s an example of a plasti-dipped rim and an entire car!
I’m rebuilding my 26er and am planning to get the frame hydrodipped before I put it back together. There are lots of cool patterns and it lasts a long time.
How grippy is it? My legs rub a lot on the outside of my fork on my muni. Not usually a big deal as they just slide on the slick factory paint. Have you noticed any extra friction with this?
Pretty smooth, and because I have maggies, they are the first point of contact for my legs, if any. But if you find that your legs are coming in contact with the sides of the frame, you can either cover the area of contact with some clear tape, or apply some kind of dry lube spray. I have had some paint rubs off several frames from leg contact, so it does happen, but it is pretty easy to simply respray/touch up any areas that might get rubbed away.
Well, that’s cool. The plasti-dip looks really nice, by the way. Great job on that.’
I guess I’m built weird. I have maggies too, but my legs still rub on the sides of the forks. My legs are kind of short and stocky, which is probably why.
Since you mentioned that there’s no prep or stripping required, it sounds like a good way to paint my old Schwinn. It’s not the Schwinn I learned on back in the 80’s, but it does have some sentimental value as it’s very similar (actually older), and I’ve had it for over 20 years. It’s not worth selling, and I’ve been procrastinating on the project due to the prep required to paint it.
When you get them in, I’d be curious to know how well the decals stick to it. It would be cool to put back something similar to the original Schwinn decals on the sides of the fork if I do get around to painting it.
As always, you’re full of good ideas. Thanks for sharing your project!
someone either posted or told me about a solution that is sold by either Caswell or Eastwood that is better than lacquer and clear PC for coating brass. I’ve searched both sites but can’t locate anything like it. Does anyone know what this solution may be and can point me in the right direction?
The “UG” logo is temporary until the customs stickers arrive. My design looks like this:
