After looking at a lot of different "matte" or "satin" paint options, I think I may give the 3M Scotchprint a whirl.

Like this eBay auction

Pros:
Relatively inexpensive : I'll know $35 into it, if it will work for me or not.
Changeable : Easy-ish to peel it off and try a different color if I want.
Color options : I can get 2-3 different metallics to see which one I like best.
Quick install : Seems like a weekend project.

Cons:
Only lasts 5 years : Who actually keeps their 914 for that long?
Could peel up in corners : Use the adhesive pen they offer.
Could look REAL bad : So can paint if you don't do it right.

I'd love to be able to do this right over the primer, but I don't know that it'll stick to it. I'm going to play this weekend and see what happens. I ordered (free) samples from 3M. They're sending me an 8X10 sheet of all the different colors they have.

I would like to cover some fiberglass bumpers in chrome.

Where did you order the samples from?
Let me know how it goes.

Stu

I just did it from the website.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_U...RequestSamples/

I also ordered a bunch of 1'x5' rolls off of Amazon to check out all the matte finishes I was interested in. Black, silver, grey, green, and orange. I should have them by the weekend. I should have the ugliest 535i in the neighborhood by Sunday!

Here's a link to what I bought on Amazon

A 60' roll (which I should be able to wrap the whole car in) is less than $600...so that's pretty appealing if my test-runs prove easy.

from the sign guy across the street who does full wraps....

The car needs to be painted perfectly with no primer exposed.

The material is designed to stick to paint...

Cost made it not worthwhile unless you have a decent paint job.

rich

Yeah, I was thinking that would be the case.

I'm still going to play around and see how it goes. It'll be a lot easier for me to do a good 'shine' paintjob, and then apply the vinyl, than it would for me to make the matte finish look uniform.

I ordered a few pints of matte silver paint as well. I'll try spraying that and see what I come up with.

At the very least: fun experiments.

From what I have been told the Matte finish you are seeing around it just a standard base/clearcoat paint job with an additive to the clear to keep it from being so shiny...

So it should be the same process.

rich

There are several original owners on this forum. It would be interesting to see the average years that members have been 914 owners.

I set up a survey on this forum:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=218060

With a garage paint-job, there's a lot of cutting/buffing that you can do to make up for a "less than stellar" environment with a shiny paint job. You can't buff (or even wax) a matte finish, so you need to be damn-sure you get it right. That's my only apprehension.

I suppose I could pay someone with a proper paint-booth the $600 to shoot it matte/satin, but I like the idea of changing my paint-job whenever the mood strikes.

Doug -

Have you ever looked into plasti-dipping a car? Actually kind of interesting, un-doable like vinyl, and offers matte finish.

https://www.dipyourcar.com/

-Jamie

Wow. That's actually kinda cool. I may buy a rattle-can of it and see.

I bought a few cans of the spray to see what it would look likely my rims. VERY easy to spray on and got great coverage. I am going to let it dry for a fee days, but here's what it looks like now.

That looks SWEET!

I bought a can to do a two-tone on my daughter's softball batting helmet, but haven't done it yet. Also been thinking about doing my wheels. Hmm, looks like a holiday weekend project...

You did that so fast, you apparently found it locally instead of ordering.
Who carries it?

Stu

Home Depot carries the base colors (White, Black) for only $4.50 a can! I also bought a can from HD of the "Glossifier" that I'll do a coat of on another rim (on top of the black) tonight to compare with this rim. I can always peel it off later. I figured I'd start with the Black on these rims to see how it would look from an application & finish standpoint.

I also ordered 4 cans of the "Anthracite" from DipYourCar.com for the rims on my BMW to see how that goes. If I decide to do the whole car, I'd do it in Anthracite.

I should have the 3M Scotchprint I ordered tomorrow, so I'm going to compare the two on a few body panels I have here to see which one I like better. The Scotchprint and PlastiDip are similarly priced when you factor in the cost of buying a proper sprayer for the PlastiDip. I'd be $500~ into either scenario. I like that the PlastiDip can go over Primer, and I'll have to do that either way.



Yeah...that's kinda how I roll. I'm stocking up on parts now. Just waiting on my car to arrive right now...I plan on going hard/fast on the body work I need to do for the rest of this summer.

Got my Scotchprint samples today.

Immediately, I can see that this will be a lot higher quality than the PlastiDip. The other side of that is PlastiDip will be more forgiving for sure! I'll need a very smooth finish to ensure I'm not making a small inperfection MORE pronounced.

I'm going to put a few pieces on my car a little later today.

I bought samples from Metrorestyling.com. They have 3 x 4 samples for 99 cents.

From 3Ms website, 8x10 samples are free. And they send you all 22.

HD's around here now carry about 10 different colors of plasti-dip, including gun metal. The nice part about plasti dip is if you get rock chip or scratch, you simply clean up the torn dip and add a few layers of fresh...all done.

Fully agree. That's part of what attracted me to it. I ordered a few cans that I'm going to try on my BMW when they arrive. I've also got Scotchprint, and a few 1'X5' sheets of Oracal 970RA to compare. I'll apply all three and make a determination from there.

The fit/finish of the Vinyl seems to be the nicest so far. The PlastiDip may be good for a more temporary installation. I'm not sure if I'd like it on the WHOLE car. Seems a little too "sticky" for me. At least initially.

Pics to follow in the coming weeks.

I've been thinking of doing this to either Fuchs or Mahles. Seems like a matt finish? More pics?

The PlastiDip looks the exact same as it did in the pics. Again...SUPER easy to apply, and seems pretty durable. Peels off with a little effort, but doesn't seem like it would come off on its own.

How many free pieces would it take to harlequin the car for free?

PlastiDip on the rims on my BMW tonight...to see how they'd look and hold-up in a real-world environment.

It seriously only took about 45min for the prep and application. A deck of cards works real well to keep the spray off of the tires.

4-5 coats and I was in business. I only used 2 cans, and these rims are 19" and pretty complicated with a lot of surface and nooks/crannies. I'm guessing you could get away with 2-3 cans and have plenty left over on standard 17" rims.

I'm wondering what happens when you need to remove a rim... I think there is a reason all the videos show this process done while on the car...

I'm replacing the rear tires in a few weeks. I'll take pics.

Honestly, touch-up would be a snap. I'm not sure I'd worry about it all that much. I'm more interested in wear/tear over a few weeks.

That turned out nice! Let us know how it holds up.

I did the rims on my beater Civic a while back and as long as you take on/off the rims yourself, nothing will happen. You get some grease monkey in there with the impact wrench and I'm sure they will screw it up. The plasti-dip holds up better than you think, but isn't indestructible.

How does the curb rash end up looking? Does it hide it a bit?

Not as much as I'd hoped. I guess it DOES fill it in a little if you cake it on in that area. Don't expect miracles though.

Depending on the color, it may actually exaggerate the appearance. I'll take a close-up tomorrow when I'm back in Cleveland.