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DIY PROJECT: Plasti-Dip your Mazda Wheels for Winter!

 

 

With winter rapidly approaching (most likely faster than most of us would like) we want to provide you with a way to protect your wheels from the Minnesota winters as well as maybe add a bit of style to your vehicle. We started with a 2014 Mazda 3 and thought it would add a bit of style to “Plasti Dip” the wheels for a temporary cover and black wheel option for winter. Plasti Dip is a rubberized removable spray can that you can apply to any vehicle wheel to help keep salt, snow, dirt and any other thing on the road from scratches or penetrating your wheels during the winter months. It is removeable and peels off quite easy when applied with about 3 coats.

Supplies Needed:

  • 3-4 cans of Black Plasti Dip | Cost: About $20 dollars (depending on wheel size, we used about 2.5 cans on 16″ wheels)
  • Masking Tape | Cost: About $6 Dollars (if you want to tape off the sidewall of the tire and surrounds of the wheel)
  • Tools to Remove Lugs and Wheel (Sockets and Wrenches can make life easier than using factory supplied tools)

 

We started with the factory silver wheels and made sure we cleaned them up really good for the Plasti Dip to stick to the wheel. We had a garage with a lift which made quick work of removing the wheels. You can use a jack to do one at a time which also can work quite well. You can leave the wheels on the vehicle if you would like but, make sure if you do this you cover your brakes and fenders up really well as to not get plasti dip anywhere inside the wheel well or on the vehicle. It’s worth the extra time to remove the wheels if possible.

 

The next step was to apply a first coat very lightly as you can see below. Make sure to continuously shake up the can as to not let it spray constantly for more than 1-2 mins without shaking. You can tape off the surrounding edges of the wheel and tire sidewall to prevent Plasti Dip getting onto the tire if you would like. We found that shooting the Black Plasti Dip the tire was not effected enough to spend the time taping off the tires. You can always peel of the extra spray on the tires when finished. Any other color being used we would suggest using masking tape to cover the edges and tires.

 

After you have let the first coat dry (about 15-30 mins depending on thickness) apply a second coat that just about covers most of the wheel and doesn’t let much silver show though.

 

After you let the second coat dry for about 30 minutes again you can apply a light final coat to the entire surface. You shouldn’t get the paint on to thick as to where it runs and looks streaky. Make simple passes over the top of the wheel surface from about 6-10 inches away from the wheel.

 

You should be all set and now ready to mount the wheels back on the car. If you can wait about a hour before mounting that is best. Be very careful putting them back on you should be good all set to go. Torque the wheels back down to the factory recommendations found in your owner’s manual.

 

If you have extra Plasti Dip you can always “black out” the emblems on the front and rear of the vehicle. Make sure to tape off the surrounding areas really well and if you do get a bit of overspray use your thumb to wipe away the over sprayed plasti dip.

 

Once you get the wheels back on sit back and enjoy your DIY Plasti Dip wheels!

 

 

 

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