The AsSALT - Follow Up Post #1

A few readers responded to my The AsSALT Begins post from last week.  Reader Carl sent along an email with his unique solution to the fight against salt corrosion.  He coated his entire bike with Plasti Dip.  He no longer has the bike and is not sure if he can dig up pictures, but he was kind enough to offer the text below.  And for another example of a unique use of Plasti Dip, see this past bike hacks post.  And if readers have other ideas/solutions, send them along to us for posting. 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Sold that bike to a buddy when I left the bay. It has since been stolen :(

He didn't double up on his locks. Don't think I have any pics of it... but here is a basic write-up . . .

During one of my yearly tear-downs, I decided I wanted to paint it. While I was shopping for paint, I noticed plast-dip [PD] was being sold in a spray can. So I bought 3 cans of the stuff.

I only pulled the bb because I was replacing it anyways, otherwise I would have just masked it off, cause I sealed around the bb afterwards with some brush-on PD. Anyways, I had a bare frame, so I went to town with the spray. Every nook and cranny, cranks and handlebars, seat post, everything got 3 coats, each coat while the last one was still tacky.

After I put it back together, I laid down a coat on the headset and using a razor cut a slit around the bottom of it so it could move freely. Same for the bb, except I masked around the axle, and I had ran out of spray so I used brush on. Used aforementioned razor to clear the teeth on the crank of PD. Pretty sure that's all there was to it. It was a helluva lot more durable than spray paint, looked cool too.

It lasted about 8 months before it started to peel off in places, and once a year hit it was all gone. A buddy of mine told me that was because of 2 things; I didn't scuff the surface of the paint, and I didn't use a solvent to rid the surface of dirt and oils. He said if I had done those things, it probably would have lasted twice as long. So if you do it right, it's a yearly treatment, but its cheap, pretty easy and doesn't care when your chain/u-lock smacks into it.

I'm planning on doing the same thing to my current bike this winter, but using spray on truck bed liner, since I moved inland and need toughness more than water proofing. We'll see how that goes, and if it works I'll be sure to get you pics of this one.

Comments

[James]

I'm a proponent of bed liner. It's very durable when prepped properly. I've painted hatchet handles, fork of my commuter and bumpers on my truck and jeep. Definitely a worth while coating for a bike. Could help uglify the bike for security aswell.

[peter]

plastic doesn't adhere, even if you had done those things (clean & rough up) it would have just sat on top, when moisture finds its way in between the plastic coat and the frame that is an ideal situation for rust or corrosion to develop. Use paint, that's what it was designed for. If you want to be radical use undercoat!

[Travis]

I've used plastidip on a lot of things. It doesn't matter what you do for surface prep. It WILL peel off. that's the way it was made. It still looks good and handles a lot more than you would think, but it will peel eventually. Bedliner on the other hand, if prepared right, will last a long time. I have done both and the bedliner succeeds where the plastidip fails

[Oahu Sheer]

I prefer plastidip for both its temporary status (paint is a "permanent" finish, ya?) and the cool flat finishes ,aka stealth/ninja/Batman coats. The more layers you use, the more protection and durability you get, and the easier to remove it, one day. It can also go on very smoothly if you use the right techniques, and definitely lasts longer than my fickleness and desire to see what another color would look like... Plastidip comes in all kinds of colors, now, including metallics, and is also available with a glossy finish.