My tonneau cover on my 8.1 was starting to look cracked and faded, being stored outside in the Florida sun. I decided to try to refinish and change the color from gray to black,with vinyl & fabric paint from Duplicolor. The paint didn't hold up to well,even with the fitted cover I had gotten to protect the trailer.I got a brainstorm one evening when someone on my car forum posted that he had just painted his rims with Plasti Dip. Since I was familar with the product I thought I'd try it to refinish my cover since it dries to a flexable plastic and it would seal all the cracks well. One thing I can say is I think I found something that works because it's holding up pretty well so far since I did it last week. Also it rolls up just fine without the problems I had with the paint wanting to stick to itself if the cover was rolled up when hot. Overall, the Plasti Dip is cheap way to spruce up an old cover without the hassle of getting a new cover and having to install and fit new snaps. The stuff was 5.98 for an 11 oz can at Lowes (used 5 cans to fully do the cover) and if you don't want to change color it also comes in a gray that is close to the stock color.
Quote from: cmpr" timestamp="1414368717" source="/post/4440/thread[div][/div]Just wondering how the plasti dip held up through the season? Would you still recommend it?
It's held up pretty good.Cheaper than buying a new cover and having to install all the snaps.I still recommend it,but if I ever had to replace the cover I would have one made from a waterproof canvas instead of the stock material.
Just "plasti-dipped" mine! I think it looks pretty good.... what do you think guys?
I'm gonna get just one more can to give it a final hand for the rough spots on top of the cover...
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Man that looks good. I may have to do it to mine now. Being that I have a black 10.0 I think it would look slick if I could black out the cover as well :)
Quote from: @admin" source="/post/18400/thread" timestamp="1454681434Man that looks good. I may have to do it to mine now. Being that I have a black 10.0 I think it would look slick if I could black out the cover as well :)
Yeah! It will look great!! Just a piece of advice...you'll want to stop a few times during the process...your finger will go numb and it will hurt a little bit!!!
Show us some pictures when you do it!!!
Ah!! Another thing...For the 10.0, you may want to buy 6-7 cans.
Good luck!!!
Was quoted over $400 for a replacement tonneau cover for our QS 8.1 and have to drive over 50 miles to pick it up from the nearest dealer. Its amazing that a company can put out a temporary product like this. Our cover is only 3 years old.
Thanks for this tip! We will try it.
Hrogersb, that looks great! I'm new around here, and as I read through various threads, I'm amazed at the resourcefulness of QS pop up owners!!!
Quote from: @hrogersb" timestamp="1454675373" source="/post/18398/threadJust "plasti-dipped" mine! I think it looks pretty good.... what do you think guys?
I'm gonna get just one more can to give it a final hand for the rough spots on top of the cover...
Now that the coating is several months old, how is this holding up? Any issues?
Followed the suggestion to buy the Plasti Dip spray can (black). It took 7 cans to cover the tonneau completely on my 8.1 last weekend.
Also bought this nifty can sprayer tool which really made the spray job go fast (and painless) for only $3:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-Stops-Rust-Economy-Spray-Grip-Accessory-243546/100140106
WELL -- the application seemed very thin and brittle with just the 7 cans of the blank rubber sprayed on. So I purchased a can of the paint (non-spray):
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Plasti-Dip-14-5-oz-Black-Rubber-Coating-11603-6/202196703
Also purchased a cheap sponge brush to apply it.
This stuff was too thick and, using the brush, I wasn't able to cover much. Basically I wasted the entire can of paint.
After reading up on a few other sites on how other people use this stuff (mainly to paint/protect their vehicles), I decided to thin it so it would be easier to apply. This weekend I went out and bought 2 more cans of the paint on Plasti Dip and a 32 oz bottle of paint thinner, specifically this one:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Klean-Strip-1-qt-Green-Safer-Paint-Thinner-QKKP75010/100677234
(In CA, Home Depot doesn't carry any of the other specific types of thinner that are recommended.) Luckily, this one worked well and it was just a bit more than enough to cut the 2 cans of Plasti Dip paint (14.5 oz each). The mixture I used was approximately 50/50.
I was able to use the 2 cans with almost entire bottle of thinner to paint the entire top of the tonneau. It went on nice and smooth, easily. I would have saved a lot of money had I just done this instead of using the spray ( 7 cans of spray and 1 can of paint came out to about $50).
For the final application, I used 2 cans of paint ($14) and 1 bottle of thinner ($8) and a few more dollars for painting materials. This application came out to well under $30 total.
For the bigger punctures in tonneau you may have to patch them first then come back and apply this paint more thickly to get a good seal -- but it looks like I can come back and patch as needed very inexpensively now.
I'm to the point that I need to replace my tonneau. Not sure what model camper I have, as it was purchased used a few years ago and the vin sticker is extremely faded. How has the plastidip held up the over the past couple years? I've patched mine in many places, have a few torn spots and a couple snaps broke. I'm really stretching this tonneau's milelage. lol
[quote source="/post/24519/thread" author="@revteedub" timestamp="1473520976"][quote source="/post/18398/thread" author="@hrogersb" timestamp="1454675373"]Just "plasti-dipped" mine! I think it looks pretty good.... what do you think guys?
I'm gonna get just one more can to give it a final hand for the rough spots on top of the cover...
[/quote]Now that the coating is several months old, how is this holding up? Any issues?
[/quote]Hi!.... well, it's a little "mistreated" by the elements during the winter, but the plastidip is holding up just fine, maybe I'll get it plasti-dipped again for this camping season, but just for aesthetics purposes....
It would kind of cool to paint some kind of design or picture on it.