Please don't plastidip your M rims! WTF

 

Don't... but if you insist google it or search the forum. It's been done a very long time ago.

 

Yea I thought it looked like poop on my friends 370z

 

Disregard!!

 

If you just GOTTA do it, here's a DIY: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=1001273

 

Yeah and do not let others discourage you , its your car , in my opinion the black is the only one that looks decent , the other colors look plastic lol plastidip get it , but I did do my 5.0 94 5spd manual mustang and it looked great and lasted over 3 years , it's all about prep and application , I'm not in a position to buy new rims , so I'm thinking about doing my stock rims flat black also on my M3 , I will post pics later tonight after I'm done , and some ppl just think it's sacrilegious to do but they must forget it just peals off if you do not like it .. [emoji106] so if you feel like it do it

 

it peels off easy if you don't like it. just try it.

 

Plastidip looks good, but I'd advise against it from personal experience:

1. Removing it takes 4 times as long as applying it because oem wheels have too many nooks and slots
2. If you get curb rash and need to repair it, it's a pain because you have to liquify part of it first
3. You can't use wheel cleaners to remove the notorious BMW brake dust that builds up
4. This one's the worst: if you decide to later remove it, and your wheels had any microsopic cracks in the factory finish, the plastidip will actually remove the finish. Your wheel will look metallic gray underneath.

It's a cheap way to make the wheels look good, I'll be the first to admit it. But the maintenance of it isn't worth it to me. Luckily powder coating obliterated my plastidip mishap

 

^ Agreed. My gf had her wheels plastidipped on her Jetta before we were together and looking at the front wheels now it's caked in brake dust. I have no idea how to get that crap off. I can't even take the dip off because the paint underneath is horrible. Looks like a fun spring project....

 

It's going to suck. I found that rinsing the dust off, letting it dry, and then applying a can of WD40 per wheel made it more manageable to peel off. Even better if the rims are flat-surfaced and don't have spokes or w/e. Sincerely wish you the best. If you decide to get it powder coated, you don't have to remove the plastidid since they'll acid it off anyway.

 

I paid 300 for the OEM wheels to get powder coated and the results were worth every penny. I've plastidipped wheels before on my 325 and it came out okay...but come on its an M..

 

Not an M but X5 Style69. Anthacite Dip with metalizer coat and cleared. Not saying powdercoat level quality but not bad. Plus you can check out the look for about $70.

 

The question isn't the look or the application of plastidip, both are good. The problem is the maintenance and removal of it.

But if you're talking about plasti dipping those rims in your picture, then yeah it's easy. But I was talking about style 67 wheels which are oem on the m3

 

I see that it is more difficult. The vendors sell a plastidip remover that will just dissolve the dip.

 

My curb rash was so bad when I got this car that I sanded down the rash to minimum , primed with scratch fill primer , let cure then sprayed with one can of dip per rim , of course in coats from transparent to solid in about 4 to 5 coats , if you let it cure properly it will become hard as stone so washing with soap and water works fine for me , I plan on having them powder coated when I am able too but for a quick look improvement it's not a bad idea

 

Thanks @m3maxwell it does look pretty good, my m3 is the same exact body color and I feel like the plasidip OEM rims give it a meaner look thanks brother

 

Just a note , I redid it a few times and if you have to strip to redo just use a terry cloth towel and friction to remove . I wrapped a towel around a screwdriver to get the crevices , you can strip the dry dip off in like 10-15 minutes , have fun

 

don't do it....

 

I had done mine about a month after getting the car, around march. My reasoning behind it was the wheels were in surprisingly good shape and I wanted to protect them from any curb rash or rock chips, and also figured I could spice things up with a little color. I sprayed em vintage gold (no base coat) with 1 coat of glossifier for a satin finish. It turned out a lot better than I had expected it to.

The stuff was soooooo hard to keep clean tho, especially in the summer when it was hot. The plasti dip gets a little sticky in the heat and it makes the brake dust a massive pain to remove. You can indeed blast it with a pressure washer to remove the worst of it, but youll still have to wipe them down real good if you want them to look really clean. Most of the time I just ended up letting them look a little dingy as I got tired of it. Might not be as big an issue with a darker color I dunno.

In september I replaced the wheels with some vmr v710s. The plasti dip had held up well with no tears or abrasions anywhere. I only got around to trying to peel the dip off a week or two ago and I barely got thru one wheel before saying **** it. While it did indeed protect the finish there are so many little nooks and crannies that its really problematic getting all the dip off. In the official plastidip videos the wheels they peel are always simple spoke patterns with lots of space, but the //M spokes are thin and have lots of tight spaces between the double spokes. I had to go at it with a heat gun and a plastic spatula and even then it was difficult. This was with bare wheels too, I cant imagine how bad it wouldve been with tires mounted and the wheels on the car.

Would I recommend it? Yes, but only as a short-medium term thing. If you want to try out different colors before powder coating, protect your wheels during winter, or plan on getting a new set within 6 months then by all means plastidip them. But as a permanent or semi-permanent thing it just doesnt seem like it would be worth it.