FINALLY! I started some work on my Aveo!

[MoneyMike]

Well, just the cheap and fairly quick stuff. Plastidipping the exterior chrome, both bowties, and the headlights and tail lights. The tail lights were done a month ago, though. I did the headlights last night, but they need a little touch up. I just painted the front bowtie and I'm waiting for that to dry. Then it's just the rear badging, the vents on the side fenders, and the chrome surround on the grille. I might even get around to removing the GM emblems. Here's how the project is coming along so far. I'd get a pic of the front emblem, but it's raining and the wind is so nice to direct that rain into the garage (front end facing the door), so I'm waiting for the bowtie to dry.

[MoneyMike]

I decided that I want to use actual paint on the chrome and bowties, but here is what it looked like on the front end.


I bought a can of Rust-Oleum Automotive Enamal (flat black color, and I'm going to use this on the other stuff as well) earlier today. I debadged the GM fender emblems, as well as the AVEO5 and LT on the hatch. I painted the AVEO5 and LT with the Rust-Oleum and I'll put those emblems back on tomorrow afternoon with some 3M emblem glue that I bought a while ago for another project. Anyways, here is the end result of the painting process, as well as how cleanly the debadging is.

[t.fader]

coming along very nicely man

[MoneyMike]

Thanks. It's coming along slowly, but surely. I learned with the plasti dip, that it's hard to do the fender vents well, unless you remove them. And I gave up trying to remove the fender. But, I have a feeling that the Aveo will look nice when I get it wrapped up.

[dahanger]

So, what is the difference between plasti-dipping and spray paint? I've seen videos but I don't quite understand.

[MoneyMike]

Plasti Dip, you can go buy a can and only really have to do a decent amount of taping to protect other surfaces from overspray. I can tell you from experience that overspray still sucks with plasti dip. And more importantly, if you decide that you don't like it anymore or want to change either colors or your design, you can peel the plasti dip right off, provided you spray enough layers to make it very easy. Conventional spray paint requires prep work, like sanding (maybe primer or adhesive promoter as well), and if you don't like it, you got to go buy the original color and go through the whole process again. More or less how I've always understoond it.

I just wanted the job to last, as rock chips can mess up a plasti dip job quickly. The slightest chip, and if you decide to mess with it, you'll end up pulling the whole thing off, and you'd have to redo everything. That happened on one of the grille pieces, and I decided that spending $5 and the extra time to prep everything is a lot better than keep spending $6 for a can of plasti dip. I don't mind it on the head lights and tail lights, as those jobs are in an area where it can't get harmed.


As for the project, I attempted to put the emblems back on, and cleaned the excess adhesive. Turns out that I should have allowed the paint to dry more. So, I had to redo the paint on the emblems. I'm going to let them sit for the next day, and try to put the adhesive on Wedsnday morning.

[dahanger]

I painted my front emblem to white since that's the color of my car. I didn't sand or prep or anything but it seems to be sticking pretty well. I eventually want to paint the grill area black to give it a "beard/goatee" like Volkswagen has on some cars.

[MoneyMike]

It's been a while, but I finally got another pic of how some of the project has progressed. Instead of putting the emblems back on the rear, I decided to put them on the back of the clock. I also got the bowties and vents painted, but those need a little touch up work. I plan to do that, and get the grille surrounds done in the spring time. I'm also strongly considering painting the calipers and rotors black (especially if/when I get a nicer set of wheels), as well as a thing or 2 under the hood.

[chevy_driver]

Looks nice. Keep up the work!

[Geo]

looks great