can you "touch up" with plasti-dip?

[Nate Nagel]

subject says all...

exact application is a used Thule roof rack, one of the cross bars has a little chip in the rubbery coating, would prefer to buy a bottle of Plasti-dip rather than a new, expen$ive cross bar (bought rack used/cheap, wouldn't have paid the ~$800 for all new stuff)

just curious if the plasti-dip will bond properly to old rubberized coating or should I just use paint and forget about trying to make it look neat. I ASSume it will, and if I don't get a definitive reply I'll try it anyway and post back

thanks

nate

[aemeijers]

What do you have to lose? It'll either work or it won't, and if it doesn't, it won't look any worse than it does now. I'd swab it down with something sort of solvent to degrease it and to slightly soften the existing coating so the new stuff will bond. Those Thule racks are nice, but they sure are expensive, like most yuppie niche products. My sisters all have them on their little Subaru wagons, which are apparently mandatory for crunchy granola yuppies like them.

-- aem sends...

[Nate Nagel]

I agree that they are somewhat of a yuppie flag, but they *are* well made and sturdy. I tend to err on the side of bulletproof overengineering, plus I have memories of my parents and their cheap bike rack as a kid... on top of a Renault Encore no less :) I literally saved my beloved Schwinn from an early death by grabbing it as it fell off the bike rack while riding in said car (not sure why I was in the front passenger seat, but I was) if we'd had air conditioning I would have been mowing grass to get another bike :) I resolved if I ever got a bike rack of my own it would be made of something sturdier and would have proper fork mounts... (the actual failure was a downtube clamp that was difficult to properly tighten)

Obviously I am not paying list price for this stuff, I am scavenging off of Craigslist. That's one advantage to living in an urban area.

nate

[aemeijers]

I was referring to the Subaru Outbacks, not the bike racks on top of them. I may see 2-3 in this blue collar town, but every college town seems to have hundreds of them, and they aren't being driven by college kids.

But, yes, a lot of the outbacks DO seem to have Thule or Yakima racks on them. I think the Sub factory rails were designed to fit those brands.

-- aem sends....

[Ashton Crusher]

You can but my experience with Plasti-dip is that it's not very durable when exposed to sun and the elements. But it's worth a try.

[fftt]

Square or aero shape? or round? Aluminum or steel?

not that any of those details matter

I gave my son out ancient Yakima rack system for bikes & he got the parts to modify it for ski use. The rubbery (actually polyethylene) on the cross tubes was damaged at the previous tower locations. They were a little long for his car & suggested we cut them but he wanted them long so he could load up a lot of stuff. Later he hooked an end on something & bent the tube.

Replacement tubes are $70 / pair.....Thules are about the same I'd guess.....I bit spendy for two pieces of coated pipes.

I doubt Plasti-dip will stick to your racks if the coating is polyethylene as well....not much stick to that stuff.

if the racks are round (or any shape for that matter) you could pop for some UV resistant heat shrink tubing but that stuff's not cheap either. :(

cheers Bob