The Batmobile_Engage Member Journal

[Batmobile_Engage]

What prep work you have to do?

First I swept the entire garage out at least twice. Its unbelievable how much dirt can accumulate, as well as salt from the roads in the winter and so forth. Then I rinsed it out twice with a hose and used a synthetic push broom to break up any extra dirt as well as push the standing water out of the garage. After I was satisfied with that level of clean, I generously applied a heavy duty (Behr) degreaser and scrubbed the hell out of the entire surface, going over any oil and grease spots with even more degreaser. After that was all soaped up, I let it sit for a while and scrubbed it again. It's crazy how much oil, tar and grease came up. It took two full rinses with a hose and push broom again before all of that stuff was washed off the concrete. Then came the etching compound (basically chemical abrasive for concrete). It eats away the surface of the concrete so the paint-epoxy mix sticks better. After that has worked it's magic, it required two more full rinses to wash it all out.

***CAUTION***
If that stuff runs down your black top driveway and you don't rinse it off quickly, you're gonna have a bad time (i.e. I will be resealing the driveway soon).

It took fooorrrrevvvveeerrr for the garage to dry out, even with the doors open and a fan running. It needs to be as dry as possible before applying the paint. After applying the paint-epoxy mix and sprinkling the colored chips everywhere, it usually takes 3 full days to dry/cure. You can walk on it after 24 hours or so, but shouldn't drive on it for at least 72 hours.

Yeah what he said!

That looks really clean!

Thanks!!!

 

[Clemson_Engineer]

First I swept the entire garage out at least twice. Its unbelievable how much dirt can accumulate, as well as salt from the roads in the winter and so forth. Then I rinsed it out twice with a hose and used a synthetic push broom to break up any extra dirt as well as push the standing water out of the garage. After I was satisfied with that level of clean, I generously applied a heavy duty (Behr) degreaser and scrubbed the hell out of the entire surface, going over any oil and grease spots with even more degreaser. After that was all soaped up, I let it sit for a while and scrubbed it again. It's crazy how much oil, tar and grease came up. It took two full rinses with a hose and push broom again before all of that stuff was washed off the concrete. Then came the etching compound (basically chemical abrasive for concrete). It eats away the surface of the concrete so the paint-epoxy mix sticks better. After that has worked it's magic, it required two more full rinses to wash it all out.

***CAUTION***
If that stuff runs down your black top driveway and you don't rinse it off quickly, you're gonna have a bad time (i.e. I will be resealing the driveway soon).

It took fooorrrrevvvveeerrr for the garage to dry out, even with the doors open and a fan running. It needs to be as dry as possible before applying the paint. After applying the paint-epoxy mix and sprinkling the colored chips everywhere, it usually takes 3 full days to dry/cure. You can walk on it after 24 hours or so, but shouldn't drive on it for at least 72 hours.



Thanks!!!

We put that in my parents garage. It has been great. A word of caution. Where my dad parks his porsche, the epoxy has come up where the hot rear tires sit on it. He took some small squares of carpet he got free from a carpet store that he positioned so his rear tires sit on them when he parks. The carpet has stopped any more epoxy from coming up from the same area. The epoxy is fine under his front tires and under the X3 and toyota tundra tires. You may want to lay some cardboard or carpet down if you come in with really hot tires.

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

Thanks for the info, [MENTION=3760]Clemson_Engineer[/MENTION]. I was wondering about putting something down like that. Maybe a heavy duty felt or carpet like you said. I'd probably put it under all four tires.
Then again, I don't know how hot my tires would be when pulling in the garage. How are his rear tires on the Porsche that hot? Is he driving the balls off it just before coming home?
I don't want to have any of it stick to tires, but would prefer not to put down any tire pads.

 

[Clemson_Engineer]

Thanks for the info, [MENTION=3760]Clemson_Engineer[/MENTION]. I was wondering about putting something down like that. Maybe a heavy duty felt or carpet like you said. I'd probably put it under all four tires.
Then again, I don't know how hot my tires would be when pulling in the garage. How are his rear tires on the Porsche that hot? Is he driving the balls off it just before coming home?
I don't want to have any of it stick to tires, but would prefer not to put down any tire pads.

Rear engine air cooled. The whole back end gets really hot.

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

Ahhh, that makes sense. I probably shouldn't have that problem then.

 

[Clemson_Engineer]

Ahhh, that makes sense. I probably shouldn't have that problem then.

Yeah, probably not. But if you get back from a long road trip in summer, you may want to park in driveway til tires cool off

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

That's what I figured. I don't always pull it in the garage immediately anyway, but I will keep that in mind from now on. Thanks again!

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

WTF. Can you guys believe this?!

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

Idk what to do. I want to get another one, but I'm not sure how to make it anymore secure than this one was.

Any ideas?

 

[IGOTASTi]

How the heck?

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

No idea. Not a damn clue.

 

[IGOTASTi]

That's crazy.

Did it damage the car?

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

It ripped a chunk of clear cut AND paint off, the size of a dime. Other than that, no.

 

[IGOTASTi]

How did you install that?

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

A metric shit ton of 3M double sided tape.

 

[IGOTASTi]

That's so strange.

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

What's really crazy is, if I would have had someone else in the car, and say they looked out the window and told me that half of it had ripped off, I would have put $100 on the driver's side ripping off. I felt it was solid, but the drivers side was slightly less solid than the passenger's.

I can't understand it. I suppose that an edge lifted and some wind got underneath, flexed it up and down till it cracked in the middle and ripped off.

 

[IGOTASTi]

We wanted one of them, but now maybe not.

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

Alin had it on his car before and had no problems. He secured it the same way I did. As you can see from the picture, the tape failed to hold onto the diffuser, not the paint.

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

Idk, don't let this steer you away. It can probably be secured permanently. I obviously haven't found out how to do that yet unfortunately.

It lookED great while it lasted.