I love black rims on a car. When I purchased my Ford Flex a few years ago, the very first thing I did was drive it over to the local tire shop and have black rims and low profile tires put on it. I spent a lot of money replacing perfectly good wheels and tires.

I’ve been a big more hesitant about adding “bling” to the outside of BigRobsVan as for me, the entire project is about maintaining stealth. There aren’t a lot of cargo work cans out there sitting on low profile tires or with flashy neon glowing from underneath. Work vans are all about functionality, and that’s what I want people to think when they see my van sitting in a parking lot. And I certainly don’t want to put anything on the outside that might lead a thief to peek inside.

I’ve left the rums of my van stock, even though I hate them — that is until this past weekend when a friend of mine gifted me a set of hubcaps for the Ford Econoline. I struggled a bit as to whether this upgrade might draw unwanted attention to the van, but let’s face it — lots of work vans have hubcaps.

I’d heard of Plasti Dip (which I’ve been saying incorrectly as “plastic dip”) before. For all intents and purposes you can think of it like spray paint, the difference being that after it dries it becomes a thin layer of latex that can be peeled off. I’ve been wanting to try the stuff for a while now and picked up a couple of cans at Walmart for $7.50/can. From what I’ve seen and heard some people use one can per hubcap while some said you would need two cans for four hubcaps. I did all four hubcaps with one can and the can is almost empty. I put at least five thick coats on each hubcap so we’ll see how they hold up.

Because most paint works better when it’s warm, I dragged out my rotating shop heater to help them dry. I absolutely love this heater — my workshop is not heated and it can get pretty cold out there during the winter so dropping this thing in the middle of the room or near my workbench really makes a difference.

Check out the video to see how the hubcaps turned out. I think they look great. They’re an inexpensive upgrade that make the van look a little less neglected without making it stand out too much. Perfect.