Vinyl wrap vs Plasti dip
 

I want to add some protection to my newish toolbox, and a vinyl wrap sounds appealing, but looks like it might cost me an internal organ or two. Plasti dip looks cool too, but kinda bland in the color department. Any input is welcomed, and open to other viable options.

Are you thinking about the exterior or interior ?

plasti dip has its uses but needs to completely envelope the surface it's applied to. I made some unobtanium core support bushings for my firebird and coated them with it almost 15 years ago and they've held up well. (of course, the aftermarket finally came out with a high dollar bushing after my article on my creation came out.)

If you coated the outside of the box, it would have to go around the lid/drawers and continue to the inside and meet up again at all points. it's bonding to the actual surface isn't very strong at all. That's why the handles coatings on pliers etc will slip off after awhile even though they're intact. if the coating ended at the outside and didn't go around under the lid edge or drawer edge, it would just peel or lift right off. with it going around the edges you're going to run into clearance issues and it will eventually wear through/cut at the edges and lift. You will also have the fun of dismantling the whole thing to do it and it would take a lot and be pretty messy to do. For a layer on the bottom of the drawers, it'd work well.

Vinyl wrap is basically a better choice for sticking to a single surface but doesn't offer quite the durability when it comes to scratches and scuffs.

bedliner spray in rattle can?

Rust oleum never wet. Go to you tube .

I am looking at doing the exterior only, and wrapping around the tops of the drawers and under the lips, where most of the wear would occur from dirty hands opening the drawers. The tricky part will be doing around the edge guards and the 'slide lock' pieces, but the slide locks can be easily taken off and re-installed in mere minutes.

I used some of that spray on/roll on bedliner stuff about 12 years ago and it looked good when it was finished, but is way too thick for doing the tops of the drawer handles, as you already mentioned the clearance issues. Also, the bedliner requires scuffing and sanding of the original surface, which I am trying to avoid. This would be a temporary application, as to avoid damaging the painted surfaces till I can get out of the shop scene(~3-5yrs).

"Trim Lock" handy stuff, great edge protector. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trks...at=0&_from=R40

Thats not really what I'm looking for, the tool boxes come with chrome plated plastic edge guards, I am looking to protect the paint on the drawers and exterior of the box. I am leaning toward a vinyl wrap, waiting to hear back from the company we use for after market add ons for an estimate.

aside from vinyl wrap, there's also the 3M clear protective film that's used for fenders/quarter panels for chip protection.

I was just going to mention the clear protective film