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DIY Spray On Chrome

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by nicamarvin, Feb 24, 2012.

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  1. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    Ok guys a few weeks ago I bought an Alsa Spray On Chrome System(ChomeFX Pump system) for small items and I´ll be testing it against a small DIY Spray On Chrome System I assemble from off the shelf parts.



    I also bought a few other things related to chrome like paint.

    1. Innate Chrome Paint and its protective clear(will be testing it against no name chrome paint off a rattle can)

    2. Caswell plating Ultra Chrome Powder coat

    3. Caswell Plating Cerakote Chromex Ceramic coating(for High Heat parts)

    4. Caswell Plating Liquid Powder(to make any powder Liquid and spray with a paint gun)

    5. Caswell Plating Plugh and Plate Copy Chrome(Brush Plating) to chrome plate those small parts silvered with the spray on chrome system(for those that must have it real chrome plated)

    at this moment they are here in Nicaragua and going thru Customs so by monday or tuesday I should have them... :D

    I´ll be posting pics as soon as I can..
     
  2. verde742
    Joined: Aug 11, 2010
    Posts: 6,267

    verde742
    Member

    please let us know
     
  3. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    oh yes ofcourse..

    here is a pic of Alsa Spray On Chrome FX pump system
    [​IMG]

    its basically a way to spray on chrome without any air compressor or paint gun.

    I´ll be testing it agains an off the shelf product I have tested before but not like this.
    [​IMG]

    and also this..
    [​IMG]

    I also want to Brush plate those small Items with CopyChrome(a nickel/tungsten alloy that looks just like chrome but is not toxic att all)

    the pic below shows one of my silvered plastic spoon(from long ago)
    [​IMG]

    what do you guys think? kinda cool uh?
     
  4. LowerthanLife
    Joined: Jan 3, 2010
    Posts: 283

    LowerthanLife
    Member

    i want to see, im subscribing!
     

  5. DistantHorizon
    Joined: Jul 9, 2008
    Posts: 9

    DistantHorizon
    Member

  6. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    how do you subscribe to a thread?
     
  7. DukeFarm76
    Joined: Aug 21, 2011
    Posts: 13

    DukeFarm76
    Member

    Just above the first post, click on "Thread Tools" and then "Subscribe to This Thread" (As I just did). The Caddy I'm working on has lots of chrome and it all needs to be done. I'm curious how well these products work. I've seen them advertised, but never talked to anyone that has actually used them.
     
  8. nrgwizard
    Joined: Aug 18, 2006
    Posts: 2,513

    nrgwizard
    Member
    from Minn. uSA

    Go to the top of the page, just above the #1 thread, click on the "thread tools" in the red bar, for the drop box, click on the "subscribe to this thread", & set the way you want it.

    BTW, have you checked for abrasion? Like say, on a front bumper, or mirror shell, or headlight rings? If this works well, at least DIY would be reasonable for touch-up/re-do. :) .

    Would you mind posting the parts you used for the DIY from off the shelf stuff? TIA.

    Thanks for the work & postings.

    Marcus...
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2012
  9. dirty old man
    Joined: Feb 2, 2008
    Posts: 8,910

    dirty old man
    Member Emeritus

    Subscribe, more than curious. Jay Leno was bragging on some kinda stuff like this on one of the shows on Speed Channel TV recently. I didn't see the show, my son caught just the end of it. Matbe somebody who sees rhis thread will know sumpin about it.
    Dave
     
  10. It should be interesting to see how this works out for you. Back in 2007 I sculptured the front end and doors for a 50 Merk lead sled. (Check out my picture album) The project was for a company building the body's in fiberglass. While I was at it I sculptured a new grill resembling the 52 Desoto along with making changes to the front bumper. All this is in fiberglass. So we got in touch with Alsa looking to purchase there products so that we could spray the grill and bumpers. We where told that for the quality that we where looking for we would need a clean room to do the spraying. Fiberglass shops are a dust bowl, so we asked it there where any shops in our area that we could job out the work to. They told us that there was only one shop that was in either Virginia, or Maryland that they would recommended. If they didn't have a clean room they couldn't get the quality. Where not talking about a regular spray booth, but a professional clean room. One speck of dust will ruin a job.
    So please keep us up dated.
     
  11. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    thank you all, I just subscribed to my own thread... :eek:

    do you mean how well does it stand up durability wise? well its as strong as the protective clear you use...

    I got the Idea from Old Time mirror makers, they used two hald held had triggers to spray the chemicals into the glass to make a mirror, its a good idea but not a practical one, it takes both hands to do it and you need to coordinate both hands at the same time and not all hand triggers are made the same... that was true untill a 2 part chemical triggers came into market...

    it wasn´t untill Alsa Corp came up with their own Spray On Chrome Pump Fx system that I decided to built my own, just to test how good their chemicals are and how well they compared to off the shelf parts..(previously I had built an small spray on chrome system with home made silvering spray gun, made from two guns)

    here is Alsa chrome Fx
    http://www.alsacorp.com/products/chromefx/

    [​IMG]

    continues in next post...
     
  12. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    that looks nice uh? well its too expencive and it gives you very little to practise.. so what we do about it? we build a similar kit with off the shelf parts

    we here the off the shelf alternatives
    first we need a hand trigered sprayer that can spray 2 chemicals at the same time(equal amount of chemicals) fortunately for us Alsa is not the owner of this patent either either.

    I bought this Dual Chamber from this page
    http://www.excelsuppliesonline.com/browse.cfm/dual-chamber-sprayer-for-stain-magic/4,2059.html

    [​IMG]

    ok that was the hand sprayer to spray the Silver to our small plastic surface. the stannous chloride sensitizer solution can be applied by a normal hand sprayer

    now to the spray on chrome chemicals... or spray on "Silver" chemicals(that´s what they trully are, a silver diamine complex [Ag(NH3)2]+ reacting to a reducer)

    so far this are the least expencive I know of(peacock labs sell mirror chemicals but they are about 60% more expencive and they don´t sell the small quantities we need)

    the chemicals I got them from
    http://angelgilding.com/SpraySilver.html

    silvering chemicals, will cover 133 sq/f(lots for practicing)
    [​IMG]

    the Sensitizer
    [​IMG]

    now to the base coat clear coat.
    I have tried just about every kind of paint there is(lacquer, anamel, catalized enamel, urethane, Polyurethane, even some oil base paints) and the best ones are 2k Urethane of a good grade. you can use clear both as basecoat and clear coat. the clear needs to be of a crystalline transparency because if its not, it could dull the silvered parts..

    another thing I´ll be testing is the Pour on Silvering, instead of spraying it
    [​IMG]

    here is a video of them doing it..
    <iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6F8Q5yxqy90" allowfullscreen="" width="560" frameborder="0" height="315"></iframe>
     
  13. nrgwizard
    Joined: Aug 18, 2006
    Posts: 2,513

    nrgwizard
    Member
    from Minn. uSA

    Thank you for the more detailed explanation. I'm getting it, now. Am quite curious what you find in your experiments.

    Did you also try an aircraft epoxy clear? Like IMRON? Just curious.
    Reason I ask, is, I'm thinking about a grill & bumpers for a '55 Stude. Lots of area = lots+ of expense :( .

    I may have missed it, what is the temp range of this stuff, before it goes away. Or is the paint the limiting factor?

    Sorry about the self-subscribing... I thought you wanted to know how for other threads... but I was laughing for a while... :D .

    Marcus...
     
  14. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    I will post pics of the Alsa vs off the shelf product as soon as I can.

    No I have not try it yet. but I have tried Sherwin williams 2k Clear coats, they seem to work best for me at this moment, as long as they are whater white(not yellow ones) I pay $4 for the 1/32th of a gallon .. I know the owner of the paint shop so he sells me this small quantities..

    the paint its the limiting factor. I´ll be also trying to use a clear powder coat to see if I can improve durability..


    its ok...
     
  15. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    I found a nice video of a similar product(not made by alsa but using same chemicals, silvering chemicals)

    this is how our DIY Spray on Chrome small kit will look lik(with off the shelf parts)

    <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9lG6O5lvhm8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
     
  16. 2dr_sedan
    Joined: Mar 25, 2005
    Posts: 265

    2dr_sedan
    Member

  17. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    not bad uh? not bad at all... :cool:
     
  18. tfeverfred
    Joined: Nov 11, 2006
    Posts: 15,791

    tfeverfred
    Member Emeritus

    So... when are you going to try it?
     
  19. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    as long as the guys at customs are done.. I am so pissed they are taking this long... I bought the products on mid january, took a 2 weeks for my shipping company to shipp(marine shipping) and now the customs are taking their sweet time...:mad:
     
  20. captainjunk#2
    Joined: Mar 13, 2008
    Posts: 4,420

    captainjunk#2
    Member

    hey fred there you go , spray chrome your t bucket body , : )
     
  21. BOP-Nut
    Joined: Oct 20, 2008
    Posts: 746

    BOP-Nut
    Member

    Interested to see results as the price of chroming is outrageous.
     
  22. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,752

    Deuces

    Is any of that stuff good for styrene plastics???..... Like model kits???
     
  23. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    well ofcourse... you just need to prep the part for the basecoat(the base coat may eat the styrene if not prep) you could use a water based base coat and then apply the automotive basecoat ontop...
     
  24. details details details.....
     
  25. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua


    Well guys I just got my things today and...... Testing will commence NOW...!
     
  26. Willy301
    Joined: Nov 16, 2007
    Posts: 1,426

    Willy301
    Member

    Very cool, anxious to see some results...
     
  27. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    I got a sample of "Strecht On Chrome" film and so far I can tell its not "Spray on Chrome". what they did is just use their Mirra Chrome Paint(which is just paint not silver) is as good as the Best chrome paint I have seen so far..
     
  28. Dchaz
    Joined: Sep 6, 2009
    Posts: 478

    Dchaz
    Member

    Looked like it worked well, but man that's a lot of spray and waste for that small of a part.
     
  29. nicamarvin
    Joined: Jan 29, 2010
    Posts: 611

    nicamarvin
    Member
    from nicaragua

    True.. but you only need(subject of further testing) about 10ml of the silvering chemical(needs to be diluted with destilled water) to cover 10 Sq/f
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2012
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