what's the deal with this spray on chrome?

I'm not sold on the "cheaper" part yet.

I spoke with a guy here and he wanted $350 for a bumper, no body work.......

 

the way the stuff comes up when it's sprayed on isalmost like watching a photograph come up in developer... it's not paint.

 

With some work on texturing, I'd say that looks pretty good.

 

I have some crappy videos of Skip spaying the first few tests, this stuff may not be real chrome, but there is definitely a place for it... some cars had vaccum plating on interior parts, and on exterior lenses, this process would allow that to be reproduced.

 

did do a test with easy doing spraycan chrome from Spaz Stix, and yes its nearly chrome, but just nearly! When testing on a real smooth surface (as a plastic bottle ) its great, but some worser surface, it sucks. I´ve could have used gray aluminium paint.

 

This stuff is not Chrome, but it does a hell of a job at other metal surface types.. You can cast, sand, polish, spray it .. In my Disney days we would use it alot we we couldn't budget the real thing .. brass bronze .. Held up to the Florida weather...

http://www.luminore.com/eshow_7-10-06.php

 

I may use it on the bumpers of my T'Bird, which are currently painted (the old) body color. I like the idea, I like the sort of "soft" look it has, and figure it's worth a try on the heavily hammered, bondo'd, tweaked and otherwise junk parts. The photos I've seen are impressive.

 

Best line yet regarding this stuff... Personally, I will be glad when everyone moves on to the next fad.

 

brought this back up to show the possibilites- im told not easy to spray- this is from GNRS - shot by dept of customs- Anaheim CA

hok kosmic krome

 

that's not the same stuff though.

 

your right - my post was in reference to Highspeeds post, I shoulda made that clear

 

Its only good for plastic interior or motorcycle parts or the like. It does not hold up to wear and tear but whatevers clever I say..Id never do bumpers or other parts. Its really expensive to boot....

 

what's amazing its the alternative to the 'real' stuff, but its just as expensive. Not a hard choice there.

 

Anybody ever see the "Thunderflight" t-bird?

 

Is this it? Wow

 

There was a guy that had a shop next to mine around 80-81 that did that stuff, he would prep the part like it was getting paint, then he would wash the heck out of it with deionized water then when it was right the silver or gold would go on and it looked just like in the video, kept washing and spraying till it was perfect. then when it dried it was cleared, looked just like the chrome in the interior of the 70-80 cars. if i remember right he did some star wars crap. i had him do all the interior chrome on my customers cars, never had any complaints.

 

I cant see the video as I have no flash player but if it's the stuff used on pimp my ride there are 2 chemicals that react in the jet of the spraygun and deposite some chemical with silver in it on a special basecoat.

 

Spectra chrome is a 3 step process using special basecoat, silver nitrate coating and clear coat. Same process used to make mirrors. The clear coat can be tinted to any color - just like a candy. If it is not clear coated it will start to tarnish because it is real silver. Clear coat has special UV inhibitors. Although it is not chrome it dame close! Also cheaper than chrome and environmentally much better than chrome process. If EPA has its way it may be the only chrome product in the future.

 

Does anyone know of somebody shooting Spectra Chrome in Michigan or the surrounding area? I've got a few pieces I would love to try this on.

 

I own a powder coating operation and we powder coat chrome parts all the time, you can sure tell the difference in the quality of chrome when sandblasting it. I was told by the local Harley dealer that some of the new chrome is a "waterbased" product? They can usually tell us if it is or not, when you go to sandblast it the chrome comes off very easy, still flakes off like reg chrome but comes off quicker. We were going to get into the Spectra system last year, they sent us the info, looked alright. The product you spray cost pennies. They showed an example of an end user's product that was sprayed, I think it was a Lincoln rear bumper or something like that, they had like a couple dollars in product applied to it and turned around and charged their customer like $250 for the finished product! Wasn't much labor involved either. Depends on what the shop labor rate is, prep and all that other stuff involved. Then we found out a guy about 100 miles from us purchased a system so were waiting to see what he has to say about it, we spoke to him already and he said he would keep us in the loop and let us know how it turns out. The Spectra system they took a piece of ceramic tile, did not prep it, sand it, nothing, applied the product, took a knife cut it down to the original tile base and it did not flake or chip off, they cross cut it in different directions about 3 or 4 times. Spectra claims tile is one of the hardest things to spray with anything because its so slick and nothing wants to stick to it! I guess there sending us a demo piece in the mail. Might be the cheaper alternitate to the real stuff, and the way it sounds the real chrome process maybe going all waterbase?

 

I have a set of wheels done up and they scratch very easily.

 

Any new break throughs with spray chrome? Anyone try it, seen it, or had something done recently that they can share their experience ?

 

lmfao so true
XD

 

I think this has a good place on the inside of lenses and for originally vacuum plated parts as mentioned above, and to the naysayers no one says you have to use it, has very good specific uses in areas where regular chrome simply won't work.

 

its not the real thing, seems it would scratch to easy, no thanks.

maybe on some plastic parts i guess.

 

Change is so very hard for people to accept. Something out of the realm of their understanding is never good. Something out of the ordinary way of doing things cannot be comprehended. Naysayers are always correct, and there's plenty of them on this board.

If you want my thoughts and opinion, PM me...

R-

 

I wanna know where I can get one of them Gold Alligators that's in the end of the 2nd Vid!

 

When I got my start in custom painting I worked and learned everything I knowat a shop in Tempe, Arizona. They owner was working with a couple guys who were developing the process you see in the videos. My boss at that time called it quits after about $75,000 and 2 years time. It does work great and look awesome when it's done. Like everything else it's about the prep job. Crappy body work means shitty looking chrome. The other thing nobody talks about is how it looks 6 months later. It tarnishes no matter how good or expensive your clear-coat is. It still retains it's reflective quality but ends up with a yellow tint. One way around this is to spray Kandy over top to hide the yellowing but that kind of defeats the purpose of looking like real chrome, doesn't it.
Just my 2 cents,

​

www.poboykustoms.com
MySpace Facebook Flickr Twitter YouTube
Latest Newsreel: “UP THERE” short film about a dying art form

 

I don't think this PARTICULAR topic has anything to do with "change is bad" naysayers.

I checked into having parts on my 53 pontiac done and the fact of the matter is it was going to be just about as expensive to have them spectra chrome the parts as it would be to CHROME them.

AND!!!! there was a HUGE difference.

the REAL CHROME shop was going to hammer out dents and make everything straight. then apply the chrome....

the SPECTRA chrome shop told me that they would apply body filler to dents and paint over it. I don't think Bondo is going to hold up to well,, or paint on a bumper.

the fact is if it had been cheap enough there would be alot of people that would do it, but being so expensive I don't know why you would not just get real chrome unless it is a part that CANNOT be chromed in the conventional manner.

I'm not a naysayer,, I'm just saying the price has to come WAY down before I would ever think about it. Chrome is MUCH more durable, MUCH better looking and only costs a marginal amount more.....

so... if anyone has PERSONAL experience with a shop that sells it,,, what is the cost?]

the quote I was given was CRAZY!!!

 

7500.00 dollars? thats not a cheap alternative