Me? not me! not me, I don't have that kind of money, I am broke, I live in a 3rd world country and I earn just 500$ a month, I am still building my own set up with parts I have available, soon very soon I will have the complete set up which its even humbler than the basic set up I posted.. that is the first step to find out what works... I don't fear failure, I will get up again and again till I am dead, I just wont give up, believe it or not I have a very big mountain to climb, my dad owns the only hexavalent chromium shop in Nicaragua, he has monopolized the market and refused to help me in my young years, can you believe he charges only 100$ to triple chrome a rear truck bumper? labor here its cheap(about 1/16 of total chrome cost), I will be my own one man "chroming shop".. I know I can do it, but I will help people along the way.... I wish you changed your mind about it! do you still have the Spectra Hardware? if you do, sell it, even if you get less of what you want, with the simple kit you could start once more, try different ways, different coats....What you say?...
yeah thats what its called. no kiddin ill hafta try that cuz it did look pretty good till i cleared it.i just used like 2021 ppg clear.
there are many many ways you can clear Chrome Paint..just hold for a moment when I come back I'll let you know of all the way I know..
I cannot say I would want to chome a whole car, but to each their own I guess, I see uses for this on plastic parts but unlike Jay's (kinda irresponsible) remark, I know of a good chrome shop, and they do excellent work, and go way above the call for a great job, they still believe the quality is in the prep, and if he thinks that pitted hood ornament cannot be fixed from its pitted state, I guess he doesn't know of a good chromer....the days of using silver solder to fill each pit and polish the whole part are not dead. At least not in Pennsylvania!
The last time I was there he had done all the exterior trim including bumpers for a car, the guy wanted him to stop at the copper stage...not my taste, but every piece was layed out and inventoried, it was remarkable...
Just a side note, the guy is a bit of a "survivor saver" himself, he had a very lucrative machine shop and was starting to feel the bite of alot of his business being shipped to Mexico, at the same time the local chrome shop owner was about to retire and was closing due to lack of finding a buyer...His employees wanted to buy him out but were far short of his asking price, they approached this guy and he looked it all over and bought the shop out and set these employees up in his shop, so all the years of experience were not lost. He then got schooled in how to do quality chrome work, and I took a couple items to him that had been chromed elsewhere and what I got back was very impressive..
ok now I found good alternatives to the ppg clear that ruined your chrome looks... this are dedicated clear coats for Chrome paint(they dull the effect just a little bit but not as much as the none dedicated clears) Moto Storm Clear Mirra Clear now the bellow coatings are not what you would call dedicated ones, but guys that now about this have found them to be very effective in keeping the chrome look Future Acrylic floor Polish and here is a How To(you can find many how to on the internet) MinWax Polycrylic(water based clear) I hope this could be of some help.... if you have any question dont be shy ask me about ok..
I like it but how does it look after a few washings, does it get swirls? real chrome you can clean up with steel wool, plus it resists rock chips and such. I think it has its uses for sure, but I don't think I will do any large parts like bumpers or grills. Let me clear I think it is a great idea, anyone have pictures after some use and a few washes?
As I understand it, the OP's post about Leno and the guys in Europe concerns an Italian-developed process and that's why they don't reply to inquiries. (BTW, Formula 1 cars of Lewis Hamilton use this coating.) The story goes on that after it was developed in Italy the process then migrated to the States and evolved into one of the big guys, Cosmichrome or Spectrachrome. Each of them bashes the other, but last I checked neither had pics of weather-tested pieces. They also dispute each others' scratch tests to verify adhesion. Both have plenty of dissatisfied customers. The people at Pchrome may have the best answer for the clearcoat, at least until someone on here does proper weathering and scratch tests.
weathering? yest, scratch resistance? even powder coatings can be scratched(with enough effort) heck even chrome scratches if you try hard enough...but I think as long as on provides a weather resistant and enough durability against normal road usage then this process will find a good home in custom cars...
You can't do this "apples to oranges". You find the point at which the "fake" chrome yields to tests and apply the same condition to the real thing and chrome will always stand up better. I, personally, would rather save up for the real thing since it is far superior in quality. Also, it shouldn't be called "chrome" if there is no chromium involved. Thats like spraying bronze Krylon over something and saying you used Spray-on Copper. So for me, unless it is Chrome, it is just silvery lies. All this is of course my opinion and I applaud the OP for at least giving this stuff a shot. It could at the very least have applications for interior (i.e: dashes, handles, moulding).
But chrome has limited uses... can you "Chrome" a giant bear made out of wood?... just my 2 nicaraguan cents..(1 dollar equasl 23 pesos)..
I still say it might work well for plastic stuff that you just can get chromed, but I am with ZomBrian, it should be called mirror paint, because that is what it is..
True, but I'm guessing most of the people on this site aren't necessarily interested in chroming a bear...but you never know when the opportunity will present itself!
its not paint... The scientific term for Silvering is the second surface electroless chemical deposition of a metal on a non-conductive substrate... if you need more technical words just let me know...
I have a friend who asked me if I could chrome his dog when the dog dies... Edit: here is the link for "How To Waste 2 Grand To Find Out Spectra Chrome Sucks" for those that tuned late...
has any one tryed to kosmic krome from house of colors? i've been looking into it but think i just might give some small parts to the local powder coater for what they call ultra chrome. a 2 stage powder, color with clear
from what I have heard its as good as the alsa mirra chrome but abit harder to apply but much cheaper...check this video from youtube for a Chrome paint it has good looks... and here is a how to apply it powder chrome paint its like its wet chrome paint counter part..it nice and shiny but it looks like polished aluminum.. here is a sticky how to I how this helps..
this is what you can expect from the best Chrome paints(not clear coated)(Alsa,HOK,Motosport,Alclad,SpazStix) this is what you can expect from Spray on Silver the chrome painted parts look Awesome but just don't put it next to the Silvered one...
From what I have been told by my chromer, chromiun, the actual chemical used in chrome only sticks to nickel, which adheres well to copper which adheres to another chemical which adheres to steel, that is why chroming is so expensive when done correctly, and each layer of metal has to be perfectly smooth to achieve the best results. I read earlier in the thread about using the copper as a filler which is true to an extent, but my chromer still fills all the pits with silver solder, which is necessary over regular solder for both it's higher melting point and some adhesion things. I also believe he told me not to use brazing rod because the chemical they apply to the steel first either won't stick to the brass content or it reacts with it. I did have him chrome a piece of brass, but he polished it then went straight to the copper stage. The brass piece I took to him had been chromed by another facility, but it had marks in it, and he told me it was all in the prep, so he dipped it in his reverse tank to pull the chrome off then he polished the brass to perfectly smooth, then he coated it, the difference was night and day when I got the part back.
I had a guy powder coat an aluminum piece that wasn't polishable due to some surface issues, it is very shiny silver, but a far cry from true chrome, but there are alot of hacks out there powdercoating that don't have all the tricks down, and they try to pass it off as show quality...
Maybe this was covered in the many pages of this thread, I've been following since day 1, but question is what process are OEM car manufacturers using these days. All of my new cars have some type of chromed plastic on them with varying degrees of quality. What is used in their process that we can't use? It obviously doesn't touch the quality of real chrome but seems they figured out the durability thing and would be great for a clean looking driver. Currently my driver has no bumpers, door handles, or interior trim due to lack of chrome and while I want to get the bumpers done correctly it would be nice to do the interior pieces with a cheaper alternative rather then buy repops. Bob NJ
We tried the get the spectrachrome system going for 4 months, working day and night. What a total scam! We have found a new system that totally works for us. Chrome is bright and the clear coat does not dull the final product at all!!
The Jalopy Journal
