Chrome paint??, what have youused, what works?? Options

[mandrek]

title says it all.. i picked up a can of the rustolium tough stuff, chrome enamel paint from advanced auto parts. i did a test spray on bear metal, and on black primer.. (other then a gritty ness on the black primer since i did not sand it to smooth it down after primer) the paint did not come out at all like chrome.. it was sprayed in favorable conditions and low humidity... I'm gonna try giving it a quick buff w/ the dremml (obviously i would us a much larger device on my project# to see if i can get it to shine through like the cap/ like real chrome...

i did a search, in this forum, and seen allot of mention of people "spraying chrome" but not a mention of what brand/ or end results of the spray?

this is in preparation for my rims.. I'm going to do a "black chrome" on 7th gen rims for my DD.. (on a black car) I'm simply looking for a shiny chrome paint that wont be too much of a hassle to pray on these rims, so i can get a good base down for the next phase of the project.. we that an it looks like i need to redo my headlights, so i need some good, highly reflective chrome paint, to use on the inside of the housings.. once i get a good base, i will be using the "black chrome kit" from advanced.. two part kit w/ smoking spray #the black translucent smoke spray# and a finish spray. this is a kit designed for use on rims, so I'm not too worried about durability..

any help and feed back would be greatly appreciated... pix of your projects w/ the finished results and any additional steps need to be taken #if necessary# would be even better!!

thank you in advanced..

[richee3]

I don't think chrome rattle can paint is actually chrome. Real chroming is different and isn't paint at all. Chrome rattle can paint is more like a shiny silver.

[wolfie308]

Quite right Richee3,

As a lot of you know, I've been working making clear lens conversions for 6+ years now and am still looking for a better product than the one I've been using. This is called 'plasti-cote' projekt paint - brilliant metallic, it's what I use to spray reflectors before fitting clear lenses. Here you can see the effect on a GT4 turn....



I've just used it on my latest project, clear triangle sections for the MR2. The backing inside was a dull greeny grey, so it came up a treat like this...





Spraying in still warm air is part of the knack, low humidity is good too

[mandrek]

thank you guys for the reply.. yeah i was dubiouse about it actualy comming out like the cap... but there HAS to be a chrome paint that we can use that is not an actual chroming process.. since it is all over the products that we see every day.. i was at lowes last night and saw that VALSPAR now has a small sieries of metal like paint, and one of them is a chrome one.. has any one tryed that ?
perhaps even a non rattle can spray.. somthing that can be shot through a paint gun...

This post has been edited by mandrek: Sep 9, 2011 - 10:52 AM

[mandrek]

Quite right Richee3,

As a lot of you know, I've been working making clear lens conversions for 6+ years now and am still looking for a better product than the one I've been using. This is called 'plasti-cote' projekt paint - brilliant metallic, it's what I use to spray reflectors before fitting clear lenses. Here you can see the effect on a GT4 turn....


I've just used it on my latest project, clear triangle sections for the MR2. The backing inside was a dull greeny grey, so it came up a treat like this...



Spraying in still warm air is part of the knack, low humidity is good too

DAMN!!! that looks nice.. and i agree that the conditions are a good bit more important when working with high gloss finishes, and even more so with metal paint... thanks again

[Lazurus]

check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoTDfYJlJqk...der&list=UL

chrome wrap *shrugs*

[NYp8tBaller07]

to be honest I would just stay away from the paint, it'll look cheap if it even hold up but it's going to look like a shiny silver not chrome.

[cheela]

check this out also

looks pretty good but probably expensive...

yeah, looks like it's real hard to get a cheap substitute for chrome.

[mandrek]

ok, so the tough stuff crap from advanced, is just that, crap.. greyish silver. and does not polish up at all. i gave the valspar stuff a try, it looks alot more promising. i have a sample piece that i hav been using, ill take a pic of it tomarrow and post it up tomarrow.

[azian_advanced]

the best way to have your headlights replated is to have a company vacuum plate them since they're made of plastic. i got my projectors redone that way (not cheap though) and they are just as reflective as they come new. any sort of 'painting' method just isn't the same. if you're interested, i can tell you where you can get yours done.

here is how the reflector looks after having them vacuum plated:



for any other metallic parts, just have them professionally chrome plated.

[mandrek]

wow thats nice.. yeah bu a bit too over the top for what i was looking to do.. all a realy needed was agood "chrome" base coat on my 7thgen rims to use the "black chrome" kit from advance on... if i were to actualy do a true balck chrome , i would not do it to some 7th gen rims.. but some nice light wheigh cruzing rims.. somthing worth putting the extra $$ into to make real nice.. currently i have them painted black and a metalic grey/gun metal (never finnished the project.. so i want to somthing diffrent with them.. i WAS also looking at this to take care of some headlights that had started to leek real bad, but im going a diffrent direction now..