Chrome Finish

[adam4tw]

I know do-it-yourself chrome finish is an exhausted topic, but I was just thinking about something: the cap on my can of chrome spray paint is pretty damn shiny, and the shininess doesn't rub off. Obviously whatever it is must be pretty cheap if they're finishing the caps of their paint in it, so I'm trying to figure out where the hell to get this stuff. It's clearly NOT the same thing as the paint in the can, and there are multiple things on my interior like the hvac knobs that would be pretty sweet to chrome. I tried painting the hvac knobs yesterday and so far it's been a disaster... almost 24 hours and it's still sticky, so I guess you can't spray this stuff on rubber :lol:

[RedGrandAm2003]

I think its dipped in industrial paint or something lol.... would be nice though eh?? Why not try taking the rubber off? I think my problem with chrome paint was i didnt put on any clear coat. as long as you put clear coat on it, the shinyness will not wear off, and might make it more shiny.

[adam4tw]

all the chrome paints I have used lose their mirror-like shine if you put clearcoat on it. It sucks!

[RedGrandAm2003]

really? I never tried putting clearcoat on the chrome paint. Have you waited until its 100% dry?

[adam4tw]

yep I did. My grandpa did all kinds of drywalling and building painting for a living a while back and is telling me that even if it's dry, you still have to wait til it cuirs completely. So I guess I'm just gonna have to leave them be for a few days and see how they end up. Altering layers of chrome then clearcoat then chrome on top helped maked them more shiny

[Dave C]

what if you tried wet-sanding each layer? that might help, too..

[adam4tw]

I'm not exactly sure what wet-sanding is. What do I do?

[Dargasonus]

get some wet and dry 3M 320-400 grit paper at Advance Auto

get the paper wet and sand away

smooths it out really well + doesn't scratch the paint / clear coat

[adam4tw]

awesome, I'll definitely have to try that

[Dave C]

you can even go with finer sand paper than that, depending on how smooth you want it. to get it really smooth, you can even go up to 2000 grit, but you'd have to go up by steps.

[TA^Guy]

FYI, PPG does actually make a chrome paint that looks like chrome.

[adam4tw]

what stores sell ppg paint? I didn't see it at checker

[TA^Guy]

Originally posted by adam4tw
what stores sell ppg paint? I didn't see it at checker Find a auto body supply shop, but don't expect to find it in a rattle can.

[adam4tw]

all right cool thanks

[Matt95GT]

Originally posted by adam4tw
I tried painting the hvac knobs yesterday and so far it's been a disaster... almost 24 hours and it's still sticky, so I guess you can't spray this stuff on rubber :lol:

I won't comment on the chrome spray paint, but hint... 92-95 Skylark HVAC knobs fit and are not covered in rubber.

[matts]

i went up to 2000 grit on my glove box lid. that stuff feels like a sheet of paper, it's super smooth

[adam4tw]

the knobs are just turning out rediculously gay, so I washed em off with my girlfriend's nail polish remover. I'll check out ebay for some skylark knobs, and this summer I'm looking into fiberglassing my interior. Big plans for my car this summer with fiberglass and LEDs, hopefully I'll be able to get to all of it :)

[TA^Guy]

Originally posted by adam4tw
the knobs are just turning out rediculously gay, so I washed em off with my girlfriend's nail polish remover. I'll check out ebay for some skylark knobs, and this summer I'm looking into fiberglassing my interior. Big plans for my car this summer with fiberglass and LEDs, hopefully I'll be able to get to all of it :)
Fiberglass some cool knobs up!

Maybe some arrowheads as the pointers or something.

[Dave C]

that's a cool idea.
good luck with getting that stuff done, my mods have always taken way longer than I've planned they would.

[adam4tw]

Originally posted by Dave C
that's a cool idea.
good luck with getting that stuff done, my mods have always taken way longer than I've planned they would.
same here. From now on I just need to plan on my projects taking forever...

When I painted the rim around my grills I brough them inside to dry and put a fan on them. Come back to check on them a lil bit later and my stupid cats had rubbed up against them and got all this hair stuck in the paint!

The arrowheads on the knobs is an awesome idea, I think I just might have to do that :)

[96GreenGaGT]

another tibdit of information when painting something small or even big.. get some sunlamps from walmart.. just the sunlight bulbs that are used for greenhousing and what not.. well some of them are also called heat lamps. plug them up and shine them on the paint. makes curing occur faster because your baking the paint on.

[inferno]

chrome spray paint sucks. even if u wait a few days. i left my on for a month and ppl kept touching it and left finger prints so i cleared it and it turned silver

[adam4tw]

I actually have a sun lamp and used that on my grills when I redid the paint after the damn cats f*cked it up. I also threw them in the oven for 10-15 minutes on 150* and that seemed to help a lot. I gave up on the knobs 'cause they just don't look right in my interior with that color. They match nothing. So I used some metal-darkening spray I have on them and they actually look pretty cool now, like a really dark metallic gray...almost black but not quite.