Spray on chrome? West coast customs

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loganscuda

This/These
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Has anyone used or seen the spray on chrome. Not the stuff at autozone. I saw it on an episode of west coast customs flipping channels didn't get the name of it. Looked pretty good but expensive. Just wandering. Your thought. The material came out good on TV.
 
its very thin and very fragile. More of a show car thing than a driver, but it may work for your app. youtube it, there is a guy that is spraying a motorcycle gas tank or something and its a boring 10 minute vid of him just misting this thing. Turns out nice but it requires a clear coat that may yellow it.

cosmichrome?
 
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I used a place out of Florida for the plastic side marker bezels on a Pantera, which you can not get anything anymore. It came out looking very good, but I guess that time will tell if it holds up. It was expensive to do.
The results were a lot better than the chrome on them that was aged.
 
Mine is a driver and I'm very accident prone. No need for show quality stuff. I'll check it out.
 
We had a body shop doing chrome powder coating. Did colors. Stopped doing it - too many complaints. Didn't hold up to under hood heat or some cleaners. Works great on a trailer queen show car.
 
That's what of read a lot of complaints on reviews and it's expensive. Good for a museum piece
 
We had a body shop doing chrome powder coating. Did colors. Stopped doing it - too many complaints. Didn't hold up to under hood heat or some cleaners. Works great on a trailer queen show car.

Bruce, are you talking about the chrome powder coating not holding up, or was the place using the spray on chrome? I have no experience with the spray on stuff except a monthly call from some guy in New York who sells the systems (who won't take No for an answer lol), but have been using chrome powders with much success for almost 18 years now and most of my customers don't drive trailer queens. Please elaborate for us.

Uli's Weiand Valve Covers.jpg
 
Sorry about the confusion. His employee's were calling it powder coating, but it was in fact the spray on chrome process. He ended up returning all the gear and it cost him a lot of time and money making everything right with his customers. He had done valve covers, air cleaners, brake boosters, brackets, even bumpers. Underhood heat and some cleaners did the process in.
 
I had a set of fiberglass bumpers done a number of years back. End result looked pretty good, better than a driver but not show quality. That lasted one summer then it all started to peel off. It does not deal with sharp edges well. I went back to painting my fiberglass bumpers. No issues with that at all.
 
I dealt with the Alsa products chrome paint. Unless you're spraying in a humidity controlled booth the chance of success is slim to none. It blushes much like old lacquer and you end up with an anodized aluminum look. If you tack it off between coats or before clear it looks like brushed aluminum. It was a rather expensive experiment with nowhere close to the desired results. Up close the stuff does not look chome to me.
 
As timing would have it, the guy from Future Chrome called this afternoon. After giving my usual answer about whether I was ready to try it or not, I told him about this thread. I invited him to join FABO and devote some time to sharing what he knows, as well as some photos to illustrate the process for all of us. He seemed to be writing things down so we'll see, but he did mention the company has "lots of videos," a FaceBook page and some stuff on YouTube in the meantime.

I asked if he dealt with and sold to the general public; the answer was No. Like all metal finishing, great prep is apparently crucial to success and 'shouldn't be trusted to laymen.' As a result, they will sell their kits to professional shops but not to Joe Off The Street. The Basic Intro Package starts at $1,700 he said, with enough chemicals to do several bumpers and rims.
 
Here's the video. I'd like to see what that wheel looks like after six months of regular driving.

 
Are we talking about the same system(s) which was used on Count's Custom's where they sprayed bumpers?
 
A couple of years ago, I bumped into a guy I knew who had quite a bit of his classic truck done with the chrome painting process and was done at a shop I was familiar with. I was thinking of having the early '60 slant six valve cover being done in Mopar blue chrome and another in Mopar red chrome. Lucky for me, I stalled around trying to pull the trigger on doing it. I ran into the guy later and told him my plans. He told me not to waste my time and money. But they were all claiming it was chrome color powder coating. Thats why the confusion in my post #5. Sorry about that CudaChick. Bruce
 
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