Chrome Paint

Great peice Brian- Sounds like a lot of work but worth it. I would like to use it on a project in the future.

C

Great article, and right on the money. Very time consuming and costly. Basically painting all parts twice (inc clearcoat). Along with buffing twice. Most don't realize how much work is involved.
And you're right. Less is better. I've put on too much and it ends up looking like an aluminum color versus the chrome look.

That's funny, i'm in the middle of painting a Playstation 3 controller with Alsa Mirror Chrome. I've prepped with scotchbrite and glasurit plastic etch, then airbrushed with over reduced 2k gloss black. that was a couple of days ago so guess i should leave it a couple more days? I'v tried before on a polycarbonate RC car shell, but doing in reverse on the inside didn't work so well. Spraying the black wet on the chrome is not good. And the last time i tried it looked good until i put the clear on. I don't have the 1k special clear that alsa now use so don't know how it's going to come out with just the HS clear??

You 'should' be all right using HS clear, BUT, the key is to clear over the black, and make that shiney. In fact, you 'should' buff it before spraying the chrome. And the other key is like Brian said in the article, to dust the chrome on. Don't spray it like you normally would with regular paint.

Ok, my problem is clearing the chrome. Last time i looked at the Alsa site they were clearing with their speed clear but now they have a special 1k Mirror clear. I don't have this clear and probably can't easily source it over here, and being a freebie for a mate don't really wont to spend another $100 or so.
This is what i have to work with........

Iwata LPH400 with LV4 and LVB air caps 1.4 tip
Iwata Kustom HP-CS Airbrush 0.3 tip
HOK UC35 with KU150
Spies Hecker 8030 HS clear Normal and very fast Hardener

So any recommendations on spray gun or airbrush, and product and technique that would result in the least loss of refection?

Originally Posted by nzgrip

Ok, my problem is clearing the chrome. Last time i looked at the Alsa site they were clearing with their speed clear but now they have a special 1k Mirror clear. I don't have this clear and probably can't easily source it over here, and being a freebie for a mate don't really wont to spend another $100 or so.
So any recommendations on spray gun or airbrush, and product and technique that would result in the least loss of refection?

There are several key things you must do, or it will not come out looking like painted chrome.

1--make sure you clearcoat the black, along with wetsanding and buff the black/clear
2--DUST on the chrome. Once you go to far or put too much chrome on, it will no longer look like chrome. You could say you went past the "point of no return"
3--Let the chrome sit overnight before clearing.

I'm not for sure if the clearcoat you mentioned would work, so I would suggest spraying a test panel before actually doing the project.
A lot of work just to do a controller. Obviously you are not going to be able to buff the controller out, but this is very necessary to get the best effect.

I would use a mini gun to spray the controller. You'll have to control it's output when you are spraying the chrome.

ok so this is how it turned out.....


Maybe to much chrome, maybe BC/CC black is better than 2k black, maybe need the special clear. Oh well looks more like shadow chrome but still different to standard controller so all good.

Looks pretty good considering it's a controller

I would say it's more of a alum look than chrome because the black wasn't buffed (huge difference when you do this). And you might have put a little too much chrome on.
Of course with a controller, you can't really buff it....but it did come out great.

Just tell everyone you sprayed it in an alum paint