Painting Chrome
All pictures are © ronsterart 1999, do not copy any of this page without permission from the webmaster.| Featuring Alclad II Laquer Chrome ALC107r |
| In some of my other How-2's I said to scuff the body with really fine sandpaper (600 grit) in the cleaning stage....do NOT scuff the body where you intend to paint the chrome. If you do it will change from a nice mirror image to a dull brushed alum. look. This stuff will even show a greasy fingerprint just like the one on the back of your stickers <g>. Notice how the fine metal flakes swirl around in my airbrush...well after about 5 minutes it gets booring. |  |
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| Try to plan your paint scheme so that the chrome is the last piece of the design that you paint. You will need to reduce the pressure down to around 12psi and spray very close to the top (around 3inches). If you have to much pressure, or spray to far away it will dry in the air and just float around on everything. I put at least 3 thin coats on...as you spray the top will look a little foggy, but blowing air across that same area will dry it pretty quickly and it will look more like the pictures above. To know if you put on enough get a piece of black paper and hold it behind to see if there are any thin spots. | |
| After it is completely dry (does not hurt to wait an hour on a hot day) then it is time to put a backing coat of waterbased Faskolor black. Spray this on in very thin coats...it will really bring out the mirror finish. To much at once and it will dull the chrome. Do not spray Pactra laquer directly on the chrome...the thinner will soak into the chrome and make it look like dull alum. See the next step. The thickness and quality of the lexan will also affect how clear the chrome is...I did a ProLine jeep that is .060 lexan and it did not look as shiney as the .030 Stratus in the top right pic below. |  |
| I try to let my Faskolor paint jobs dry for a few days (if I can wait that long) so the paint will be completely cured, THEN back them with Pactra silver in very thin coats. This will seal the top and make it more feul and moisture resistant. Again if you put to much on to fast it will soak into the Chrome and dull the finish. If you run electric you may want to skip the Pactra to keep things as light as possible. Recap: Chrome, then Faskolor black, then Pactra Silver making sure they are completely dry between steps.
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| Here are a few examples that I have done....great to accent a design, not the whole thing.. |
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