Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Chrome Paint
One of the most popular campaign, now is about the end of chrome.
Until recently, the only way to obtain a high degree of shiny chrome is actually chromium plate.
Think about the same as the end of the chrome mirror, may have more to add taste to make gold or other colors.
This may be a bit too much, full of reflections caused by chrome-plated vehicles are most likely to dazzle other road users. However, this is a good basis for other works of art coat, so that the light through the chrome highlights.
Chromium is used to great influence on racing cars or as the basis for ad text or symbols.
First of all, here is a long-term overview of the process of painting, first of all apply for a dark primer, then sprayed chromium and the construction of it, but can not completely cover the primer and finally add a layer of clear, there may be colors or pigments it gives the chrome-plated.
Step 1. Prepare the car thoroughly and give the surface a good key. The more time taken at this stage the better as chrome will show up imperfections and bumps far more than any other paint finish.
Step 2. Spraying on the dark basecoat. This dark basecoat needs to be a good contrast with the final colour. Black is usually the best but for some top tints you may want to choose another dark colour. Apply a good mist layer of base coat and repeat allowing it to build up and completely cover the base surface.
Step 3. Bake the car in an oven to reduce the drying time. This sets the paint and allows the next layer of chrome paint to go on more easily.
Step 4. Spray on a very fine mist coating of the chrome paint. Allow this to dry and bake it in an oven, then apply another 2 or 3 mist coats and bake each coat again.
The idea here is to keep adding paint until the desired chrome finish is achieved. You can't remove paint once applied so you have to take your time.
It is this stage that takes a great amount of skill and you need a real feel for what you are doing. If the baking is not done right you will not get a very good chrome finish at all. It is for this reason that chrome paint is out of reach for the DIY spray painter. (At least for the moment.)
Step 5. This is the application of a protective clear coat. If you want a gold or indeed any other finish you can add some paint to tint this clear coat and the chrome reflectiveness will remain but carry the tint of the clear coat.
Finally when you have your finished chrome vehicle you can add all sorts of interesting designs and colours to it.
Here we see a terminator theme applied where the chrome has been allowed to show through for the robots and sprayed art has been applied over the top.
We wish to thank Steve from Chromed Up (suppliers of chrome paint) and Lawrence aka Kaos (spray paint artist) for thier help and support in putting together this article.
When chrome is combined with sprayed art or other special effect finishes you have a stunning end result. Chrome paint is quite expensive so we suggest you carefully research this and find a paint sprayer used to working with chrome paint.