chrome to satin finish and painting bumpers

[gmjj13]

First...i was wondering how to get the chrome trim to have a satin appearance. i thought about powder coating, but was wondering if there was any other way. i want the trim to remain "silver", and was wondering if there was a way to achieve this through sanding the chrome with a fine paper? any suggestions/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Second...What all is involved with painting my bumpers? I want to paint them body color, and my body/paint guy is not real sure how well the paint will stick to the chrome, even after he preps it. what all is involved with that, do the bumpers have to be stripped of the chrome or just prepped? thanks again for the help....

[race-rodz]

if the trim is stainless or alum... yes you can sand/scuff it down to a satin finish. some oem alum trim is clear annodized(sp), oven cleaner will strip the clear annodizing if needed.

take the bumpers to a chrome shop and have them stripped. you "can" grind it off, but its not worth the effort. my local shop charges about $20/bumper to strip them of the plating.

[TonyG]

A local guy here was telling me that he clear powdercoated some chrome pieces and they came out looking more like polished aluminum. Maybe someone else here can confirm. I was thinking of something similar myself.

[2Bad4Ya]

On our jeep project we went satin vs chrome/polished.

On the polished diamond plate and stainless steel & chrome we simply bead blasted the surface enuff to get a dull & even looking finish. This required shooting the aluminum with a matte clear coat, but the ss and chrome required no protective coating.

These parts have been in use and exposed to the elements for over a year with no issues to date.

[AlohaFast]

Yeah, best to have 'em stripped. Only time I ever saw paint stay on chrome bumpers was when it was overspray and not supposed to be there in the first place. Glad Im not the only one that's tired of chrome ... Good Luck on the project

[gmjj13]

looks like i'm gonna take the easy way out on the bumpers... i took the chrome bumpers back, and decided to give these a try

http://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/fbshopmain2.asp?cat=8

there already smoothed, and ready for paint.

i'm still trying to figure out how i want to go about taking care of the trim. not sure if i want to go with satin silver or black. anyway, thanks for all the help and good info so far.

:lateral: :woot:

[astroracer]

Satin silver or black... Well, you will have to "prep" the pieces for black by sanding them (use a Scotch-brite pad for excellant results) anyway so... sand them a bit, put them on the car, and run it for a while to see how you like it. While it has the satin pieces on it take a few pics and color the trim in black for an easy look-see.
Just an FYI on the bumper painting.
This what I do with no peeling or lifting problems: Hit the bumper with an 80 grit disc on a 3M softpad. Rough it up enough to remove the shine. You will probably find most of the chrome will be removed at this point anyway. Wipe it down with wax and grease remover and then spray it with Dupont Vari-Prime self-etching primer. Top that with a good primer/surfacer, block it out, do what it takes to cherry it out and shoot your color. I have done this on a lot of truck bumpers and have never had a problem.
Mark

[gmjj13]

thats a good idea. i'm not too savy with photoshop or anything like that, so i'll see what i can figure out on that. i am gonna buy a few pieces of trim and try a couple of different things on them to see what gives me the best results. i might try to take care of the bumpers myself, but we'll see. i have my old bumpers which are straight, just not the best chrome anymore. great candidates to try and work on:unibrow:

[astroracer]

Photoshop doesn't even come into play... Print out a picture and color the trim with a marker.
Mark

[TonyG]

I finally got all the trim off my chevelle and will be "refurbishing" it myself. I am not wanting the high polish shine either.. I might even end up painting all the trim in silver. The bumpers are chrome now and I am not sure what or how I am going to do them. Unless i can come up with a silver that is bright as aluminum; I didn't want to paint the bumpers.

[BRIAN]

Nickel plate them. The nickel is soft enogh to use a scuff pad although you might want to clear after.