Painting Chrome Trim
- Thread starter JRoll
- Start date
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- Canada
IMO, the easiest way would be to mask off the areas you don't want to get overspray on, then apply a few coats of PlastiDip. It's an aerosol paint that, when applied correctly, is completely removable. My understanding is that you would spray a light-medium coat, then follow with 2-3 heavy coats. It dries to a matte black finish.
If you prefer a gloss black finish, I would look into black vinyl wrap. I think you can vinyl wrap the chrome trim pieces without taking them off the car as long as you have the right tools and a steady hand.
If you prefer a gloss black finish, I would look into black vinyl wrap. I think you can vinyl wrap the chrome trim pieces without taking them off the car as long as you have the right tools and a steady hand.
Thanks for the feedback sm1ke! I’m going to try the Superwrap spray (formerly Autodip) They have a frozen/matte series that I want to try. I’ve used plasti dip in the past and the results were ok so want to see how it differs. I’ll prolly go ahead and paint with pieces on the car as per your reco.
- :
- Canada
There's a CX-5 owner (young-nyc) who had his roof superwrapped in black, and also had his rear bumper superwrapped with a clear spray (similar to PPF). From what I recall from the pics he posted, it looks a lot closer to vinyl wrap than PlastiDip, but it isn't perfect. On small pieces like the chrome trim though, it might be good enough.
Edit: I missed the fact that you said you already have experience with Plastidip, so you may already know everything below, but i already wrote it so it might as well stay there for general knowledge. Bottom line up front is, I am not sure it will hold on well for a front application, and if you find a way to remove the pieces it will always be better, but like you I am not sure how to do it.
I have some experience with plastidip. I had it on summer rims for 2 of my cars and it honestly held up way better than i expected and lasted for 5 years of summer driving until i sold the car. A few things to note though:
1. The surface is sticky and gets dirty really fast. It isn’t easy to clean back to freshly painted look. When it is dirty it takes on that rubber'ish matte look. On one of the car I didn't mind since I liked the look (photo attached), on the other car I was hoping for more of a shiny black and don't like it as much. (even though I used the plastid dip gloss when I painted them, they still turn matte black fast when dirty). They are not easy to clean because they have kind of a sticky texture.
2. When I was researching the product years ago, people were commenting that plastidip wasn't very robust when used on the front of the vehicle. It has a tendency to chip and flake easily upon impact. So, its great advantages of being easily removable seems to be its worst disadvantage when used at the front of the vehicle.
3. Plastidip is easy to remove when there 3 or 4 layers of it and it is thick enough to be able to peel off. When it is lightly applied it isn't that easy to remove because you have nothing to use to pull on it (ex: in case of accidental overspray). For that reason, if spraying directly on the car, I would make sure to completely completely mask any risk area. Tire shine is the best product to remove plastidip, but then I am not sure I would want to put tire shine on my car paint (don't know if it works on autodip). Of course removing the piece to paint it will always result in a better product and may actually save you some time. (properly masking isn't fast), but I don't know either how to remove the trims.
I don't have any experience with Autodip but I assume it would behave in a similar fashion for point 2 and 3, and would be easier to keep clean than plastidip (point 1). You could always try it out, and if you like the look of it and it gets beat up you could get the trims professionally painted after (or keep reapplying when it peels too much.)
Photo of my plastidip wheels before I sold them after 5 summer of use (painfully cleaned before the photo). That's about as glossy as they could get. This was the black plastidip with 2 x light coat of silver metaliser on top.
I have some experience with plastidip. I had it on summer rims for 2 of my cars and it honestly held up way better than i expected and lasted for 5 years of summer driving until i sold the car. A few things to note though:
1. The surface is sticky and gets dirty really fast. It isn’t easy to clean back to freshly painted look. When it is dirty it takes on that rubber'ish matte look. On one of the car I didn't mind since I liked the look (photo attached), on the other car I was hoping for more of a shiny black and don't like it as much. (even though I used the plastid dip gloss when I painted them, they still turn matte black fast when dirty). They are not easy to clean because they have kind of a sticky texture.
2. When I was researching the product years ago, people were commenting that plastidip wasn't very robust when used on the front of the vehicle. It has a tendency to chip and flake easily upon impact. So, its great advantages of being easily removable seems to be its worst disadvantage when used at the front of the vehicle.
3. Plastidip is easy to remove when there 3 or 4 layers of it and it is thick enough to be able to peel off. When it is lightly applied it isn't that easy to remove because you have nothing to use to pull on it (ex: in case of accidental overspray). For that reason, if spraying directly on the car, I would make sure to completely completely mask any risk area. Tire shine is the best product to remove plastidip, but then I am not sure I would want to put tire shine on my car paint (don't know if it works on autodip). Of course removing the piece to paint it will always result in a better product and may actually save you some time. (properly masking isn't fast), but I don't know either how to remove the trims.
I don't have any experience with Autodip but I assume it would behave in a similar fashion for point 2 and 3, and would be easier to keep clean than plastidip (point 1). You could always try it out, and if you like the look of it and it gets beat up you could get the trims professionally painted after (or keep reapplying when it peels too much.)
Photo of my plastidip wheels before I sold them after 5 summer of use (painfully cleaned before the photo). That's about as glossy as they could get. This was the black plastidip with 2 x light coat of silver metaliser on top.
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This is all great info youri . I totally agree with the finish of Plastidip. It’s hard to clean but I only used the matte spray, I didn’t try adding any other finishes on top. I’m used to painting pieces that are taken off so if I can figure it out I’ll try, but to the previous points, if not then I’ll just make sure to mask off where I don’t want over spray. Im ordering the spray today and will follow up once I paint some pieces.
