Powder Coat in chrome-like color

[Loren]

I was at a friend’s shop and he showed me a BMW motorcycle part he had powder coated in a chrome-like color.

He said the steel parts rust too quick when they are chrome plated but this powder coating is cheaper and lasts longer.

Polished stainless looks better and real chrome does too but this seams like a real alternative for a driver quality car.

If all you have are rusty pitted bumpers on your daily driver this might be a sensible alternative to chrome plating.

That said I have to tell you even powder coating will rust in time. It seems there is nothing permanent, except a government program. lol

Harbor Freight and Eastwood have powder coating kits for small stuff. A bumper might be too big for the DIY folks.

[Eneto-55]

In reading over what I've written here, it does sound a bit "know-it-all".  I tried to edit that out, but it still sounds that way to me. I don't mean for it to be like that, so please take it as just one person's opinion, based on some years of first-hand experience, but still limited in some ways.

 

I have worked in both the plating and the powder coating industries, and I will say that like with other types of surface coating, the preparation stage is the determining factor for the long-term result. But the main difference in that context between these two coatings is that the constraints for a decent plating job are much tighter than with powder coating.  With plating, if the surface is not clean and free of all rust or oil (even just from a touch of a clean finger tip) it will show through. With powder coating, as long as it will still conduct (electrical current), the operator can coat it with paint, and bake it on, "covering a multitude of sins".  I protested, but what I saw happening every day on the powder line was parts sitting idle on the track between the wash cycle and the dryer, rusting over during lunch or break times, or during other interruptions.  

 

I didn't work a great deal on the chrome line during my years in plating work - I worked mainly in Cadmium, Copper, Nickel, and Tin, but in plating you just do not touch the surface with your hand or a glove, and steel parts are never allowed to just sit in the open air at any point after the muriatic acid bath.

 

As for chrome, the quality of the work shows with time.  A 3-stage chrome process (copper-nickel-chrome) will still be good after decades, while a single stage plating will be flaking and covered with pitted rust underneath. My 49 P15 came with an aftermarket grill guard on it. It is rusted, really badly in some areas, while the bumper is showing no rust other than where the chrome is deeply scratched.  Because the current flows to the closest point, both methods require special attention in the case of recessed areas. On some custom plating jobs we had to use 'wands' to reach into those areas to coat those areas. You can try to float powder into recessed areas as well, but it's such a faster process that it can easily get really thick in the edge areas, while still not coating the internal parts.

 

Powder coating, even on new steel, will do the same if the surface is not completely clean, which generally means sand blasting. (I built a Reece style hitch for our 93 Chrysler T&C, and I didn't get it sand blasted. It was all new steel, and it looked clean coming out of the wash cycle, and I didn't let it sit there before I coated it and ran it into the oven. For a long time it looked great, but the 'cancer' was at work under the hard powder coat. Eventually huge flakes bubbled and lifted, revealing the pitted steel. I heard that there are multi-coat processes available, but this outfit was run by people who didn't know what they were doing, and didn't want to learn. So maybe I haven't given powder coating a fair shake.)

[Loren]

Your points are well taken. I live on the coast and everything gets coated in briney dew. So all steel gets the worst treatment even in the garage.

Ornamental chrome is I think a lost art. When every car had a chrome bumper the repair work was pretty good now days not so much.

When I was in the machine shop business we used a lot of hard chrome plating so I am well aware of the problem filling pits and dings. While the local governments have tried to chase the aircraft industry out of the L.A. area there are still a couple of industrial chrome shops I would use there. Ornamental chrome is another matter however.

That’s why I was interested in the powder coat process. You can get a set up for a very low price from Harbor Freight and when you start looking at the media prices it’s an eye opener. I guess it follows if spray paint is expensive powder coat media will be too. Realistically speaking you are always better off having professionals do this kind of work, but if you lose your go to guy what are you going to do? I have a powder coat shop within sight of my shop and they have tripled their prices, won’t give quotes and the work quality has gone down…so we don’t use them anymore. In frustration you start considering diy.

[Sniper]

Yes poor workmanship is why I pretty much do not let anybody work on my stuff anymore.

[oldodge41]

Good topic.

I know durability would be an issue, but, has anyone tried vinyl wrapping a bumper in chrome?

[Veemoney]

29 minutes ago, Loren said:

I live on the coast and everything gets coated in briney dew. So all steel gets the worst treatment even in the garage.

In the fall of 1996 Harley came out with an old springer style motorcycle in white, the only color for that 97 model year. A friend working at the local dealer knew I enjoyed owning & riding the older bikes with springer or girder front forks and was pushing me for a sale. I told him the new bike in white looked like it belonged in a parade as a Shriner bike but if they make it in black I would. I thought I was off the hook.

 

In the fall of 1997 Harley produced the same motorcycle in black and I got the call, so in September of 1997 I bought my first ever "new" motorcycle to be true to my word. I loaded it up in my truck a week or so later and headed to Hutchinson Island, Fl for an assignment where I stayed about 2 blocks from the beach for about 2.5-3 months. The bike when not used was parked under the shielded condo parking and covered. When I returned home to Illinois mid-December the chrome was flaking off the spokes on the wheels, cam cover and some other areas in just the short time I was there in Florida. I haven't bought another new motorcycle since.

 

After high school I worked for a company that had a plating department that did gold, silver, nickel, and cadmium of parts made at the company. I never worked in the plating dept. but had men there plate parts for me sometimes. They had test parts that they would throw into the batches they were plating that would later be tested for coating thickness by inspectors to insure thickness & quality. There was another shop that used to plate bumpers near me around the same time. I used to take motorcycle parts there for chrome if needed and he would do them on the condition I would wait till he was changing out the chemicals in the tanks so he could get the cleanest job done for them. He was old school and honest but closed down a few years later. 

 

I think the alternatives for chrome look may provide a glimmer of affordable hope but have no experience with anything other than spray can chrome which was short lived and some time back.  On the show counting Cars they showed a spray painted 3 part process for spraying a chrome finish that looked nice but I just would question the durability. If you do give the powder coat chrome a try it is probably the best option other than the real deal. I have used gun coatings that are sprayed and then baked that hold up very well.   

[Los_Control]

Several years ago while bored, I was doing a fair amount of research on DIY powder coating.

I never used any of the knowledge and quickly forgot it. .... seems a basic kitchen oven could work for items that would fit.

Then I was reading on how others were building their own ovens for things like bumpers and such. Not really technical .... did not need to be a rocket scientist to make it work.

 

I was thinking it could be something fairly easy to get started at home and be a potential way to make some cash on the side, powder coating for friends and local persons.

As pointed out above, proper preparation is everything to creating a quality product you can sell to friends and remain friends.

 

Oh well, I seem to have lost interest in the process.

I can say the steps on my daily driver are powder coated, where the bolts pass through for mounting, has broken the seal of the powder coating and caused rust.

This has just multiplied the rust process making it far worse then if they were painted and the paint failed. ... would have surface rust.

Where the powder coat has failed, literally has eaten the metal and has large holes in the steps now .... some day I need to remove them.

 

Same time, if they were painted ... I could weld in patches and repaint them.

Removing the powder coat would probably require sand blasting and outweigh the cost of simply throw them away and buy new ones.

Done wrong, is not a good thing.

[Eneto-55]

19 minutes ago, Los_Control said:

Several years ago while bored, I was doing a fair amount of research on DIY powder coating.

I never used any of the knowledge and quickly forgot it. .... seems a basic kitchen oven could work for items that would fit.

Then I was reading on how others were building their own ovens for things like bumpers and such. Not really technical .... did not need to be a rocket scientist to make it work.

 

I was thinking it could be something fairly easy to get started at home and be a potential way to make some cash on the side, powder coating for friends and local persons.

As pointed out above, proper preparation is everything to creating a quality product you can sell to friends and remain friends.

 

Oh well, I seem to have lost interest in the process.

I can say the steps on my daily driver are powder coated, where the bolts pass through for mounting, has broken the seal of the powder coating and caused rust.

This has just multiplied the rust process making it far worse then if they were painted and the paint failed. ... would have surface rust.

Where the powder coat has failed, literally has eaten the metal and has large holes in the steps now .... some day I need to remove them.

 

Same time, if they were painted ... I could weld in patches and repaint them.

Removing the powder coat would probably require sand blasting and outweigh the cost of simply throw them away and buy new ones.

Done wrong, is not a good thing.

Yeah, power coat is lots harder than the average wet coat paint, and that also makes it hard(er) to get it off with sand blasting as well.  And you cannot feather the stuff, either, at least not the paint we were using. (I tried.)  My attitude is that the main advantage of powder coating goes to the manufacturer.  Paint it, bake it, and unless it's really heavy steel it cools down fast, and so it can be very quickly packaged.

[Eneto-55]

10 hours ago, Loren said:

Your points are well taken. I live on the coast and everything gets coated in briney dew. So all steel gets the worst treatment even in the garage.

Ornamental chrome is I think a lost art. When every car had a chrome bumper the repair work was pretty good now days not so much.

When I was in the machine shop business we used a lot of hard chrome plating so I am well aware of the problem filling pits and dings. While the local governments have tried to chase the aircraft industry out of the L.A. area there are still a couple of industrial chrome shops I would use there. Ornamental chrome is another matter however.

That’s why I was interested in the powder coat process. You can get a set up for a very low price from Harbor Freight and when you start looking at the media prices it’s an eye opener. I guess it follows if spray paint is expensive powder coat media will be too. Realistically speaking you are always better off having professionals do this kind of work, but if you lose your go to guy what are you going to do? I have a powder coat shop within sight of my shop and they have tripled their prices, won’t give quotes and the work quality has gone down…so we don’t use them anymore. In frustration you start considering diy.

The plating shop I worked in (back in the late 70's - early 80's) was an aviation oriented shop.  It's still there in Tulsa, not far from the air port.  United Plating Works. There were three areas of the operation, the machine shop, where they milled down (used) cranks for prop planes, then they were plated up to specs in the chrome shop.  After that the journals were taped up and we glass bead blasted them, then hot tin plated them (I suspect just so they wouldn't rust on the shelf back at the air craft shops). Those cranks gave a guy my size a real work-out - most were 75 pounds, and you couldn't allow them get against your apron or the plating would be messed up.  (I'm pushing 70, and I still weigh only around 135, at 5' 10 1/2" in height. I was always the brunt of the skinny jokes: 'Chicken bones', If you turn side ways in the shower you don't get wet', 'You have to jump around in the shower to get wet', 'You can't go outside on a windy day', I heard them all.  Now I just say "I'm not under-weight, I'm just over height.") 

 

I worked a few projects that were decorative chrome, mostly pot metal parts, a lot of which were the cranks for fishing reels.  That metal was quad-plated - zinc-copper-nickel-chrome.  (Aluminum parts got the same treatment, always zinc first.)  But mostly I did bright tin, hot tin (which they told me is 'food quality'), hot nickel (mostly on oil field valves), bright nickel, copper, and a lot of cad.  The boss in my section was a great guy to work for, and he worked right along side of us most days. (Five employees had scraped together the bread to buy the shop 20 years before I started there.) Mr Steiger let me stay after quitting time and work on my own stuff, paint stripping, glass bead and aluminum-oxide blasting, plating, the works - all at no charge at all.  It was hard work in that business, and at first I wanted to tell him I wouldn't wok a horse like that, but I got used to it, and yeah, a great guy.  (He offered to sell me his 68 Chrysler New Yorker - that was one I shouldn't have let get away, but I did.)

Edited Tuesday at 01:56 AM by Eneto-55
typing error.

[Los_Control]

18 minutes ago, Eneto-55 said:

you cannot feather the stuff, either, at least not the paint we were using.

Looking at the failure on my step .... It all looks perfect, except where the bolts and washers attach it to the frame ... Tightening the bolts damaged the coating.

It would probably be fine if we used something like LINEX uses with their masking tape with a string in the masking tape to create a hard line to stop the product.

And stop the powder coating at the mounting holes and just use regular paint there.

 

My step I'm talking about, they clean up and look fine and are pretty old. Just where the mounting bolts go through it fails and makes the whole thing junk.

 

 

I have these headers I bought, I'm afraid they are powder coated ... they might not be .... If they are, I would suspect them to fail around the mounting holes and start rusting after a few years and basically look like crap. .... they might be chrome but I doubt it. Probably why Summitt had them at a clearance sale for $40.

[blue p15]

On 2/3/2025 at 11:26 AM, oldodge41 said:

Good topic.

I know durability would be an issue, but, has anyone tried vinyl wrapping a bumper in chrome?

My son did the vinyl wrap for the bumpers of his '36 Plymouth.  He did a LOT of sanding to get rid of all the rust and pits.  The wrap looks nice, but not as nice as chrome.  I would guess it is about 80% as reflective as chrome.  And you are correct - it is not nearly as durable as chrome.   However, the cost was about 1/4 the cost of chrome, so he figures even if he has to have it redone in 5 years, he is still way ahead of the game as far as price goes.  

[DJK]

On my 52 Cranbrook I painted the bumpers and all other trim pieces(other than the stainless), with Silver Argent wheel paint followed with clear coat. Has held up great after 5 yrs., driver quality.

[Eneto-55]

1 hour ago, DJK said:

On my 52 Cranbrook I painted the bumpers and all other trim pieces(other than the stainless), with Silver Argent wheel paint followed with clear coat. Has held up great after 5 yrs., driver quality.

I'm curious what most forum members think about painting the bumpers body color.  If my car was black, I'd feel more inclined to do that. 

 

My 46 is Balfour Green. Or, how would it look with either a dark green - like the Kenwood Green, or just black? The leather on the armrests were dark green, and I've considered painting the dash and window moldings that color as well. (IF I cannot find a way to get a close approximation of the original wood grain.)

 

(It seems to me that sometimes it's better to do something obviously different than to do something that just looks like a "failed attempt" to make it like it was originally.)

 

It will be some years before I get to the bumpers, so maybe there will be some new technology by then. (I don't imagine that tri-ply chrome will get cheaper....)  Wrap in it thin stainless?

[Daniel Jones]

Interesting discussion.  On a related note, a friend who restores (and paints) automobiles professionally, has offered to ceramic coat some of my exhaust manifolds and headers if I buy the coating.  Does anyone have any recommendations on ceramic coating brands?  I figure I'd try it first on some Buick 300 exhaust manifolds I have but I'd also like to do a couple of Chrysler straight 8 and Nash OHV 6 exhaust (and intake) manifolds which I don't want to screw up. 

[plymouthcranbrook]

When I read threads like this one on chrome plating costs I thank that person back in the distant past who replaced almost all the chrome on my 52 Cranbrook with what appears to have been NOS items. The windshield divider was the only part that looked a bit sketchy with pits. And I found a replacement that had been rechromed on E-Bay back before it went to pot. In the 22 years I have owned the car the finish hasn’t diminished a bit. The front bumper guards I bought at Iola 15 years ago weren’t so hot but chrome spray paint looks ok and has held up for quite a while now. 

[Los_Control]

4 hours ago, Eneto-55 said:

I'm curious what most forum members think about painting the bumpers body color.  If my car was black, I'd feel more inclined to do that. 

My opinion with a black truck .... black bumpers just kinda disappear and is good for my truck. The front bumper is a bit twisted .... I do not want to highlight it.

 

I do like the silver paint idea, I have painted my roof lights as the chrome has failed on them .... not perfect but not a bad solution.

 

If I had a better bumper, I would paint it silver .... as it is on the passenger side it is twisted .... black kinda sorta hides it and does not seem so bad.

[soth122003]

On 2/6/2025 at 12:31 PM, Eneto-55 said:

I'm curious what most forum members think about painting the bumpers body color.  If my car was black, I'd feel more inclined to do that. 

When These vehicles were made, the bumpers and accents were chromed or steel polished to make the car stand out. They also had a fairly straight color palette to use. Today with the advent of meta-flake/pearl enhancement and clear coat epoxy style paints the car itself attracts the attention with out the need of the chrome high-lights. If you are going to go with the standard paint job or originality, stick with the chrome to make the car pop. If you are going to put a $5k to $10k paint job on it, then you can probably match the bumpers to the car and it will look good. Especially with the enhanced color types available today. 

 

I've seen a lot of pic's of these old cars with the newer styled paint jobs with the bumpers the same color and they look good, real good. The pics of the cars with the old style paint with matching bumpers just seem to be missing something. My personal feeling is, new modern paint with high-lights match the bumpers. Old style paint, chrome or... paint the bumpers a different color to draw the eye. The only problem with this is some people have really, really bad taste. (Like an orange car with green bumpers. UUNNGGHH)

 

Joe Lee

[andyd]

This thread has had some good ideas about the various ways to "chrome" the outside parts like bumpers etc however if you are looking to restore the various small chrome pieces on the dash and various interior items there are a couple of susgestions I can offer as a scale model builder......there are 3 products that while they are not proper chrome plating may help as follows.......for some areas there is a product called Bare Metal Foil which is a very thin aluminium adhesive backed foil that might be suitable for dash strips etc then another product called Alclad11 which is a thin paint which is sprayed over a gloss black enamel.....a gloss black enamel paint is reflective and the "Chrome" version of Alclad11 essentially turns the black into reflective "chrome'......the third product is fairly recent and is called Molotow Chrome Pens...these are availble in 1,2 or 3mm diameter tips and give a brilliant "chrome" like finish........now all these are products that I use in my modelling hobby at various times...........the "chrome" moldings around the windows, and wheel openings on these model cars are either Bare Metal Foil or Molotow Chrome pens......the bumpers and wheels on the red, maroon & green model are the normal model kit chrome parts but all the chrome parts on the yellow car(1972 Holden) are the foil or Molotow pens........

......anyway this might help for small interior parts.......Andy Douglas

 

[MikeMalibu]

I’ve polished small steel brackets then sprayed direct to metal clear (Eastwood Diamond DTM Clear). After 20 years they still look polished. Not as brilliant as chrome, but close. I suppose doing this to a bumper would have the problems of rock chips and yellowing of the clear coating, assuming the car is fair-weather driven. Removing and reapplying the clear wouldn’t be too troublesome as long as it wasn’t frequent.  Big job to strip chrome and rust, then polish two bumpers! I’m considering this for my low-budget build.