Painting Bezels and Bowties - Question for Painters

[Don57]

I decided to paint the chrome taillight bezels and rear bowtie the same color of my car, but I've had a bit of trouble. I sanded the parts with 600 grit sandpaper and put four layers of flat black primer on them. They looked so nice that I put them back on the car without a coat of paint over the primer. Unfortunately, I found the primer started scratching off in places almost immediately.

I'm not a painting expert, so can anyone provide me with some tips on what I did wrong?

- Should I have sanded the chrome with a rougher grit of sandpaper?
- Was the primer garbage (it was a couple of years old) or possible the wrong type (I believe it was Painter's Touch multipurpose black primer)?
- Should I have added a few layers of paint over the primer anyway?

At this point I'll be taking the parts off, re-sanding them, and hope to successfully paint them once and for all. Any suggestions on how to do this properly would be appreciated.

[tjk_art]

Originally Posted by Don57

I decided to paint the chrome taillight bezels and rear bowtie the same color of my car, but I've had a bit of trouble. I sanded the parts with 600 grit sandpaper and put four layers of flat black primer on them. They looked so nice that I put them back on the car without a coat of paint over the primer. Unfortunately, I found the primer started scratching off in places almost immediately.

I'm not a painting expert, so can anyone provide me with some tips on what I did wrong?

- Should I have sanded the chrome with a rougher grit of sandpaper?
- Was the primer garbage (it was a couple of years old) or possible the wrong type (I believe it was Painter's Touch multipurpose black primer)?
- Should I have added a few layers of paint over the primer anyway?

At this point I'll be taking the parts off, re-sanding them, and hope to successfully paint them once and for all. Any suggestions on how to do this properly would be appreciated.

Use Rustoleom spray paint. Either match it close as you can to your car, or
go with a math or gloss black.

[Caprara's Auto Body]

Painting chrome, or even plasti-chrome parts is difficult.

You need an acid based self etching primer and SEVERLY scuffed parts.

[Spencer@EH]

...and a clear coat. It sounds like you need a flat finish clear coat.

[The Stig]

You need rougher sand paper. I'd say 200 ish. Do that. Then put down your primer. Sand your primer with either 600 or 800 to smooth it out a bit. Then apply your base coat(s) and then clear coat(s)

[tjk_art]

Originally Posted by Caprara's Auto Body

Painting chrome, or even plasti-chrome parts is difficult.

You need an acid based self etching primer and SEVERLY scuffed parts.

Painted mine unsanded with Matte Black Rustoleum spray paint (to match my stripes). No primer, no clear coat, and haven't had a single problem for months.

There's a DIY link around here somewhere that I used but it's pretty straight forward.. just wash it with soap and water, let dry, tape the clips, and do a couple layers. Waited 2 hours to do the final coat.

[Caprara's Auto Body]

Clear wont make the paint stick any more or less. If the primer doesnt bite into the chrome, then every layer ABOVE that will come off also, primer, sealer, basecoat & clear coat.

[WildSis2SS]

My husband sand blasted my bezels to remove all of the chrome and then put a couple of layers of paint and a couple layers of clear.
Turned out very nice. We get a lot of compliments on them on how nice they look!

[Don57]

Originally Posted by Caprara's Auto Body

Painting chrome, or even plasti-chrome parts is difficult.

You need an acid based self etching primer and SEVERLY scuffed parts.

I'm not seeing any "acid based" primers looking through the websites of my local hardware stores. There are oxide primers and alkyd-based primers, though. Would the alkyd-based one do?

[Caprara's Auto Body]

Another term for acid based is "self etching". Don't be fooled though, you still gotta scuff the HECK out of it!

[FL1CK]

Plasti-dipped mine...

[rtcat600man]

I used an Adhesion Promoter first. No problems so far.

[Don57]

Originally Posted by Road Rage

Plasti-dipped mine...

I thought about that, but others on the forum said it was not permanent and that it could be peeled off later if you wanted the chrome look back. To me, that sounded like it would eventually come off easily through normal wear and tear.

[njmike]

I'm having a problem just getting mine off