i'm not getting much help or traffic over on one of the other locations so i thought i would knock it out over here.

I wanna hi-temp black my heatshields (and probably the slipons). i have the paint and i am ready to go. THE PROBLEM IS i every time i ask someone here how to prep the chrome, i get a diffferent response:

i am getting everyone talking about the paint but i need advice on how to prep the chrome!!!!!!

AND, i am eventually gonna get a real set of black pipes (LSR or Bassani's) so please forego the recommendations on all that. i just don't feel like dropping a grand on pipes/tuner/dyno right now. this is temporary. and i could take them to a shop but i kinda want to do this myself.

THANK YOU!!!

 

painting over chrome is very difficult. The chrome really needs to be roughened up so the paint has something to stick to. I have only had success when I have sand blasted the chrome surface.

 

I think the differences are going to depend on the thickness of the plating. That could be why you are getting so many different responses.

Bead or Media Blasting will ensure that you remove the highest amount of plating so the paint has somewhere to go. My personal opinion is that steel wool would not mess with it enough to give you a good base. Short of media blasting I would think you need to sand that stuff off.

You can get a cheap media blasting kit from places like Northern Tool.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...t_6970_583_583

 

I haven't tried high-temp over chrome, but after hearing and reading that you can't paint chrome I tried it anyway (with regular paint). I painted my air cleaner cover and horn cover satin black over a year ago. I prepped the parts by sanding with 400 grit until there was no shine left, and used a wire brush on a dremel to scuff up nooks and crannies I couldn't get to with the sand paper. Then I cleaned the parts with soapy water (dish soap), rinsed well, wiped everything down with acetone, and shot the paint in thin layers. It came out good, and has held up for over a year.

Some other chrome parts on the bike like fender rail covers I had powder coated gloss black. My powder coater scuffed the parts with bead blaster and laid on the powdercoat, and it has proven durable. I regularly attach bungee hooks to some of the pc'd parts, and while it scuffs, the powder coat doesn't peel off like paint would.

There are high-temp powder coats suitable for use on exhaust systems and my pc guy says it'll stick to chrome. You should also be able to use regular powder coat on heat shields with no problem.

 

Jesus! not again please!!!

This reminded me this one job that I had in a company named Sachs, we contructed there the crash dampers that are mounted in some of the VW's cars (inside the bumpers).

This dampers were by spec., stainless steel then yellow chromed (one of the hardest chrome finish) and black matte painted overall.

My god!!! I had never seen paint peeling off so dramatically ever in my life. We ran accelerated ageing tests on them whit saline solutions and with 100% of relative air humidity. There was no paint that could stay in place even at the most early stages of the tests.

The reason: chrome tightens the surface's pores, thats what chrome is all about when protectig metals won't aloud ANYTHING (even paint) to get attached to it.

The solution: after going over the entire yellow pages for paint brands (Basf, SW, younameit, etc...) Basf came up with the idea of adding some particular acid to the paint itself in order to attack the chromed surface (open the pores) only the necessary for a good paint anchorage. I worked great. We passed all VW's tests and requirements.

You could take it from here and see if it works for you.

Best regards.

Mimo.