Has anyone tried to darken or smoke their chrome??

i bought the Shadow Chrome blackout kit by dupli color.

Now I am very curious if anyone has tried this already, and how did it turn out?

Thinking of trying it on my bulge and grill surround. That’s all the chrome left on my MGM.

 

Is it like a vinyl wrap or what? I’ve never heard of that stuff.

 

Why, here is a link to a product demo... (fwiw, I believe it is basically a dark-tinted clearcoat that you then put clearcoat over.)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6ziO0ZytLuE

 

That is interesting but I’d be skeptical on how well it would stick to the plastic grille.

 

U would still have to sand it down and treat it like paint I would suppose but please post some pics I'd u fo through

 

It’s translucent. It literally said in the video no sanding.

 

Does anyone have a spare piece of plasti-chrome they can send my way?

For science!!!

 

I may have an old corner light from my Tacoma. I’ll report back when I get a chance to check.

 

I think this light can be disassembled..
Let me see if I can and if so I can send it your way.

 

Thank you!

 

Go with vinyl wrap. Won’t chip.

 

I tried that on my corolla wheels and it worked well. But I don’t think people mostly use it for grill. I know some people used bed liner spray and it worked well. You can check on YouTube.

 

But, if you smoke it, how do you keep the papers lit?

 

I think smoked chrome would look awesome btw.

 

Following this thread now, post pics of progress! Intersted in the results

 

I’m back!

I have not yet worked up the courage to mask off the truck and try this on the hood bulge and grill surround.

I wanted to try a test piece first, and then have something to hold against the MGM body of my truck so I can better estimate how it will look.

Work has been too busy to try to make it to a wrecking yard for plastic trim, but like manna from heaven, the naughty streets of SE Portland threw fake chrome metaphorically into my lap when a drug addled baffoon drove his sedan over the sidewalk outside the facility I manage, through our landscaping, and directly into the steel footing of a billboard adjacent to my property. The plastichrome helpfully extracted itself from the idiot’s vehicle as the rest of his chariot was smashed inward to warn the oblivious driver that he should probably wake up. The responding Portland Police told me that there were two young male occupants in the car during the accident. Both claimed the other was driving.

Anyway, I have some fake chrome to clean, smoke, and clear using the kit cited above. Hope to have meaningful results soon!

 

Waiting for results....

 

After cleaning, masking, and a thorough wipe down with isopropyl:


First coat:


Second coat:

 

Hats off to Duplicolor, even if I don’t wind up using this on my trim.

The coats are easy to lay on wet without running. This is not a product you can mist on like paint for the first coat- it has to lay down smoothly without texture, and it seems to really settle nicely in the :20min after applying. You can see the difference in opacity between coat 1 and 2. My aim is to do the big piece according to the package- 3 coats.
The smaller part I will hit 4 or 5 times.

 

Thanks for experimenting and sharing this will us.

 

Since you’re removing the part anyways, just wrap it. It’ll look cleaner and can last a very long time. In case you don’t want that color anymore, you can just remove the wrap.

 

Shhhhh. He's not removing anything yet, and he is providing a valuable service to the community with this testing. It might actually look better/different than a wrap, and more options are always good.

 

Not planning to remove parts for this kind of application.

The bulge and the grill surround can be masked in place.

I think it is inevitable that I will be painting these parts MGM if this doesn’t look good to me.

 

AYANG- these parts are not taken from my truck. These are from a crappy Ford sedan that exploded on my facility’s property. They were essentially donated to science during an event that epitomizes natural selection at work.

 

Ok, 3rd coat. Shown here against real chrome (which is similar in appearance to the original luster of these pieces).

They are quite smoky. The smaller piece will go out for a bit more color.

 

Nobody cares about that. Show pics of that bug. Early 50’s?

 

That actually looks really nice. The bug too, but the smoke chrome is looking like it could be a good budget option.

 

Thanks Uncle!!

1960. I grew up wrenching on 60’s VWs while my brothers did Chevy’s. They actually really liked my VWs though. As did my cousins who leaned toward Skylarks and Dodge trucks.

I gave up on old cars until 2010, when out of nowhere, I started looking hard at old VWs and my wife caught me. She is great, and for Christmas that year, told me to find a VW project. She didn’t realize what kind of time and energy goes into a 50+ year old rust bucket.

A friend of mine helped me trailer this 1960 home in very rough shape. I restored it over 3 years.

after 2.5 years of body work and part rebuilding, I got new paint-
After a couple years finishing the details, at a car show...

 

looks like you did an amazing job on the restoration on that ol girl!