Chrome powder dulls with clear pleas help!!!!!!

[mcaswell]

I have to add to this post. We have some color chips of the chrome with clear that were provided to us by our powder supplier. They look really great, certainly not dull, but certainly not a substitute for the real thing. I will post a picture on Monday.

[drfjr1976]

I always took it as the chrome has such a high reflection and that the clear has a lower gloss to it thus dulling it slightly. Kind of like placing a clear sheet of plastic over a mirror. you can still see your reflection but just not as clear as you could without the plastic covering. I think it is also do to the thickness of the clear, PC versus Paint. I would imagine that if you were to use an automotive clear sprayed over the chrome PC, it would achieve better results but lose the durability.

[non-stick]

hmmmmmm.... so what you're saying is a "high-gloss" clear might be better for things,huh? Interesting. Let's see what we can do about that very thing and we'll try to refine our little "process" here a bit so get a home-run on things. Keep you posted on that...... Russ

[mcaswell]

Our supplier confirms that it is normal for the chrome to dull slightly when clear coated. These are the color chips of clear over chrome provided by the manufacturer.


<br>

[bzer1]

I think the problem with clear over chrome is, when the clear begins to flow out and cure, it eats into the outer layer of the chrome. I looked at it very closly with a manifying glass and that what it looked like. I plan to do some experimentation very soon and will post the results.

I will use varying thicknesses of chrome and clear at different temps, and cure times, and different prep methods. If anyone would like to add some variables please let me know as I will be cutting test plates next week and want to make sure I have enough. I'll also try to duplicate my best results on aluminum.

[dagobert]

Hi.
I'm first to admit that I'm new to powder coating and chroming, and am soaking all this up like a sponge. Two questions come to mind after reading all this, and if they turn out to be dumb ones, please forgive me- but as far as prep work goes, would it help to polish out the metal in whatever you are pwoder coating like you would for chrome plating? And also, once you apply the chrome powder coating and cure it, has anyone tried using some of that Zoop seal on it instead of clear coating it with powder? And finally, one for my own knowledge- is there a prior thread that goes through the whole powder coating process, start to finish including prep work, simliar to the "Polishing 101" thread in metal polishing? It sure would be helpful to see an overview of the process, for those of us who are new.

Thanks,
Jay

[FMXhellraiser]

I am with dagobert there, I have the exact same two questions... I looked around and have been reading all these threads and am learning a lot, also a post above by non-stick helped me tons with what to do with the cooling and all and I even printed it out and have been going through all these tips and all and printing them as well and going to put them together in a book. I just wanted to say thanks a lot for the help even though I haven't bought the kit yet but am going to as soon as I get a few more questions answered.

[Blademan]

chrome seems to be the fun powder...i did a air cleaner yesterday.did everything as normal, i looked in the oven thru the window and i noticed that half was really brite chrome like and the other part was dull..seeings how the dull wasnt getting any brighter i figuared to play around...i kept cooking and the brite chrome look started getting duller...i just cooked the damn thing till all of it was all dull..pc it with some candy purple and it came out just fine.....not sure what caused the dulling..but i live on the coast and we did have a big humidity change that morning..

[FMXhellraiser]

Is putting a clear coat on PC like putting a clear on a paint job on a vehicle where it is supposed to give it that shine (in this PC case it doesn't) and protect it? What if you put your color down first, then the clear on it and then baked it instead of the color, bake it, then the clear and bake it again? I am new to this and don't even have the PC kit so that might be a dumb question, I just don't know until I get a little bit more money to get the kit.

[WAORacing]

If you were to do that the two colors would bleed together. That wont work. There is no dumb ?'s here. That is what learning is all about. Like everyone here has said, we all are here to learn and help each other out. What ever the case maybe i'm sure there is enough of us here to come up with a solution to the problem. This is just the nature of the chrome powder to dull with adding the clear. I know i hate it when i pull out a fresh powder chromed part and have to put the clear on it myself and knowing it is going to dull it to an extent. The best way i could describe of how it will turn out is in between polished and jet-hot. And no it can not with stand the heat like jet hot. Caswell sells a product for that too.