New World Datsuns...

This is just one of the ones on there.

I watched another one I found in a search, it was the last of 3 results of the search, this video you posted was the first result, the one I watched was a spray on chrome that can be bought at Lowes, that one did the gloss black, chrome, and then a clear coat, this easy chrome video appears to skip the clear coat.
Everyone must keep in mind here that the parts that need to be chromed are dented, scratched, rust pitted, they not in very good shape, so before I even got to the point of spraying the black gloss paint I will have to make the parts perfect, well I am not a perfect kind of guy, I am not good at bodywork, the truck in these photos I have posted looks alright, but it is not that good in person, I could not even see or feel half the bumps/dents it has when it was in primer, when the paint was put on I could see everything, I am sure me being tired of working on it played a part though.
I am going to try to do the parts that are normally chrome either the way posted above or the way I seen it done yesterday, one thing I noticed was that some of the spray chrome paints say for indoor use only, I will figure it out eventually.

I worked on the tailgate again this afternoon after getting home from my 2 jobs I did today, I did a little more welding to fill small holes and a little more pounding, I believe it is the best I am ever going to get it myself, it is flat compared to what it looked like when I started, I will first try to clean it up(remove paint), I might try sand blasting it but I do not want to warp it doing that, then put bondo on it to try and make the outside look smooth(I am not really going to worry about the inside), I will then prime it and see how good a job I did as my bed sides looked terrible once in primer, but I was able to make them look way better and then primed them again, once in primer I will take the wheels off and remove the tires, clean them and prime them, then all them parts will be ready for paint, after that I will look into the Easy Chrome.

That Easy Chrome by Alsa is expensive, I believe I will try the Spaz Stix first as it was rated the best, VHT Plate Finish was second, but these are rattle can chrome paints.

So the first thing I did to the tailgate was sand blast the whole tailgate, I did not strip it, I just sand blasted every little spot that had surface rust which was every scratch and dent that lost paint, I feathered it out from the scratches, I likely used 70 plus pounds, I am going to buy more tomorrow.
I put a layer of bondo hair on the outside of the tailgate center section, then I did a layer of bondo to clean it up, then another layer of bondo in the low places, I have not sanded the third step yet, once the center section is semi flat I will fix a couple spots above and below the center section, once the outside is done I will cover the spots on the inside I cut to relieve the stretched areas, I am not going to try and fix the inside of the tail gate, it is good enough the way it is except for the cuts and tack welds I made and ground down to level it, it will then be ready for primer.

I looked into buying Spaz Stix aerosol chrome paint, it was supposed to be available at Wallmart, none there, so I searched it again and read up on it some more and figured out that it is a popular paint to use on RC model cars, I also read that normally it is sold with clear coat and gloss black paint, it is sort of a system, I bought Por15 for the gloss black paint, so I need the chrome and clear coat paints, during all this searching for a place I could buy this stuff it dawned on me to try the RC hobby shop, there is one within a mile of me, I will go there tomorrow, if not there I can buy everything on Ebay, the gloss black is supposed to be completely dry anyway, like days of drying according to what I read.
I am going to try the bumperettes first as they can take the abuse of being stripped again if it doesn't work.

I'm curious to see how this turns out.

DRIVEN wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 4:53 am I'm curious to see how this turns out.

So am I

I bought a 3.5 oz can of Ultimate Mirror Chrome as it was the only one they had left, while looking at what they had I mentioned to the gal that the cap on one can said Mirror Chrome while the can said "gloss black", well it turned out that someone had switched can tops to buy the "Mirror Chrome" for the gloss black price which was half the price, while leaving I thought they should not put the stickers on the lid/cap, they should only be on the can itself.
They had no clear coat but this stuff is not for exterior use, so I am thinking I will buy some automotive clear coat to clear coat this stuff.
I worked on the tailgate a little more today, I think I will remove the bumperettes, try to fix the one the best I can and then put the gloss black on them.

I removed the bumperettes and cleaned them up the best I could, not sure why, but the POR15 is not going on as smooth as I thought it would, I will keep adding coats till they are as smooth as I can get them.
Keep in mind that they were not all that smooth to start with, there are large/big/numerous pit holes on the bottom edges of both sides, I did not take the time to fill these holes which likely was a mistake, if it looks really bad I can strip them down and start over, but personally I would just like to see if it is going to work and even slightly resemble chrome plating.

I sanded the bumperettes in the last post, they were not good enough yet, I just put another coat on them.
I also primed the outside side of the tailgate, I wanted to see what it looked like, it is way better than it was.

I sanded and primed the tailgate again, this time I primed both sides, it is in the house near the wood stove drying.



I also removed the wheels from the truck, removed the tires, pressured washed the faces of the rims, dried them out in the house and then primed them also.


I sanded the bumperettes again and put another coat of POR15 on and they looked great till they dried, they got dull, so I guess I am going to spray them with high gloss paint as according to what I read to get the chrome finish to look like chrome you need a very shiny black coat to start with, not sure if I should use Spaz Stix gloss black or go with something where I get 4 times more paint for the same price, they said that if the finished product is going to be in a harsh environment or outside then instead of using the Spaz Stix clear coat use a 2K clear coat instead of their product as it is for indoor use and is fragile and easy to scratch, I believe that they target RC cars for this product and only sell it in 3.5 ounce cans.
I am going to let the bumperettes dry for a couple days before spraying with the high gloss black paint.
I bought the clear coat already, I looked into the aerosol clear coat version at $20.00+ a can and decided I would save money to buy automotive type clear coat as the aerosol version is a 2K type, what one does is put this lid on the bottom of the can and activate the can by pounding the bottom of the can on a hard surface, this mixes the can, well you have to use the whole can right then and there, I can use my smaller paint gun and mix what I need the way I am going to clear coat it and save the rest for the grill, hood trim, and hubcaps if it works on the bumperettes.

Busy day.

Things are not working out on the rims like I expected, I cleaned them rims real good yet the primer did not stick in a few places, I sanded them in the bad spots and re-primed them in them spots again along with the outside of the tailgate after I sanded a few spots, the tailgate is basically ready for paint, but it has gotten cold outside, not sure how the paint will lay out now.

I am getting tired of messing with these rims, I keep having to sand the same areas and even though the metal is sanded, the primer will not stick to it. I do not want to sand blast these rims as for the most part when the beauty rings and hubcaps are on them one will only be able to see a very small part of the rims and them areas the primer is sticking just fine, I will paint them and see what happens, the tailgate is ready.

I gave up and sand blasted the rims from where the hubcaps mount to the outer lip, I tried sanding again and a different primer and it was even worse, the problem is once I blew threw the primer I applied there was not much left to sandblast, one rim had some white paint and it took longer to do that one.
Maybe the rims were already sandblasted at some point and then used and they got oil on them and that is why I could not sand it off, the worst spots were the lips on the outer edge, and the other lip below where the tire slides over it to seal on the vertical lip, I am keeping the rims inside to keep them warm and I will try priming them again either tomorrow or the next day.
I know I said I was going to try painting them the way they were, but I just could not do that the way they were, so i gave up on giving up.

Sounds like it'll be a nicer end result.

I am my worst enemy, I had the bumperettes perfect and six hours later I touched one, so I thought put another coat on it and don't touch it.
Well now I have to start over again, but every time I start over they are smoother and look better, what I need to do is work more making money and not be around here to screw things up, I will let them sit overnight and put another coat of POR15 on them likely in the morning, hopefully I can get it on smoother this time instead of having teeny tiny little bubbles everywhere, I suppose they were not perfect but they were the best result so far.

Seems like POR15 always leaves those little bubbles when I've used it too. Is that your first step of chrome or is a glossier black going over the POR?

According to what I have read the glossier the black the better the result, one time the POR15 was shiny after it dried for me, all the rest of the times it was dull, the one time I painted them with gloss black it was way shinier than the best result with the POR15, so POR15 to get it smooth for the most part as it does that real well, and then black gloss over that, next is the mirror chrome, then the clear coat, it might take me weeks to get to the end result with how many mistakes I have been making.

No rush. You have all winter.