Guest Anonymous Posted March 6, 2002 Share Posted March 6, 2002 Hi Guys. Im looking to put some chrome parts on my 280ZX. I want chrome wing mirrors and chrome wiper blades. And maybe some chrome flashings around the targas instead of the stainless steel, but that mite be goin a bit far, dunno about that one. Definately want the chrome mirrors and wipers though. Do you guys have any ideas how I could go about this? I thought about taking some chrome mirrors from another car, any make, but I dont know wat cars have chrome mirrors. Although I saw some very nice ones on the gt500 mustang from "gone in 60 seconds", dam thats a nice car. Or I could get some standard metal mirrors and have them chrome plated, I figured on chrome plating the wipers anyway. Is this idea expensive? Unpractical? Can you guys think of any othe places chrome would look good? Or whether you think any chrome would look silly,ill accept all comments Cheerz, Dwayne p.s Im ova here in little New Zealand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 Dwayne .. the great thing about owning a car is you can do about any thing you want to it. You can polish that stainless steel with a buffer. Chrome is now frowned upon here as politically incorrect since it is enviroment un-friendly. You may be able to salvage the wipers off some other car that will fit. I love chrome but find it expensive and hard to find a good plater.Powder coating is the fad now and there are finishs to simulate chrome (near chrome) I had a roll bar chrome plated ($150.00) that began to rust in one spot after a year.The government has put a lot of the platers out of business. The few that are still around farm their plating work out. There maybe only two active platers in Oregon. I see a few cars with fender well mouldings but I do not know what after market source sells them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 After futzing with the chrome on my bike for a few years, just consider the maintenance on it, its a PITA to keep polished and it will pit and rust if you don't stay on it. If I weren't selling my bike, I'd consider black powder coating to be honest. But then again my sporty is a rider, not a putt and show bike like the RUB's (Rich Urban Bikers ) do at the Harley meets. Of course if its a weekend car and thats your pride and joy and you polish it all the time, cool deal, chrome looks great. I'm just a lazy sod I guess. Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 Lone, funny you mention black powdercoating a HD. My dad's neighbor with the 427 Cobra replica, 98? Cobra R 'stang, and two harley's is doing just that to his vintage series HD. He has the Eastwood Hotcoat system, and stuff is going from chrome to black powdercoat little by little! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 if you want a high polish i seem to remeber hearing that stainless steel can actually be takne to a higher sheen/polish then chrome. am i wrong in thinking this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 Hey guys, I didnt know chrome was either enviromentally unfriendly or hard to maintain. To be honest I thought that that was the attraction of chrome, it was allways shiny and easy to maintain. Chrome mags are the in thing ova here, they cost alot more than polished mags and every one wants them. Theres been no involvement of the government at all to impose restrictions on chroming, at least to my knowledge. I wonder if there is any one who can do black powder coating ova here. Does that look the same as a charcoal finish on a mag? I guess buffing up those stainless steel parts would be a good alternative. Wat about stainless steel mirrors that I can buff or black powder coat, any ideas on those? I could black powder coat my current wipers right? My flatmate suggested I anodize the parts for a nice finish. But he said it would be costly. You guys know anything about anodizing? Geez I feel like a leech, sucking out information. Thanx heaps, Dwayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 7, 2002 Share Posted March 7, 2002 You will need some kind of small fast turning (4 inch) angle grinder and a good quality buffing wheel with buffing compound that is formulated especially for stainless steel. In all metal polishing , I prefer the stainless compound over any others since it cleans up scratches too. You could leave the trim on the car and buff it with the angle grinder . Buffed stainless looks better than chrome. There is a business that polishes stainlees steel on luxury motor homes in my area. They have their stainless steel compound specially formulated and also have quality buffing wheels. I get my stuff there and quality does last. I have used a 8 inch grinder with 2 - 10 inch buffing wheels on big jobs plus I have a staionary motor with 3450 RPM turning speed (fast)If your buffing wheels start burning then your buffing wheels are no good and cheap.Don't worry about being politically incorrect. What is really incorrect that as a nation with about 5% of the world's population we are approaching consumption of about 30% of the worlds resources and trying to control the remaining 70% my 2 cents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 10, 2002 Share Posted March 10, 2002 Originally posted by Dwayne:My flatmate suggested I anodize the parts for a nice finish. But he said it would be costly. You guys know anything about anodizing? Geez I feel like a leech, sucking out information. Thanx heaps, Dwayne Anodizing works well on high quality aluminum or steel parts (ie, billet), but not so well on castings. There was a good article on home anodizing in either Super Chevy or Popular Hot Rodding a few years ao on it...it involved a battery charger, battery acid, and fabric dye. Maybe someobody has a link, or a back issue possibly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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