Got the new World Of Wheels mag and theres a 54 chevy in it that has the bumpers, grill, and tailight bezels painted with cosmic chrome. I cant tell how well it works because in one picture it looks like chrome in another it looks dull. Anyone here ever use it? Id like an unbiased opinion. Cosmic Chrome might be cheaper than having all my chrome redone on my 52. Grill needs alot of work.
Google is your friend http://www.goldtouchinc.com/cosmichrome/ http://www.e7ti.com/services_cosmichrome.html
I did these parts a while ago. http://www.caswellplating.com/restgal/silvachrome_pics.html I could never get a good coat of clear on them. Not sure why they posted these pics on their site? They are not cleared... If you could get a good adhesion and clear I would use it all the time, it looks so good! Its the the same as silvering a mirror, not sure how you would get good adhesion with these systems. With a mirror the glass is the clear coat and just some black sprayed over the back side that was silvered. You do need a good dual head spray gun. http://www.peacocklabs.com/products.htm#equipsup You can make the old style mirrors also using a lead process to get the dark mirror look like some of the older cars have... Jdee
The stuff when applied right looks good. Remember at the end of it all it's a chrome "looking" material with a clear coat. It will get chipped up like paint does. The price isnt much lower thasn chrome, so for bumpers you might be better off going for the real thing. I think it has a plce for some items like trim parts or something you need to do some "filler" work on, but needs to be shiny. I have seen that green chevy and it's a awesome car and those bumpers would fool almost everyone. Search this forum for spray on chrome.
The mag i have is World of Rods not wheels. And its Jake Moomey"s 54 Belair. Check out the bumpers and grill. Just like chrome.
I've used it for a few things. If your doing the actual prep and paint, it might be a lower cost alternative to actual plating. The key is that the surface to be painted has to be perfect. Not close, but perfect. As I remember, I shot HOK BC25, cleared it, cut and buffed each individual part, sprayed the Kosmic Khrome, and then cleared that. Alot of work. Looks almost like chrome. Expensive stuff too. I think it was 100.00 per pint. Hope that helps.
Our local chrome shop got set up with a similar product to do plastic and fiberglass parts for customers, or parts that were beyond chroming. It can look very good, but it's a paint so it'll chip like a paint, plus it's very, very labor intensive to get the pieces perfect before painting. And they do need to be perfect. If you have someone else do it, the cost is nearly the same as plating. There certainly are applications where this stuff makes sense, but if you're just looking to save money on plating I think you're on the wrong track. You're much better off to look for some nice used stuff in that case.