The rear rack on my 1984 Miyata 610 is aluminum the front Not to rack is chrome. Wondering if anyone has experience with a paint that will "look" like chrome?
Thanks!

Looks terrible when finished. Roger

want chrome?, take it off send it to a chrome plating company.

it's an electroplating process ..

Less shiny is Silver powder coat, but reasonably durable.

"Silver" rattle can spray paint, You know about that by now, right?



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You will probably have better luck making the chrome rack look like aluminum, although it is difficult to get paint to stick to chrome.

Buy a new rack to match the one you want to keep, Nitto has nickel plated steel.

Abundant ones use aluminum.




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Chrome is applied to metal surfaces as follows:

1) the underlying metal is polished to high lustre.
2) generally, you plate with copper to ensure a good bond
3) then you plate with nickel, for the same reason (Note: I may have mixed up the order)
4) then you plate with multiple layers of chromium
5) Then you may have to polish

There is no way that a paint is going to look anywhere near as smooth and mirrorlike as proper chrome plating. Agree with others: better to buy a new rack to match the one you like. Chrome paint looks like somebody spit it on, generally.

Have both racks powdercoated a matching color that compliments the frame.

except when its expedient to not to,

lots of Italian builders just applied chrome plate directly onto the steel..

There is nothing beautiful that cannot be made a little more cheaply and a little worse.

Chrome plating, by the way, isn't applied in layers. To make it thicker you just leave it in the plating tank longer. When people say "triple chrome plated" they mean copper, nickle and chrome plated.

https://www.prismaticpowders.com/col.../Super-Chrome/

TimothyH beat me to it. There's a "chrome" powder coat that doesn't really look like traditional chrome, but is far better looking than chrome spray paint. It has the appearance of satin polished aluminum that has been clear coated.

I wonder how good that powder coat really is and would like to see a sample.

If you're putting the rack to use, I think a rattle can paint job is going to get chewed up pretty quickly and it'll look worse than before you painted it.

Yep.

They look nothing like chrome. None of them. Not even close. At all.

There are some fantastic silvers available, but nothing that really imitates chrome well.

All - The Squid is a a authority on powder coating, very knowledgeable.

If he says it doesn't look like chrome then it doesn't.

-Tim-

I can pretty much guarantee the OP will not do this... Once they see the price tag!

Like others have said, it makes better sense to buy one or the other rack in the finish you prefer.