Probably a waste of time, but I'm curious because of seeing some good metallic powdercoats.

Given the abysmal environmental impact of chroming, has anyone attempted a chrome powdercoat before, and how "convincing" did it appear afterwards?

Local PC shop is quite reasonably priced, although a metallic like this would probably need two coats. I have some frames that I can't decide on a color for, and maybe chrome is the ticket. I could even do a bad wet paint job over the top, and as the paint inevitably failed in a month or so, I might have some "fauxpage."

The coating shop where I go does offer a chrome PC but it looks dull by comparison. More like an Aluminum color. The chrome paint they use on plastic grills and such is more like a full chrome treatment. Just my impression. Smiles, MH

a lot of plastic parts (from automotive to home appliances to model kits) were mirco-plated (in a vacuum chamber using powdered metal "dust").
It's very thin metal (microns thick) and prone to peeling off the plastic base material over time...I'm sure we ALL have seen that happen!
AFAIK the metal dusts are not usually genuine chromium or nickel (and certainly not real gold) but not sure what they use.
EDIT: I should read the literature before posting! ..."As far as the types of metals, copper plating on plastic is a common industrial practice, especially for applications where electrical conductivity is required. Other metals that are amenable to plating onto plastic include chromium, gold, silver and nickel." and according to shops this is now almost 90% on ABS

I did some valve covers on a classic British car with a single stage powder coat and they looked presentable but not chrome. More like a semi-gloss nickel or aluminum. Even the slightest abrasion from hoses or wires dulled them significantly.

* Note that this was a few years ago so there may be better products out there now.

Don’t leave out aluminum vac u metallized coatings on those 1/24th scale model car kits. Was done on Styrene.

the S of ABS.

Check with these guys. They do something like plasma spray on guns that last forever. Or can probably tell you who is able to do it

Firearm Plating -Mahovsky's Metalife

Prismatic Super Chrome Plus appears the best available.

https://www.prismaticpowders.com/sho...er-chrome-plus

I found this from them doing a two stage paint where they show the chrome finished before they added another color on top. Not necessary to watch that part though.

Interesting appearance.
i have a frame set that I am not that interesting in re-plating the “socks”
this appears decent.
i would do the rest in wet paint

That Super Chrome does look good! I wonder what it looks like with a clear coat, and how long it would stay looking nice without a clear coat.

Jason over at CC coatings will tell you that there's nothing that's quite like chrome. The two part coat with "chrome" PC under does a great job as @Garthr states.


This looks like chromovelato, without the paint peeling from breathing on it

There is another video suggested when you watch the one Garthr posted that compares Chrome powder coats with and without clear coats. The effect is seems muddier when a clear coat is added and if I am understanding correctly the Chrome powder has no UV protection and so changes fairly quickly without a UV protecting clear coat. As an undercoat for transparent/translucent powder like gugie posted seems like a winner.
Here is the info/pic from the Super chrome site:

"Super Chrome Plus is a reflective chrome-like polyurethane powder coating. It is our brightest and most reflective powder. Its true chrome-like appearance makes it our preferred choice for a powder coating base coat under transparent powder finishes to create a bright and vivid candy appearance.

It is important to fully cure Super Chrome Plus before applying a top coat.

To maintain a true chrome-like appearance, after fully curing adding a top coat of Clear Vision PPS-2974 is required. Alternatively, any Prismatic transparent, candy, or various gloss clears, may be used depending on your desired finish. The image shown displays Super Chrome Plus with Clear Vision PPS-2974 as a top coat over the left side.

Gloss: 71-85 Gloss Units"

https://images.nicindustries.com/pri...thumbnail.jpg?

I've personally used Prismatic's Super Chrome Plus, both as a "chrome" coating as well as a base coat under transparent (candy) colors. It is the best powder I've come across for trying to simulate chrome. It is shiny. With that said, it doesn't look like polished chrome plating. It more closely imitates polished aluminum. The one big drawback is that it is not UV stable, so it needs a clear coat to protect it from the sun if it will be exposed for days and days. When I tried to use it according to Prismatic's instructions, the clear coat caused it to become dull like silver paint. The solution for me was to fully bake the Super Chrome Plus, rather than "gel bake" it per instructions, and then let the part cool before applying the clear coat. Several different brand UV stable clear powders worked well for this. The Varsity test frame I coated this way turned out really nice (picture a polished aluminum Varsity).

Slight hi-jack but I took classes for "materials and applications" when I was a youngster, and up till now I've only heard of Powder Coating using either polyester or epoxy resins, and the process requires that the resins be thermo-plastic meaning that they MELT when heated to the melting temperature. Always a bit confusing since AFAIK epoxy is a thermo-SETTING resin, which means heat cures and hardens it but it does not melt or re-melt.
Now seeing as how polyurethane has been mentioned as a THIRD resin introduced for PC (and this is news to me) it's is a weird hybrid because AFAIK the PU resins can be either thermo-setting (more common) but PU can also be thermo-plastic.
I've never understood that. If somebody here has a good grasp of these materials maybe he/she can educate us

EDIT: having "done my own research" in a half-assed way, I come to some half-baked knowledge: most all PC powders are blends and some more complicated than others, but hardly any are "pure" resins of the plastic they are called such as 100% polyester, epoxy or polyurethane. As such they are formulated to do things differently (better in some case) from what the original resins were developed for and "known to be".

For example a powderized epoxy resin, when blended with 6 other ingredients, can act as if it's a thermo-plastic and "melt" but then it does retain the more expected thermo-setting characteristic of NOT able to re-melt it once cured.

Anyhow very complicated so when shopping for PC talk it over with an expert, YMMV

When I was planning to have my Picchio Special painted, I thought about getting the forks powder-coated with a chrome-like finish. However, my painter, who works with both wet paint and powder coat, advised against it, saying it doesn't really replicate chrome. He did mention that he can get a nice look with black chrome powdercoat, but it's still not like real chrome.

In the end, I found a spare chromed fork and had him wet paint everything, including the top of the spare chromed fork, so I could decide which I preferred. Ultimately, I chose the fully painted fork because the paint work was just so beautiful to look at.