Im going to be painting my truck soon and i need to know what i will have to do so that i can paint the chrome bumper and side mirrors. Im going to paint the whole truck the same color and go back and install a billet grill with new clear headlights and turn signals. My biggest concern is the paint not bonding good to the front chrome bumper and side mirrors. Anyone know what i will need to do to make the paint stay on the chrome without flaking off after a couple weeks?

 

Did you sand down the bumpers/Mirrors first?

 

Well i haven't actually started on the body work and paint yet. Im trying to find out what i need to do to get the paint to hold strong onto the chrome parts. Ive painted several trucks for family but ive never painted over chrome and dont know the proper steps to do it. Im wanting to paint my truck different from all the trycks around where i live. The whole truck will be factory green with alot of metallic flake. The only thing that won't be painted is the wheels and doing a billet grill top and bottom with a rollpan on back.

 

Easiest way, is to use low grit sandpaper or wire wheel and take it down to bare metal, this will prevent any flaking cause there won't be nothing left. After that its your choice how you want to prep it, for my bumper I used rust proof paint laid it on thick then painted over top of it, It worked extremely well except in one spot where I saw rust coming threw the paint where I didn't paint thick enough. Perfect idea to use this method if you get bad winters and lots of road salt. The other way is to take it down to bare metal and bondo afterwards, will make your bumper nice and smooth but I don't know how well it will handle in bad weather or rock chips in your bumper. Third way is to go to your favorite store aka wreckers. and buy a completely new bumper one that isn't chromed. And for the side mirrors, you could follow the same method or go out and buy the plastic cool looking mirrors instead of those dumbo wings. They are really easy to sand and paint sticks awesome on them, but be sure to get good paint or they might fade.

 

I think i will prolly take the bumper off and sandblast it then use a filler primer then sand it smooth. I will be using Dupont paint from our local auto paint store. Imma have them mix the paint and metal flack together for me and do a few test sprays to get the perfect look that im going for. It definitely will not be a rattle can paint job lol. This truck is my toy and i hope by next summer it will be going to some shows and drive-ins.

 

Sounds like it will be sweet, I am at the point too to paint my truck again, I couldn't afford a air compressor so I used rattle cans, then I thought they were to expensive and used the cheap stuff. Worst mistake ever, I will be regretting using them when I have to sand it down again. Made the truck look horrible.

 

When I paint my truck, I'll paint the chrome grill and bumpers on my truck as well, so I'm glad somebody asked. Just a summer project......

 

i love my chrome bumpers and grill, i could never paint them. love the shine in the sun on a nice day

 

Dont get me wrong i love chrome to but what i love more is having something different from everybody else around my town. Im looking for that custom street rod look. In the end ill still have chrome wheels and billet grills. I think it will turn out great.

 

Sorry Weisel I believe I already beat you to that one around our province.

FYI for painting that chrome grill, you will want to remove ALL of the chrome, to the point of showing grey plastic. It might look like you are taking to much off but is totally worth it. small little rocks will chip the hell out of your grill that you wouldn't believe. I would throw extra coats of clear on the grill for safe measure. I failed to do it, and it looks horrible.