Chrome off

The surround that goes around the gauges was painted chrome around the outsides and black inside of the individual gauge pods. After 37 years this paint had largely worn away or became so affected by the elements that if you swiped it with your finger you came away with little pieces of alternating shiny/black crumbs.. So it was time to resurface it. I pulled the cluster out and began cleaning it. Sanding off the old finish with a green scuff pad. Toward the end of cleaning it I took it to the tub to make sure all sanding dust was off and as soon as the hot water started hitting the old surface It began coming away from the plastic like it was so much dirt. After that was done I was left with a basically in the raw plastic piece. So began my quest for the perfect "Chrome" paint.

• 1. Duplicolor Chrome


• 2. Krylon Metallic


• 3. Rustoleum Metallic
  "New Brighter Finish"


• 4. Rustoleum Bright Coat


• 5. Plastic Coat Metallic

I purchased five different cans of metalic paint. I then found an old piece of plexiglass and taped off five separate areas. Each sections was then numbered and received two coats of each paint. Each coat was spayed heavy enough to 'pool' and loose it's orange peel.

The results:
Image recognition from best to worst.
4,1,5,3,2... The BEST image recognition came out of can 4 the Rustoleum Bright Coat followed pretty closely by the Duplicolor Chrome with finally the Plastic Coat Metallic trailing a little further back.. Numbers 2 and 3 weren't any better than a silver color. When referring to tint I suppose 2 and 3 could be considered a lighter color but for my purposes that doesn't nearly make up for the lack of image recognition. the over winner is number 4 the Rustoleum Bright Coat..