Ok, this is going to be a long one, but I hope I can help out a couple people on the board.
As you can see in the first picture, the chrome strips in the moldings and bumpers on my baby, especially the ones on the sides were almost not present anymore, and some grayish plastic came through. This bothered me since a while, but because I have quite some projects going for the car at the moment, I did not want to shell out the money for new moldings and all the connected work to that.
So, when I had a rep from the company who supplies our bootstriping tape (for boats) in my store I asked him about chrome tapes…and guess what? He told me they have a mirror finish chrome tape! Now, I used this tape on boats before, and we sell quite a lot of it, and it holds up pretty well in the marine environment with saltwater, polishing and buffing and so on, so I am quite confident that It will last a while.
Our chrome strips are just a wee lil bit wider than a half inch, in which the tape is readily available. It works pretty good in that size, especially since the chrome on the top and bottom of the strips were still somewhat ok on my car. But they would even custom cut tape to width, if ordered enough of it. Have to find out exactly how many they require, but it can’t be too much, because they did custom tapes for us before.
The tape comes in a 50 feet roll, which is plenty for our cars…there is about 10 feet of the tape left after the whole car is done.
I have to admit that tonight I did somewhat of a hack job, just to find out how it works out and it started to rain, but I will redo it soon the right way. Recommended is a temperature of at least 70F, because the tape gets much more flexible then, and the adhesive has its full power. Applying it while slightly heating it up with a heat gun or a hairdryer helps immensely getting it around corners and into the gap between the chrome strip and the molding.
Ok, I know my car is dirty…LOL…but with the weather we have in the northeast lately that’s no wonder!
The first, and as so often, the most important step is prep. Cleaning the strip very thoroughly is key, because the tape is very thin, so any contaminants in or on the plastic will press through the tape, and stand out like a sore thumb because of the mirror finish. Some dish detergent or car wash of your choice together with carefully (to not scratch the paint) using one of those plastic “scrubby” thing for pots and pans works well. After that I wiped the strip (and only the chrome strip!) down with some acetone to get rid of all wax residues, grease and fingerprints.
http://www.noddy.de/001.jpg
Then I cut sections of the tape just a lil bit longer (about a half inch on each side) than the particular piece of molding. The tape needs to be applied with quite some pressure and heating the plastic beforehand and the tape while applying as said before improves the bond a lot.
http://www.noddy.de/002.jpg
At the ends of the chrome strips I used a very thin metal ruler (an old feeler gauge would work too) to “tuck” the tape a little bit under the molding, which works very well because you can push the chrome strip somewhat into the molding, resulting in a gap between the chrome and the painted piece.
http://www.noddy.de/003.jpg
To finally cut the tape I used something like a scalpel which is used for crafts and such…wicked sharp and a sharp, pointy tip, which makes it easy to once again push on the molding and cut the tape actually a bit inside the molding which produces a perfect finish because it hides any imperfections…
http://www.noddy.de/004.jpg
…as seen here…;-) :
http://www.noddy.de/006.jpg
No, the tape does not stay that dull! LOL! There is a protective clear layer on the chrome to protect it during installation, which is very nice because you can apply the pressure to the tape with a rag or something like a maniac without fearing to scratch the finish.
http://www.noddy.de/007.jpg
Just to show the difference, even if it did not come out on the picture anything like it does in real…my car looks so much better now!!! This is before…
http://www.noddy.de/008.jpg
…and this is after! I can even see myself in the chrome again, which was impossible before, because there was not much of that shiny stuff left…;-)
http://www.noddy.de/009.jpg
After doing the whole car quickly before the rain I have to say that I have that sore thumb now in real on my hand…LOL!
The nice thing about that tape is that it is fairly cheap and pretty quick to apply, so even if I have to do it again in a year, still better than replacing the moldings! If anyone is interested in doing that to their cars, I am pretty sure I could hook you up. I get the tape for $5.37 a roll. Other colors is no problem either, they make about 50 different colors plus some metal flake, metallic, chrome and gold.
Maybe there are more people out there like me, who actually like the chrome on our cars and hate to spend the money for all new body moldings. Hmmmm…using black tape to black out the chrome on a black car…now that would be another idea….LOL!
Anyways, hope I could pass on some of my experiences with it and help someone out there with it ;-)
Have a good one and don’t drive any faster than your guardian angel can fly,
Marcus.
As you can see in the first picture, the chrome strips in the moldings and bumpers on my baby, especially the ones on the sides were almost not present anymore, and some grayish plastic came through. This bothered me since a while, but because I have quite some projects going for the car at the moment, I did not want to shell out the money for new moldings and all the connected work to that.
So, when I had a rep from the company who supplies our bootstriping tape (for boats) in my store I asked him about chrome tapes…and guess what? He told me they have a mirror finish chrome tape! Now, I used this tape on boats before, and we sell quite a lot of it, and it holds up pretty well in the marine environment with saltwater, polishing and buffing and so on, so I am quite confident that It will last a while.
Our chrome strips are just a wee lil bit wider than a half inch, in which the tape is readily available. It works pretty good in that size, especially since the chrome on the top and bottom of the strips were still somewhat ok on my car. But they would even custom cut tape to width, if ordered enough of it. Have to find out exactly how many they require, but it can’t be too much, because they did custom tapes for us before.
The tape comes in a 50 feet roll, which is plenty for our cars…there is about 10 feet of the tape left after the whole car is done.
I have to admit that tonight I did somewhat of a hack job, just to find out how it works out and it started to rain, but I will redo it soon the right way. Recommended is a temperature of at least 70F, because the tape gets much more flexible then, and the adhesive has its full power. Applying it while slightly heating it up with a heat gun or a hairdryer helps immensely getting it around corners and into the gap between the chrome strip and the molding.
Ok, I know my car is dirty…LOL…but with the weather we have in the northeast lately that’s no wonder!
The first, and as so often, the most important step is prep. Cleaning the strip very thoroughly is key, because the tape is very thin, so any contaminants in or on the plastic will press through the tape, and stand out like a sore thumb because of the mirror finish. Some dish detergent or car wash of your choice together with carefully (to not scratch the paint) using one of those plastic “scrubby” thing for pots and pans works well. After that I wiped the strip (and only the chrome strip!) down with some acetone to get rid of all wax residues, grease and fingerprints.
http://www.noddy.de/001.jpg
Then I cut sections of the tape just a lil bit longer (about a half inch on each side) than the particular piece of molding. The tape needs to be applied with quite some pressure and heating the plastic beforehand and the tape while applying as said before improves the bond a lot.
http://www.noddy.de/002.jpg
At the ends of the chrome strips I used a very thin metal ruler (an old feeler gauge would work too) to “tuck” the tape a little bit under the molding, which works very well because you can push the chrome strip somewhat into the molding, resulting in a gap between the chrome and the painted piece.
http://www.noddy.de/003.jpg
To finally cut the tape I used something like a scalpel which is used for crafts and such…wicked sharp and a sharp, pointy tip, which makes it easy to once again push on the molding and cut the tape actually a bit inside the molding which produces a perfect finish because it hides any imperfections…
http://www.noddy.de/004.jpg
…as seen here…;-) :
http://www.noddy.de/006.jpg
No, the tape does not stay that dull! LOL! There is a protective clear layer on the chrome to protect it during installation, which is very nice because you can apply the pressure to the tape with a rag or something like a maniac without fearing to scratch the finish.
http://www.noddy.de/007.jpg
Just to show the difference, even if it did not come out on the picture anything like it does in real…my car looks so much better now!!! This is before…
http://www.noddy.de/008.jpg
…and this is after! I can even see myself in the chrome again, which was impossible before, because there was not much of that shiny stuff left…;-)
http://www.noddy.de/009.jpg
After doing the whole car quickly before the rain I have to say that I have that sore thumb now in real on my hand…LOL!
The nice thing about that tape is that it is fairly cheap and pretty quick to apply, so even if I have to do it again in a year, still better than replacing the moldings! If anyone is interested in doing that to their cars, I am pretty sure I could hook you up. I get the tape for $5.37 a roll. Other colors is no problem either, they make about 50 different colors plus some metal flake, metallic, chrome and gold.
Maybe there are more people out there like me, who actually like the chrome on our cars and hate to spend the money for all new body moldings. Hmmmm…using black tape to black out the chrome on a black car…now that would be another idea….LOL!
Anyways, hope I could pass on some of my experiences with it and help someone out there with it ;-)
Have a good one and don’t drive any faster than your guardian angel can fly,
Marcus.
