Molotow Liquid “Spray” Chrome?
 

Got around to doing some testing tonight…

I like the Molotow Liquid Chrome pens for bezels and fine line trim areas, but it isn’t good beyond pen width. I like the 4mm, but honestly if you’re doing a long trim line you better be perfect and steady and also hope the pen doesn’t drip too much chrome onto the tip. Running the side or shaft of the pen tip is good up to almost 1/4”. Making a second pass to cover a wider area leaves obvious “brush” strokes.

I played around tonight on some of my dash and glovebox material. It’s not great by any means so it was a good starting point. The original “chrome” on it was all but just the shiny black base that’s left behind.

I learned a lot about how this stuff likes to be sprayed. I’ll test more, but it doesn’t seem to care about needing a black base or light coat like many of the premium spray chromes. The pens unscrew to be refilled, so loading it up in my gun was simple. I couldn’t find my airbrushes but that may have helped. Closest thing I could find was my LPH-80 mini (micro?) gun.

Here are some pics of my test piece. This is my second attempt made tonight:

My apologies… I guess this should be in “interiors” instead of “Body Shop”, but I thought there were recent posts on this topic here, and it gets much more visibility/responses.

I forgot to mention that in the pics above I have tape over the simulated wood grain. That might explain the crinkly look in the one area.

The reflections are high enough to read text nearly a foot away, as well as up close.

I think that looks excellent.
So you just dumped the refill into the air gun and shot it as is?

Any idea on how it holds up to mild chemicals that might be used for cleaning, maybe pledge, armor all etc.?

I'm in the same boat as you, chrome on my dash is so completely missing it looks like it was made with shiny black plastic only.

"chrome on my dash is so completely missing it looks like it was made with shiny black plastic only"

Vacuum metalizing process in many situations is only as good as the paint job that protects it. Eluded to in step 5 here:

https://www.vacuum-metalizing.com/wh...um-metalizing/

Keep in mind how long ago these factory parts were done.

(The link above does not represent any endorsement for the company. Used for information only )


.

Thanks for posting this on the chrome pens and refills airbrushing etc . Didn’t know about these .

There site shows
Some amazing results

That result looks pretty much identical to what l wound up with using Spaz Sticks spray on. I did mine years ago and no degradation yet. It was only $8 a bottle and I used about a half of one.

Yep- went straight from the pen reservoir into the gun. No need to thin at all.

I’ll test how well it holds up after it sits for a few days. I want to see how it handles some clear too.

It really doesn’t behave like the other more expensive chromes at all. No need for a perfect glossy base before spraying. This stuff also likes a heavy wet coat. Any dry spraying just turns to a haze. I had to open up the fan on my gun to make a final pass covering the whole piece.

Here’s another pic showing some reflections. This is honestly the most chrome like material I’ve ever sprayed. It has true mirror look to it.

I've been collecting links to products in threads about chrome sprays for plastic. Probably don't want to spend the money to test them all so this information is helpful. Gotta say, so far this product seems to replicate the original chrome better than most others I've seen. Not that the original dash chrome was excellent to begin with :)

I had fiberglass bumpers done in CosmiChrome, very pleased with the results

Sometimes getting old isn't so bad .... so I was thinking about Molotow and I remember I had a "chrome pin" in my tool box so I took it out to mess with it ... turns out it was a Molotow pen, yes it works quite nice and will be absolutely fine for the small detail lines. Will try spraying some through my detail gun in the next month or so.

As expected the 2K clear killed the “real” chrome look. I’ll update this when I redo the job with the appropriate chrome sealer. I communicated with the manufacturer of the sealer that appears to be the best on the market right now and they said there is no stock in the US at this moment and they will not have any to export until June at the earliest.

I do have some on the way (ETA 4-10 weeks) from a seller out of Taiwan via eBay so I’ll update when it arrives. The product is “E7 S-02 Chrome Sealer”.

I’ll include a pic of my dash after spraying. I wouldn’t say it’s horrible by any means, but after seeing what appeared to be real chrome shot from a spray gun, it was disheartening to lose even 10-20% of that look to the clear. The panel is kinda junk anyways with the stereo cutout and a layer of clear disbonding off the simulated wood, so I’ll be back in there eventually. Don’t look too closely at the chrome rings around the gauges, I was still messing with some different ways to flow the Molotow onto them evenly.

I’ll toss in some pics that’ll be in an upcoming post documenting my cluster rebuild.

I ended up using Rustoleum "chrome" spray paint. Not bad, not going to fool anyone. Falls about right in the middle between silver and chrome.

Same with the Spaz Stix. Mine still looks good after a decade but l learned from the get-go that clear kills the effect. Learned it with the Killer Chrome so l never used it on the Spaz Stix.

Have'nt tryed this product but looks good. https://youtu.be/KBtdU10PIcE

That demo is pretty impressive...

This is the most recent spray chrome clear coat info I have found. https://youtu.be/kB9wwCyG1dw

Stripped everything back down and shot it all again.

- Sanded surface with 400
- Adhesion Promoter (used Polyvance Plastic Magic this time)
- Molotow Liquid Chrome
- C7 S-02 Chrome Sealer

This seemed to be the winning ticket this time. The C7 Sealer appeared to have no diminishing effects on the “chrome” at all.

I’ll try to wipe it down in a month or so and maybe try a gentle cleaner on it just to see how it behaves, but as of right now I’ve seen nothing at all comparable to this stuff anywhere near this price range. If I had 10 of them lined up to spray maybe I could justify the cost of the Alsa Chrome products, but this stuff far exceeds my expectations.

Figured I should update this… I’ve done the Molotow spray another time since I posted previously. The first time a few months went by and then I noticed the entire painted/cleared area looked like fractured glass. I stripped it back down and then sprayed it again without the adhesion promoter. Prepped the surface, sprayed the Molotow chrome, waited close to 6 weeks then hit it with the special sealer. I let it dry for weeks in a climate controlled area and then set it in the car out in the shop. Looked at it a week or 2 later and saw the same results. Got frustrated and then decided not to waste my time again even though I found another clear stating good results with Molotow. It’s hard seeing your finish look 90% like chrome, only to spray it with a protectant clear that degrades your finish each time (even if it’s just slightly) or eventually leaves it ruined.

I started doing some testing towards the tail end of all that with “electroplating chrome powder”. Tried it a million ways and definitely saw potential. It’s an ultra fine gray looking powder that buffs out to what I would believe is actual chrome if I didn’t know better. Despite some other things I’ve read, my test pieces looked best if I used it like Alsa and the other “premium” spray chrome products (applied to a dark base).

So here’s where I’m at now:

- cleaned my instrument panel to bare plastic
- did a quick flame treat of the whole panel
- sprayed TTP #1134 Tahoe Metallic Blue
- let dry for a week
- masked off everywhere except where I wanted “chrome”
- lightly sanded any nubs or irregularities
- Cleaned with W&G remover (either SPI 710 or Custom’s KW 901, can’t remember and shouldn’t matter… both solvent based wax/grease removers)
- sprayed SPI’s Production Clear (4:1, no reducer)
- waited for it to get just past the tack stage and stripped the masking
- applied the electroplating powder with a fine brush, lightly buffing with the bristles until it started to shine
- finished buffing the following day

Basically you’re imbedding the powder into the clear and then polishing it up to a shine. The powder buffs away leaving the thinnest of layers, leaving a very thin micron-level film. I haven’t played with clears yet (top coating), not sure if I will want to or have to.

The finish is basically perfection, or at least way closer than I ever imagined. The hardest part is that you have to spray your clear as straight “glass”. The powder will accentuate any flaws, just like true electroplated chrome would. I did 2 layers of clear, 30min apart. I’m leaving it blue for now… was that the way the LeMans had it? My original dash piece had this same blue under the fake wood, in the tube looking recesses where the gauges sit, and elsewhere on the dash (back side of glove box door, overspray on back of instrument panel,…). I’ll sort out the “wood” later. I want to try a more appropriate fake wood that has the original color and textured grain. 3M makes some quality stuff but it’s high $$$ even if I’m cutting my own with my cutter/plotter.

First couple pics were taken after I unmasked most of it, basically just showing the cleared areas. Second last pic shows just a 1/2” or so area where I started and the last pic was complete. The piece was then final buffed the next day.

-edit: the final pic shows somewhere along the way as I progressed along. You can see the edges that I didn’t complete yet. I’ll get a final pic posted soon with everything done.

Jeez, that looks great.

Just ordered some of the powder ... too late for my dash as it's already in ... might be able to carefully tape some things and use my air-brush to touch up some areas.

Reminds me of stuff I saw years ago that people would rub into plaster of paris casts with your finger for a shiny silver finish.

Sorry to hear of the clearcoat cracking. That must have been frustrating after all the work.

Thanks for sharing the do-over process and results. Sounds like even more work but impressive results!

How did you strip it before starting over?

Cool that you flame-treated the part before painting. That's pretty high-tech!

What's the time window for applying the powder? Does it not adhere to the base paint at all? Easy to remove the excess?