have you ever painted the chrome finish on your guages?

[smoknbarrels]

Has anyone ever painted a good chrome finish on their plastic guage cluster? How do they do it from the factory?
mine is all scratched up, but the plastic is still good, how do I refinish it?

Thanks.

[sixty8c10]

i did, but i painted it a different color. Basically, I dissassembled the cluster, I painted the whole face semi-gloss black, masked off the areas I wanted to keep black, and painted the rest a different color ( it needed a few coats because of the black base, but it came out okay ).

[Longhorn Man]

chrome in a can looks like crap. It's a funny silver, never chrome.
you can get a replacement bezel fairly cheap... ricks had the 69 - 72 style for like 30 bucks last time I chaced... the 67 style would be a bit more probably though

[EAST SIDE LOW LIFE]

Originally Posted by Longhorn Man

chrome in a can looks like crap. It's a funny silver, never chrome.
you can get a replacement bezel fairly cheap... ricks had the 69 - 72 style for like 30 bucks last time I chaced... the 67 style would be a bit more probably though

**********************************************************

I used S.E.M. Trim Paint. You can buy this at your local body shop jobber. It requires no primer base. I went with a blacked out theme on my truck but have seen guys do clusters this way with normal interiors. Chrome paint sucks unless you clear it and even then looks like you were cheapen out. This paint is what is being used for the trim on new cars, it is a durable paint and turns out the right color .... not too shiny or too dull more of a satin.

esll.

[GREASEMONKEY72]

EAST SIDE LOW LIFE - i love the look of your interior

[spdrcr29]

East side... That interior is awesome!
Smokn barrels.... I never painted my dash cluster, but the chrome in the can is worthless.... I did do my headliner trim with Duplicolor Vinyl and fabric paint in tuner red (they're the only one I found that had any color), and it worked fine without any primer. However, the headliner trim never gets touched, and isn't getting any sunlight due to the location....

[smoknbarrels]

Yea, I never had any luck with it either, but I was hoping someone did

Hey east side, is that paint fairly durable? it does look nice. has a frosted look to it.

[blue 71]

here is the answer to part of your question http://www.muellercorp.com/chromeplatingplastic.htm

[smoknbarrels]

Thanks Blue! , but as soon as I read "Difficult and Expensive as compared to Electroplating" I stopped reading... haha
It is cool to know they can do it, but i guess I'll have to just think of a good paint scheme to match my blue truck with white cab...

[EAST SIDE LOW LIFE]

Originally Posted by smoknbarrels

Yea, I never had any luck with it either, but I was hoping someone did

Hey east side, is that paint fairly durable? it does look nice. has a frosted look to it.

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I hope your ready for this ..... I did my whole truck in this stuff, let me explain. If you want the primer look, with out all the primer hassels then this paint is for you. "Please note that I said paint not primer!"

Now I had dents, and rust to get rid of as well I wanted to smooth the body of trim, emblems, side running lights, cargo lights, steak pockets etc. So body work procedures and primer as normal was applied.

This paint can be purchased by the gal; quart, and spray bomb. To do the body I used it by the gal. and cut it 50% to 75% so one gal. = 2 gal. when reduced @ 50%. Being a paint it seals and therefore is not porous as primer is designed to be to accept a finish coat. Spray bomb is an exact match and blends great. Ideal for small jobs or touch ups like kick sills, door jams under hood etc. this paint is durable! Primer show's every mark & finger print. This stuff is far better then John Deere, Hot Rod Black or Gloss black with a flattening agent.

I went this way so I could drive this truck & worry less about it then other rides that I've owned & escape the big dollar paint jobs. This paint is not expensive when compared to other paint products.

On the day to day my truck gets dirty, I wash it using turtle wax car wash & let it dry on it's OWN & wipe dry ONLY windows & chrome. What could be easier. I try not to get greesy hands on it when working on my truck as no paint likes this. If you decide later on that you want a shiny paint job scuff and paint.

esll.

Hey thanks for the high 5 on the interior.

['68OrangeSunshine]

When I repainted the dash bezel on my '68 Stepside, I used flat black on the whole unit, then masked off the flat surfaces and sprayed it over with "Fawn" lacquer. [Fawn was a GM silver/grey color with goldish tones.] This matched the '67/'68 interior scheme. The high chrome look didn't come in until '69 or so. No pix, but I liked my results.

[special-K]

Fawn is the tannish metallic color from back then.I don`t know what they call the silver/gay metallic.

[mvfd70]

I've got this problem with my cluster too. I can't find a new one for my truck though. It is a 68 with manual choke on the right side and the lights and wipers on the left. It also does not have factory guages. I can find them with guages and a choke or without guages and without choke, but I havn't found one with choke and without guages. Any help would be nice. Thanks. And sorry for the jacking

[byrd]

nobody is producing the 67-8 style with dummy lights. There is not enough demand for it and was only availible 2 of the 6 years production run so I doubt it will ever get produced.

[mvfd70]

Thats what i was afraid of. Guess I'll have to paint mine or put gauges in (won't that just be a bad thing )

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by byrd

nobody is producing the 67-8 style with dummy lights. There is not enough demand for it and was only availible 2 of the 6 years production run so I doubt it will ever get produced.

That's what I thought I have two that have small cracks where they screw in on the sides. Guess I'll have to try to melt em back together and smooth em over with something?

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by special-K

Fawn is the tannish metallic color from back then.I don`t know what they call the silver/gay metallic.

The Paddock [www.paddockparts.com] lists "Dark Fawn Iridescent (Suede) p/n 9189" and "Medium Fawn Iridescent" p/n 9188 for '67; and "Dark Fawn Iridescent (Suede)" p/n 9189, "Medium Fawn Iridescent" p/n 9188, "Silver Fawn Iridescent" p/n 9186, and "Dark Fawn Iridescent" p/n 9187 for 1968.
Their catalog further states: "suede colors are used on upper instrument panel." I guess that means it's a flat [or matte] paint. I'm not sure what they mean by 'iridescent' -- my guess is it's a metallic, since they don't use the term 'metallic' in years with 'iridescent' listed.
I'm not sure which p/n I used, but it matched the factory color on the steering column, original door panels, original vinyl seatcovers, and original sunvisors for my '68 Stepside in original solid 516 Orange.

I'd go out to the shop and look on the spraycan, but it's 3 AM.
[Edit: It was 9186]

[Tycoon4u]

I looked into the chrome paint when my grill on my Peterbilt was chipped. Found out it was $1200 a gal. A new grill is cheaper, so it's still chipped.

[cdowns]

when i thin my paint 50% i only end up with a gallon and a half from a gallon

[70GMCer]

Try these. If you follow directions your parts will come out like chrome. You can get this at Hobby Shops or on line. Goes for around $12.00 for a 3 oz can. I prefer the Alclad (ALC5114) to the Spaz.

[smoknbarrels]

Originally Posted by 70GMCer

Try these. If you follow directions your parts will come out like chrome. You can get this at Hobby Shops or on line. Goes for around $12.00 for a 3 oz can. I prefer the Alclad (ALC5114) to the Spaz.

you have any photos of some finished products?? I would be interested to see how they turned out!

[TONE]

Sorry, everything is dusty in the cab right now,I'm still working in there, but I did go original with the dash. I just lightly sanded it, used a little body filler around the cracks in the screw holes, primed it, taped it, and used both black and chrome. I got the chrome automotive paint from NAPA,(the black too for that matter), then shot a little clear over the top of them. It works for now. I will probably buy a new one latter. They're like $35-$40 new. The paint for what I did was like $20. I was just getting tired of ordering parts.

[black67chevy]

i'm working on a 1967 c-10 short fleetside. the instrument cluster and the glove box door have a silverish edge to them instead of the chrome. We are installing a new gauge cluster and instrument panel from lmc. It's the one with all the guages but has a chrome edge. i do not want to paint the glove box door with a chrome paint. so i need to paint the chrome on the new instrument panel. my question is what paint do i need to use to achieve the silverish weathered look?? thanks for any help.