Tank and side cover emblem refinishing

[JWSanders]

Yeah, plating plastic is a breeze now. If you do go to the Caswell site, you will see lots of photos of people's work on plastic. I'm even considering plating my sidecovers with Copy Chrome. Wouldn't that be spiffy! Hard to break a tab when it's covered in metal.

The silverspray is 100 or so for 8oz, but the copper spray is under 40 for 4oz.

I would imagine most industrial plastic chrome is a spray process that appears similar to Spectrachrome. Was in a boat factory the other day that had a line that made chromed plastic spacers. They looked like solid shiney metal when they came out of the dryer. Nice stuff.

[Ken Talbot]

Have a look at these guys for an interesting process for plating onto plastic.

[80mdnt11]

Poor Man/Poor Ways

Just my 2-cents........................Because it didn't cost much more than that!
Ken, I did read up on your'e tech tip for this. Very good info.......A little too tedieus for me though. Here's what I ended up doing..........
1) Lite sand to rough up & remove any flaking
2) Wash off...... Yes, Toothbrush & toothpick come in handy for all those crevasis
3) Auto grey primer/ sandable
4) 800* wet sand........clean/clean/clean!
5) I used Rust-Oleum Gold Metallic for choice of color, Two good coats on complete emblem........let cure for two/three days
6) Now for the fun part..........piece of plyable cardboard.......smere some Vasaline Pet. Jelly on it (not too thick,but enough to apply to raised letters)
7) Yep, you guessed it..........Emblem letters down, press onto cardboard
8) May have to clean-up edges with Q-Tip
9) Lacqure Gloss black............Two quick coats
10) As soon as black dries to handle.....30 mins./or so.......use edge of razor blade to peel black skin off gold letters
11) Let cure good, Clean off letters good, I used Alcohol prep pad, used VERY lightly!
12) Touch up with Testors Model paint..(i.e. Ken's tech tip)
13) Two good coats of clear lacqure.........Done!
I did all emblems this way, didn't turn out too bad. Edges weren't quite as crisp as I wouldv'e liked, but alot better than they were! Some may laugh, some may cringe............But it worked and looks OK for me As with ANY painting project............Can you say PREP/PREP/PREP.........................................

[trbig]

Why not just use the Q-tip to apply the vaseline to the letters?

[80mdnt11]

Yea, I did that on the smaller ones for the side covers & fork emblem. Figured someone might bring that up................. I guess you win the BIG jar of Vaseline Tod!! ...........The trick is you need it to be fairly thick on the letters so the black dosen't stick. Oh, and Tod I did this same principle on the fins for the jug, head & valve cover. Had to clean them up with some low grit steel wool. Then applied clear. Have Fun!
Jim