Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Hey guys...just wondering what is involved in preping a chrome fender for paint...I'm having my H1E rebuilt and have a beautiful re chromed front fender for it...so I got the idea to get my hands on a second one that is straight, with rough chrome and have it painted candy red with the rest of the body work...this way I can switch between the two depending on my mood.

I talked to a painter who is trying to tell me it's gonna be a huge hassle and costly? Can I not just sandblast the Chrome, prime the fender and paint it? This guy is telling me the Chrome must be chemically removed..otherwise the paint will peel? He's talking like 700 bucks by the time just the fender is painted!?

Surely it can't be that big of a deal?

Any advice is appreciated.

Cheers

He is actually right, chrome is tough to get any sort of paint to adhere to well, if at all. I always have what ever chrome still on the part, removed by the chrome shop, and prep/paint form there. Even sand blasting doesn't work too well.

Theres been a few times that I had gotten an old flat black painted something and when I removed the bad paint job the Chrome had been preserved.

Back in the late '70s I sandblasted, using an aluminum oxide medium, many of the chrome parts of my H2. Then I used DuPont Corlar epoxy primer and Imron. Those parts still look good today. I didn't try to remove the chrome, I just got rid of 90% of the shine to give the Corlar something to stick to. I'd bet that the same treatment would work for most automotive primers.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

Powder coat it first. cost about $10 Works great on chrome and gives it an excellent and extremely durable base. I've done 4 chrome ones now with powder coat. It's hard as nails! It takes a sand blaster to remove powder coat from just about anything. I have top custom painters here in California that love when I bring them parts to paint that have been powder coated first. I'm picking up a chrome front fender from the powder coating place Friday. I'll post a picture that evening.

You can scuff chrome and use an adhesion promoter to get paint to stay on chrome, that's how the local body shop does it when they camo a vehicle. Powder coat can be easily removed with paint stripper, I've had to remove a bunch.

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1969 H1, 1971 G3SSA, 1974 G5, 1973 H2A, 1975 S3A, 1975 H1F, 1973 Z1, 1988 HD FLTC, Captain America chopper, 2000 Excelsior Henderson, 1965 Bridgestone BS90

It's hard to scuff chrome but I've done it with a power sander (still couldn't feel it).
I also used an etching primer. This was maybe 10 years ago and the paint hasn't peeled off.

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Busy doing more riding than wrenching.......

I have had good success with bead blasting the chrome and then applying a good primer and paint.

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I Love the Smell of Blue Marble in the Morning!!!
Tim Steele in Front Royal, VA
Home of the Phoenix Project
Stay in it when it comes on the pipe, no need to be scared...

+1 on simply blasting. Many years ago I took my fender to a sand blaster and like Jim was saying, removed the shine and gave it a rough finish. Then I just had a guy I know primer and paint, and it held up for 20 years!

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"Only cheat the cheaters, boy - you can't cheat an honest man!" Mordecai Jones - The Flim Flam Man.

My H2 caferacer has a chromed eliminator front fender. I bead (glass?) blasted it. Then the fender was painted with acid primer before the top coat. ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS AT ALL!!

...j.

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72 H2, 72 H1B, 74 H2, 74 H2 Cafê Racer, 71 F8 Bison