Scratches and overspray on plastic chrome

V

velobard

New member
I have my grille out to do a some minor repairs and custom work and I discovered some paint overspray on the plastic chrome surround from my recent foray to the body shop, as well as some minor scratching. For the overspray I've tried mineral spirits: didn't touch it. I tried lacquer thinner: only slightly better, would take me forever. Now I'm trying a combination of my fingernail (I know, more scratching) and Clay Magic blue, but I'm still making very slow progress. Oh yeah, I also tried a plastic razor without luck. Any other ideas on removing cured overspray?



As for the scratches, can I use something like ScratchX on plastic chrome? I have a couple other polishes such a 106FF, OC, and Swirlbuster, but I don't picture making much headway with those by hand.
 
If clay doesn't work for the overspray you may have to go with some 1200 grit wet sandpaper. I am not sure what to do about the chromed plastic.
 
jswatek said:
If clay doesn't work for the overspray you may have to go with some 1200 grit wet sandpaper. I am not sure what to do about the chromed plastic.
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The overspray is on the plastic chrome itself, so I'm wary of inducing marring from wetsanding.
 
velobard said:
The overspray is on the plastic chrome itself, so I'm wary of inducing marring from wetsanding.
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I'd be very careful using anything more aggressive than mild clay. The chrome or vacuum metalized coatings on plastic are usually pretty thin and easy to damage (wear through to the plastic).
 
So if it's that thin, am I left using glaze with fillers to deal with the scratches that already exist? Or dare I use something like ScratchX or even 106FF by hand?
 
I don't think there is much you can do about the scratches on the chrome'd plastic. I'd personally stay on the safe side and just use a glaze or something and hope it works. Hopefully someone else w/ more experiance can chime in for a more effective method though. As for the overspray, claying is probably your best bet.
 
velobard said:
So if it's that thin, am I left using glaze with fillers to deal with the scratches that already exist? Or dare I use something like ScratchX or even 106FF by hand?
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Sorry, I can't help you on that, except to suggest tying it on a small area that might not be normally visible. I think it would be pretty tough to remove scratches w/o damage to the coating. I do know that it always looks like crap when the coating is worn off and the plastic color shows through. If it doesn't look all that bad I would tend to leave it alone and keep it waxed, sealed, and/or glazed.
 
velobard said:
So if it's that thin, am I left using glaze with fillers to deal with the scratches that already exist? Or dare I use something like ScratchX or even 106FF by hand?
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Sorry, you're stuck with the scratches. No way to polish them out that I've ever found and the "chromed plastic" is even more fragile/unfixable than chromed metal.



I'd just keep at the overspray with the lacquer thinner and some gentle mechanical agitation. If it bothers you enough, and you plan to keep the vehicle, I'd look into a replacement piece. Heh heh, add it to the bill for your underhood mat, easy for me to spend your money, huh ;)



And I'd sure have a talk with that shop about cutting corners like that...those pieces should've been removed or at least properly masked (really the former). Makes me wonder if they know what they're doing or perhaps figuring they can get away with shoddy work...that'd make me nervous. Gee, I'm full of good news :o
 
Accumulator said:
Sorry, you're stuck with the scratches. No way to polish them out that I've ever found and the "chromed plastic" is even more fragile/unfixable than chromed metal.



I'd just keep at the overspray with the lacquer thinner and some gentle mechanical agitation. If it bothers you enough, and you plan to keep the vehicle, I'd look into a replacement piece. Heh heh, add it to the bill for your underhood mat, easy for me to spend your money, huh ;)



And I'd sure have a talk with that shop about cutting corners like that...those pieces should've been removed or at least properly masked (really the former). Makes me wonder if they know what they're doing or perhaps figuring they can get away with shoddy work...that'd make me nervous. Gee, I'm full of good news :o
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Thanks. I guess I'll give a shot at glazing and waxing over the chrome and settle for that. As for the overspray, well let's just say I'd be grateful if that were the biggest of my problems. I agree, it should have been removed, but at least it's not visible when it's mounted on the car. I'll never go back to that shop again unless (or rather, until) I have to butt heads with them over warranty issues on what they've already done.
 
velobard said:
.. As for the overspray, well let's just say I'd be grateful if that were the biggest of my problems... I'll never go back to that shop again unless...
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Sigh..same ol' same ol'. So hard to find good paint/body shops.
 
One more question if anyone's still paying attention to this thread. I've finished the work I wanted to do on my grille. Now I'm wondering what I should do to the plastic chrome surround before the grille gets reinstalled. Keep in mind that part of the surface will be hidden once it' on the car, so obviously if I put anything on that part it's going to be there pretty much permanently. Should I just clean it up really well, or should I bother putting some sort of LSP on it. Some possible LSPs that come to mind: FK1 2180 and/or 1000P, Colinite 845. Those are the longest lasting products in my collection. If I use an LSP, I'd think about using some sort of glaze underneath to act as a filler for the small imperfections that exist.



Here's the grille I'm dealing with.

LHS1.jpg




While it was out I filled a couple of small cracks with a semi-rigid plastic epoxy, painted the gray egg-crate part with a few layers of Krylon Fusion Camoflage flat black, and applied plastic chrome trim strips (door or wheel trim) to the horizontal slats on the grille. I just never cared for the egg-crate style and wanted to try something different.



When I put the grille back, I'll also be installing 9012 HIR bulbs for the low beams. My high beams are 9005XS with the straight base, so installing 9011 HIR bulbs would require some fabrication work that I'm not going to tackle right now.
 
I would put an LSP on there to protect the plastic.... and while it is out is a perfect time to do that. Any of the LSP's that you mentioned should work fine. I'm not familiar with the FK line but they get great reviews on durability.
 
Velobard- For the stuff that won't show, leave off the glaze as it won't help with the durability (probably do the opposite). Use the longest lasting of the FK stuff, 845 wouldn't last long enough for me (I'm familiar with the 845 but not the FK).



I've had some incredibly good, long-lasting results putting numerous coats of KSG on damaged plastic chrome, most notably the Jag's upper grill. A build-up of a decent sealant can *almost* stop problems in their tracks, and will at least slow down the deterioration quite a bit.



Cool ideas for modding the grill BTW.
 
Accumulator said:
Velobard- For the stuff that won't show, leave off the glaze as it won't help with the durability (probably do the opposite). Use the longest lasting of the FK stuff, 845 wouldn't last long enough for me (I'm familiar with the 845 but not the FK).



I've had some incredibly good, long-lasting results putting numerous coats of KSG on damaged plastic chrome, most notably the Jag's upper grill. A build-up of a decent sealant can *almost* stop problems in their tracks, and will at least slow down the deterioration quite a bit.



Cool ideas for modding the grill BTW.
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Thanks! I hunted high and low for ready-made options and there's a grand total of one aftermarket grille, sort of. It's a "bolt-over" grille that mounts directly on top of the factory grille. That seemed tacky to me, so I was left to come up with something on my own. I thought seriously about fabricating my own woven mesh grille, but I'm not sure my skills are good enough to come up with something I'll be happy with so I went with this for now. I might still try that someday. I'll post pics of the new grille once I get it installed in a couple of days.
 
velobard- Yeah, post it up when you get it done, I'd like to see it. Fabricating stuff like grills *seems* like it oughta be easy enough but when it comes right down to doing it, and well enough to put on your car... well, that's a bit of a challenge for most of us ;)
 
Well it took a couple days longer than I expected to take the pics, but ya go.



IMG_1298.jpg




It's nothing racial, just a mild difference that I like. If I were to do it again I might consider 1/4" chrome strips rather than the 1/8" I used, but I think it's an improvement. As I said, I just repaired some light damage, sprayed flat black on the grille, them cut the chrome strips to apply. While I was at it I also installed HIR headlight bulbs. I also had a new spare Chrysler wing and installed that on the grille to replace the old one with a crack in the clear plastic from a stone.



If I can find a good deal on a donor grille for a spare chrome surround I might still give a shot at fabbing a wire mesh version.



Oh yeah, I also wound up applying 2180 x 3 then 1000P x 3 to the surround. For any scratches on the visible part I'll apply some glaze now that it's installed and re-seal over that.
 
velobard- I like how the grill turned out :xyxthumbs From the pic, those chrome strips look like just the right size to me; I go for subtle.



See how things go if you decide to fab the mesh version...sounds like a challenge to me.
 
Accumulator said:
velobard- I like how the grill turned out :xyxthumbs From the pic, those chrome strips look like just the right size to me; I go for subtle.



See how things go if you decide to fab the mesh version...sounds like a challenge to me.
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Thanks! I said that about considering a wider chrome strip, but then I looked more at the pic and realized it would make the center strip pretty much blend straight into the Chrysler wing and that wouldn't be good. Better to leave it the way it is.



It's a definite improvement IMO over the stock look I showed in the pic on the first page of this thread. That picture doesn't really show the grille color that well, but the stock color is sort of a medium gray. I like this much better.
 
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