Hi, I bought the Qu-ax Muni in Munich today but because the the frame it came with was ugly blue, I traded it for a generic 24" chrome frame. Now I want to decorate my uni and have been searching the threads but mostly people suggest powdercoating but I don’t know where to get it done at and don’t really want to spend a whole lot giving my frame a color so I was wondering if there were any easy ways on getting paint to stay on the chrome w/out having it flake off. Not sure if anyone’s done this before but is there such thing as metallic colored magic markers? because i think something like sharpy will probably stick pretty well on the smooth chrome surface *shrug
sand it and then spraypaint, or prime it first if you are an overacheiver.
Sand all the chrome off, spray it with a few coats of primer, then a few coats of colour, then lots of coats of laquer (clear top coat). I did all of the above exxept remove the chrome, and it’s ended up alright but it still chips rather easily.
Primer and top coat shouldn’t cost much, and the bit of extra time is worth it to avoid your uni looking pants after it gets a few knocks.
John
ok cool, yeah I’m kinda considering whether to take off the chrome or not because the way i see it, if it’s gonna chip, it’ll probably look better/have more protection from rusts and what not if i leave the chrome on, but if I take it off, it might rust all ovver, im not sure, but i’m heading to the homedepot right now hehe
I had some half decent luck with enammal hobby paint, like the kind used on model cars and airplanes. I painted the rim, bearing housing, and the crown, and only a little bit has some off. (where the wrench hits it, where my foot goes for one footing.)
I’ll get if you put on a few coats of sealer, it’d be fine. Cheap, too.
Take it to a body shop and get it bead blasted. Remove ALL the hardware first and mask off the areas of chrome that you don’t want blasted.
Here’s a thought - use their special masking materials and cover the chrome legs. Then marker flames or some other design onto the mask. Use razor blade or sharp knife and remove all but the design. Bead blast and paint around the design, then remove the masking material. Voila - chrome flames!
wow chrome flames, thats such anawesome idea! DANG. do you know how much it cost to get it blasted? i just invested 30$ in paint, primer, clear top, and sand paper lol =(
actually if you leave it there and do a light color over it, it will look like a candy color
if you want to guaruntee a perfect paint job get it sand blasted thne prime it then paint it. but I dont know where you’d get it sand blasted.
I think you might want to consider returning the thirty dollars worth of paint and finding a place that does powder coating. I have had two munis powdercoated for twenty dollar each and it’s a very durable finish almost as good as chrome, and they had lots of colors and finishes to choose from. I have heard that $20 is cheap for powdercoating, that it can cost as much as fifty dollars. but it wouldn’t hurt to look into it. Try the yellow pages in your area and if you talk to them tell them it’s about the same as a bike fork. No matter what kind of prep you do paint will get scraped up.
DON’T get it sand blasted. Sand is an abrasive that will erode the metal. That’s fine for ships made of 2" thick steel, but not fine for lightweight tubing 1 mm thick. At best your frame will be “lighter,” at worst an inattentive sandblaster would cut holes in your frame.
Get it bead blasted. The beads are plastic and only eat away at the paint coating. They also make the frame stronger by hammer packing the surface of the metal. When the beadblaster is done the frame is covered with millions of microscopic dents that hold paint well.
Any tips for keywords to look for in the Yellow Pages?
1 tip spend the time soding around looking for ppl to it, and ride instead
Ben
If you don’t find anything under powerdercoating, look for chrome plating or industrial finishes, or try auto paint places and ask if they know anybody who does powdercoating.
Actually, you can use crushed walnut shells in the sand blaster. I used that method to remove the top coat of paint on a project car I’m working on. It doesn’t affect the metal at all. However, the downside is that it takes a lot of material to do so.