JPetros2008

I had the chrome on my previous car wrapped. It looked pretty good, but had a few imperfections. Thought about doing it again on my new car, but when I saw the cost of the vinyl was going to be $80ish, I figured...why not just paint it myself? Spray gun and paint is going to be about the same price anyway I believe and paint is always better than vinyl.

I recently bought some smoked side markers off ebay. I was about to put them on and decided to try color matching them instead. Sanded them down and had bought an aerosol can of paint. Primed, painted, and cleared it and they both came out pretty good. I figure a paint gun would look even better.

Is there anything to know about trying to paint over chrome though? Is it worth buying a spray gun instead of just getting some cheaper cans of aerosol for a small job like this?

tpliquid

chrome dont like paint. need to strip chrome off by sanding. spray gun would be a waste of money for you. you will need gun, air compressor, mixing sticks, bottles, paint, thinner. All this will be way over 80 dollar budget. I would say over $500
even with a gun there will still be orange peel.
you would need to sand down the clear and polish it to smooth everything out.

604 C63

Been there done that. Not worth it, looks like crap in no time. Spend $80. Spend more, and hire a professional so you dont have the imperfections.

INS1GNIA

You also have to factor in chips and scuffs. Vinyl is easy to change/replace and a lot of the time won't be affected if something hits it. +1 for vinyl.

JPetros2008

Vinyl it is

DarkLordByron

The other comments are dead on. I made the mistake of painting the trim. Looked great for about 3 months. Then I spent the money for the wrap.

Celicasaur

Damnit, i painted mine 2 weeks ago. This won't end well....

QWKSNKE

or use plastidip

Tlnt60

I painted mine.... don't paint yours, learn from my mistake.

goatfarmer1970

I have had no issues with painting the "chrome" trim (on a few cars in fact). I did have a shop remove all of the trim and acid etch (just a type of primer as far as I know) the surface before painting it, but now nearly 3 years later it looks just like it did when I had it done. I have also done vinyl, and that did not hold up well at all IMHO.

Don Nguyen

It was going to be $80 in materials to vinyl wrap it yourself? I can get you materials to DIY wrap it for much less if you decide to go that route.

Whatever you do, DO NOT plasti dip the window trim. Every and any time this option comes up for window trim, I always tell people to stay away from it. Not only will the process take several hours, due to masking, etc, but plasti dip for whatever reasons does not typically hold up well around the window trim.

Paint is a possible option, but if you or a body shop messes up painting the pieces, you are now left in a pickle with either living with poorly painted pieces and possible overspray on your car. Typically, even a good paint job won't last well on chrome, since as someone else also mentioned, chrome is a very hard surface for paint to stick to. Just think of all of the chrome grills out there that were painted black. Most likely a lot of those have dozens of paint chips with chrome showing through.

Whether you buy the vinyl materials from me or get it vinyl wrapped by someone locally or even buy materials from another vendor, it does not affect me, but the info I posted above are my first hand experiences blacking out chrome pieces on cars every day.