How to remove chrome ?

[Guest]

Bleech works VERY well, tried first on sprue, went well, then i done the wheel of the bike kit im working on...also went fine...now wish i had tried much earlier!!!! would have saved one hell of a lot of work :-)

[Guest]

Are we talking domestic bleach as in Domestos or is it something special? Almost worrying that bleach would strip it off considering it get splashed about with abandon.

[Guest]

Yes, I used Sainsbury's version which I'm sure is very similar. Like Martin, I was impressed and really wished I had known earlier. I'm in the middle of a Hasegawa Ferrari 312T2 and the front wing would have been miles better than the way I have scraped the chrome off. Best new technique in a long time. I just need to build up the confidence to follow your Alclad guide next!

[Guest]

I will give this a go on my next kit that has chrome, I don't have anything at all at the moments and the sprues from the Honda are in the bin.

Alclad is much easier than it looks (or easier than I may have made it look) Two simple rules. One, get a really good gloss black enamel undercoat. Two, lightly dust on the Alclad slowly building up the chrome finish. It is tempting to go for it once you see the effect starting to form, don't: Just keep dusting it on from a couple of inches or so. Rush it and it will look like silver paint, be gentle and patient and you will have very realistic looking scale chrome, it will actually look like metal, trust me.

Make sure you have some Cellulose thinners for cleaning out the AB though, turps and alcohol thinners will not do.

[Guest]

I can second that Graham - I was kinda brickin it before my first Alclad job and was very surprised how easily it worked. Good job on the chrome removal - My Yamaha R1 is getting stripped and Alcladed..

Stuart

[Guest]

I tried the bleach and it took a while but it did work

before and after

[Guest]

Nice one Trey, saves a lotta scrapping mate :-)

[Guest]

yes indeed Martin I ca'nt imagine the time you had scraping chrome off spokes. I did the brake fluid test it took overnight and worked although not as cleanly as the bleach

[Guest]

Trey, when you say the bleach took a while - how long are we talkin? I screwed up some gloss spray paint on some car wheels and I'm hoping the bleach will do the trick...

Stuart

[Guest]

Stuart, i did some more last night with the bleech, we are talking really heavy chrome on an old Protar kit here that im doing. It took around an hour and a half for it to completely strip it off. Regards Martin :-)

[Guest]

Ah right, I was hoping you weren't gona say 2 days or something lol! I will get these wheels done tonight i think

cheers!

[Guest]

lol Stuart, no defo not that long bud, you may even find its quicker than i said, as i say the bits ive been doing have VERY heavy chrome on them, some of the stuff ive done is less so and only took around 20 mins, so keep checking as you go along....ive not had any problems with harm to the plastic leaving it for several hours though so dont worry about leaving it to carry on with other stuff. :-)

[Gern]

All useful stuff! Nice to know my memory was correct.

John - wouldn't it be better to put this in the 'Quick tips' section?

Gern

[Guest]

Consider it done Dave. Good idea to put this in the QT section.

[Guest]

While a little late I have known some folk use acetone. Haven't tried it myself yet though so take the idea with a pinch of salt.

Cyrano