StevenGuthmiller

Okay, fine. All I'm saying is that if you read your early responses in this thread, you'll see that I am not the only one who didn't understand what you were looking for. Carry on. Steve

Thank you guys! I was originally going to just cast some window cranks in resin, but I do love a little scratch building, and you can't learn to do something unless you try it. I got the basic premise from Greg, (NOBLNG) and thought it looked like a great idea to build upon, so I thought I'd take his idea and run with it. Turning out pretty well. I just wish that I didn't have to do 8 of them! Steve

You didn't say that in your original post. You said "take the sheen off". That could be taken in any number of ways. Then, in your second post you said, "Just looking for a not so shiny toy look". That doesn't tell us anything about wanting a weathered result either. It wasn't until you were well into your annoyance that we learned what effect you were actually looking for. Not to beat a dead horse, but if you want specific answers, you need to ask specific questions. Dulling the chrome is a simple operation that I offered you a solution for in my first response. Dullcote........Done. Steve

Everyone has their own opinions on that I guess, but in my opinion, chrome, (if it's supposed to look new or restored) should have a perfect, reflective, mirror like finish. In other words, you should be able to see a crisp and perfect reflection of yourself in it's surface. Not just a fuzzy likeness, but you should be able to easily pick out every mole, pimple and errant nose hair. To my eye, there is no "kind of, sort of". It either looks like a mirror, or it ain't chrome. Just my opinion. Steve

Thanks fellas. 'Tis the the season where I don't seem to get anywhere near as much time in the shop as I would like to, and scratch building 6 window cranks and a couple of door handles doesn't speed things up any, but I'm gaining on that task. Steve

That looks like pretty much a direct copy of the transmission in the Monogram '59 Cadillac kit. Not quite the same as the Pontiac "Roto-Hydromatic". Steve

Well, there you go. It might have been more advantageous to elaborate on exactly what kind of affect you were looking to accomplish early on. It would have gone a long way to avoid confusion. More information in your original post would have gotten you a lot closer to your objective a lot faster. If you're building a 50 year old pickup with a weathered appearance, you could even consider painting the bumpers white and weathering from there. A good number of trucks from that era had very little chrome, at least if the truck is from the 50s or 60s. Just a thought. Steve

Well, I'm sorry. I just assumed that when someone is asking about chrome, that they're looking for information on what is the most realistic way to achieve a chrome finish, unless they're looking for something other than chrome. When metal is chrome plated, it's electroplated with different metals that produce a perfect, reflective, mirror finish. When plastic is plated, (vacuum metalization) it's plated in a different fashion, which also uses metals, to likewise produce a perfect mirror finish. Plated parts on real cars, (which is the ultimate affect that I thought we were all going for) are never coated with something to "take off the sheen". The "sheen" is what makes chrome chrome. I won't bother you any more with my apparently offensive thoughts on what I believe chrome should look like. I just never realized that there were so many people that have the feeling that actual chrome plated parts, whether from a model kit, or on a 1:1 vehicle, were somehow incorrect and needed modification. Please accept my apologies and continue on your quest. Steve

I'm sorry, but I've never understood this philosophy. Steve

Well, I guess it's up to me to be the "Debbie Downer". There are numerous "chrome sprays" on the market, and it makes sense that the most prevalent desire is that the finish appears as close to a chrome finish as possible. I get that. But in my opinion, the elephant in the room is durability, which is a huge question for all of them. Being able to lightly handle the part after painting is one thing, but a truly tough finish is the only thing that I'm interested in, and the only factor that will ever get me to go all in on one of these paints. For my purposes, I need a very durable finish that can withstand not only quite a lot of handling throughout the building process, but a considerable amount of intricate paint detailing which often includes some removal of paint from the surface with things like thinners and light scraping. None of these chrome paints are capable of withstanding those kinds of rigorous handling. As far as I'm concerned, technology has some major catching up to do before any of these paints are ever going to be a true, viable, substitute for actual plating. Believe me, I want it to get to that point, but there's no solution anywhere in sight as far as I can tell. And to compound the issue, while this paint may look "okay", it's still not perfect facsimile to chrome, and at $35.00 a pop.........forget about it!! When you can still get parts re-plated with the real stuff for a fairly reasonable price, there's no way on God's green earth that I can see myself settling for something "close", that costs just as much, that I have to refrain from touching in perpetuity. I'm sorry, but until these paints can produce a finish like the photo below that can still be knocked around somewhat without the fear of ruining the piece with the slightest slip, I'm not much of a fan. I do use Alclad chrome for some small parts for interiors and engines that require little additional detailing and will never get any substantial handling, but I can't see using this stuff for bumpers, or other large external parts. All of this of course, is just my opinion. Steve

I've only been on Facebook for a short time, (maybe around a couple of years) and in that short time, I've notified a dozen or more established Facebook friends that their accounts had been hacked. Every so often, I'll get a friend request from someone that I know is already a friend, and when you look at the account of the requestor, it's easy to see that it's bogus as their is almost nothing in the timeline. Only a cover photo and profile picture and little else. In these cases, I've just notified the friend that someone has hijacked their account, but what you're describing sounds more serious. The friends in question apparently still have control of their accounts, but someone is just using their name and photos for what is apparently some sort of phishing expedition. Your circumstance sounds more sinister. I guess all that you can do is what has been suggested. Notify Facebook, and then probably create a new account. Steve

The bumpers on my 54 year old Grand Prix are old, pitted and oxidized. Never used polish on them in the 42 years that I've owned it. Still looks like chrome to me, and pretty shiny. Steve

Yup. Makes no sense to me either. Steve

Works well for some grilles, depending on how fine the grille members are. You can use this method for other applications as well, including cowl vents. Steve

I agree with that. But changing chrome to some less reflective finish makes zero sense in my opinion. Chrome should look like chrome, not a shiny silver. Now that said, if you're looking for a weathered chrome finish, there are ways to do that without changing the finish entirely. I don't know. Maybe I'm strange, but some of these things just don't make sense to me. Like using a roughly textured masking tape for a vinyl top, or accepting orange peel in the paint "because most cars have some orange peel". Scale "is" important in those circumstances, but often seems to be ignored or excuses made for them, but at least to my eye, chrome is chrome, and anything that's not, isn't. Steve

There are plenty of non-profit medical facilities. The entire Mayo network is non-profit, and just like any other facility, they accept insurance, as well as treat the uninsured. Doctors at Mayo are salaried and they don't profit from the ordering of extra tests or prescribing drugs that aren't necessary. They get paid the same salary regardless, as does everyone in leadership. Every year, the Mayo network is audited, and any profits made must be used for improvements within the system. Nobody gets to line their pockets, unless some of the money is returned to the employees in the form of raises, etc. Steve

I agree with that wholeheartedly.! I was lucky enough for many years to have my medical care taken care of at The Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. (a non-profit) If they couldn't help you, nobody could. Now that I live in another area, who knows what I'll get. Even though I'm now employed at a local for profit medical facility, I don't have a huge amount of faith when I compare them to what I used to have. But, I digress. Doctors are not miracle workers. They don't always have all of the answers. The human body is a little more complicated than a car, yet how many of us have taken a car in for repairs numerous times for a problem that they can't figure out. Just a thought. Steve

Then dullcote is not the answer. Honestly, I could never understand the "toy look" chrome theory anyway. It doesn't make sense to me how people think that actual plated chrome parts look like anything other than actual chrome should look. Substituting a chrome paint, or some other painted finish for a truly plated surface has never seemed like any kind of solution to me. Especially when it's a solution for something that seems to me like it doesn't require a solution. But, I digress. I'll take actual chrome over any "chrome substitute" any day. Steve

Testors "Dullcote" in a spray can would be the easiest if you're just looking for an aluminum look. Steve

If it's just in the muscle, it should heal on it's own eventually. That could be the reason that they passed you around. If it's not tendon damage, or in the joint itself, there's probably not a lot that they can do, short of wrapping it up and letting nature take it's course. I'm no doctor, but I do know that as I get older, I have more and more weird aches and pains, and very often, they take quite a long time to go away. Just part of getting old I guess. Steve

Is the fact that it’s an AMT kit a real sticking point with you? If not, there’s a million Revell ‘68 Mustang GTs out there for $30.00 or less. Steve

I do have a horrible car story, though not one that I personally owned. At one point I worked for a Midwest grocery store chain driving a delivery van for their home shopping department. Some time in the early 2000s the store that I worked at bought 2 brand new Chevy Uplander mini-vans to be used by the home shopping, kitchen, floral and bakery departments for their deliveries. Within a matter of weeks the extremely poor quality of these cars became very evident with broken plastic parts everywhere, busted tail gate latches, side doors that wouldn’t open or close properly, broken glove box doors, etc, etc, etc. It was literally amazing how terribly these cars were put together. As icing on the cake, by the time the cars were 2 years old, and both with less than 100,000 miles, they were both sitting in the back 40 of our overflow parking area with roasted transmissions. Granted, these cars were not babied, but I have honestly never driven anything so bad in my entire life. Steve

I disagree. "Design" is the biggest car killer. Some are designed to last, and some are just poorly designed. It takes me back to some folks that I have known over the years who have talked incessantly about how some POS car that they've owned had 250,000 miles on it, and how great it had been. Invariably, when you dig a little below the surface, you almost always find that the car has had all kinds of repairs over that time period. A truly well designed car will go 250,000 miles "without" replacing the alternator, the water pump, etc, etc, etc. Steve

I had a good friend in high school whose older brother had a ‘70 Wildcat 4 door hardtop in pretty much this same color scheme. That car was the terror of the town, beating a lot of cars in the quarter mile that you would never expect. The 430 was a real beast! Steve

I really don’t have a heck of a lot to add to this topic, as I’ve owned basically nothing but Hondas and Acuras since about 1987, and every one of them has been just as trouble free and a joy to own and drive as the last. During this time period, we’ve owned 2 Preludes, 3 Accords, a Civic, 3 Pilots, a CRV and an S-2000 for Honda’s, as well as several Acura MDX and RDX models. I can’t think of a single major, or for that matter, really any minor issues with any of them. The only other vehicles that we had during that time period was an ‘87 Buick Century that we traded our first Prelude for because we needed more family space, and a 2000 Mercury Mountaineer that my wife bought because she wanted an SUV and Honda didn’t have anything of comparable size at the time. Both of these had their fair share of issues, cementing our faith in our beloved Honda’s. The Buick blew a head gasket, (either that or the head was cracked) I didn’t wait to find out, I just dumped it. And the Mercury, which was brand new when purchased, first fell prey to the Firestone recall, and then a main computer went out, causing a bunch of problems. The final straw was when it started leaking oil all over my garage floor, and all of this with less than 30,000 miles. Since then, and since we’ve owned nothing but Honda’s and Acura’s, I have yet to have one in the shop for anything other than standard wear and tear items, like tires, brakes, exhaust, etc. Steve