Turning Gold Chrome to Regular Chrome ?

[Jon Haigwood]

I have a Golden T and it has a lot of Gold Chrome. What would be the best way to change it to regular chrome ? The only thing I can think off is stripping it and using Alclad on it but it really falls short of looking like real chrome, especially on a 1/8th scale Rod.

Edited April 23 by Jon Haigwood

[peteski]

Standard "gold chrome" used on plastic kits is the regular (vacuum metalized) layer of (silver) aluminum sprayed with transparent yellow/orange clear top coat to make the silver look gold.  If you try stripping just that top clear layer you will also damage the delicate silver layer under it. As I see it, the only way to de-gold is to fully strip the parts and re-coat them with a silver color finish of your choice.

[Shark]

You can strip the parts, remove any seams or flash, then get in touch with Spotlight Hobbies. They can chrome plate parts like most model companies do.

[Jon Haigwood]

I checked them out. My pockets are not deep enough for them

 

[Shark]

1 hour ago, Jon Haigwood said:

I checked them out. My pockets are not deep enough for them

 

I forgot you said 1/8 scale. When doing 1/25 scale parts, you can get a lot of parts on one of the racks, breaking the price per kit down.

[Chris V]

As mentioned above, the "gold" plating is usually just a layer of clear yellow over regular kit chrome. 

In most instances the "gold" clearcoat can be dissolved/removed by soaking the parts in rubbing alcohol.

I've seen this done with the recent Atlantis "Sidewinder" reissue of Monogram's old "Rattler" show rod. It literally took less than a minute to completely dissolve the gold clearcoat, effectively turning the parts regular chrome. 

I would suggest testing the rubbing alcohol on a bit of the gold sprue, using a very soft toothbrush to remove any residue, making sure to thoroughly rinse off the parts with lukewarm water.

[T-Ray]

I hope this is relevant. I'm making an assumption that the way Mattel makes Hot Wheels is applicable to model chrome. 

 

[Mr. Metallic]

On 4/24/2025 at 3:01 AM, Chris V said:

As mentioned above, the "gold" plating is usually just a layer of clear yellow over regular kit chrome. 

In most instances the "gold" clearcoat can be dissolved/removed by soaking the parts in rubbing alcohol.

I've seen this done with the recent Atlantis "Sidewinder" reissue of Monogram's old "Rattler" show rod. It literally took less than a minute to completely dissolve the gold clearcoat, effectively turning the parts regular chrome. 

I would suggest testing the rubbing alcohol on a bit of the gold sprue, using a very soft toothbrush to remove any residue, making sure to thoroughly rinse off the parts with lukewarm water.

I can verify that the alcohol method works, at least on Monogram 80's "gold" plating. I had 1/24 Golden T and removed the "gold" by a quick 5 second soak in alcohol. Rinse immediately jut to be safe. The alcohol shouldn't effect the chrome, but better safe than sorry.

[Deathgoblin]

I do this with my foil sometimes.  Lately the gold tends to stick better than the regular, so I've taken some 91% alcohol and just rubbed off the gold.