I have a DCP Heil chrome tanker and want to paint it. I don't want to spend several days sanding the chrome off. I've found on other projects that unless you remove all the chrome, you will sometimes see the "ridge' between scuffed chrome and bare metal.

Anyone know of a chemical product that I can find at a Home Depot type store to accomplish this task? The workers at both HD and LOWES could not give me a positive recommendation to a product that will actually work.

Has anyone actually removed the chome to a point where the model surface looks good enough to paint, and the paint actually adheres to the model? I plan to mask first coat to apply 2nd, so the paint had to hold.

Thanks, Chuck

Chuck

The 2 most common tricks I know are chlorine bleach or EZ-Off regular strength oven cleaner. These should remove the chrome to make it ready to accept paint. I would still light sand the surface and use an etching primer. This is because sometimes the lacquer carrier for the chrome will remain on the plastic.

Jeff

Bleach works, but it's slow. Easy-Off and similar caustics also work well, but will do a number on zinc. They usually etch the surface.

Fantastik, the blue stuff. Just soak it a bit. And you can reuse it.

The over cleaner method has always worked great for me. It's fast & doesn't harm the plastic at all.

Thanks for the ideas. The model is metal, not plastic, so I'll try the bleach method first. If that does not work, I'll go with the solvent. Thanks again.

The bleach did not work, after three days submerged in a container. The oven cleaner (Easy-Off spray), did not have an effect, except for some deterioration on a edge area). I used 400 and 800 grit samdpaper, and sanded off chrome until I saw the redish metal (copper-zinc alloy?). It was fairly easy, as this was a tanker body, and I had removed all the details. I painted body with white TESTORS primer, and then TAMIYA TS-9 green. Held on very well, so there will be no problems.

Maybe the chrome in this case was resistant to the chlorine. And oven cleaner was not as powerful as needed. Thanks again for the tips, as it got me to work on model, instead of just letting it sit there getting dusty.

Try a solution made with calcium carbonate, commonly sold in the supermarket as "washing soda." It's only a couple of bucks, highly caustic in solution, and I have used it to clean concrete walkways. It accelerates bleach and detergents in the laundry. It will also etch metal, and I have seen websites describing its use for metal etching.

If it doesn't work, scrub down your front steps with it.