Paint over chrome?

[gunslingerburrito]

Hey guys,

I have a chrome 58cc Starfire, and I was considering giving it a coat of matte black paint. I'm worried, however, that it will significantly increase heat and possibly risk overheating it often.

Would a coat of paint over chrome insulate it too much and cause it to overheat?

 

[leaded50]

it shouldnt do...... but, to get it stay there, the least you need is a good ground primer, so then you got several layers, and then it depends even more! Paint just on chrome will flake of very soon, because the chrome is a very hard flat layer, and paint needs craters (even minimal ones) to grip on.

 

[moonerdizzle]

you could try to sand it before you paint it and use a self etching primer, but paint almost always flakes off of chrome.

 

[Venice Motor Bikes]

Flat black paint will actually make the engine shed the heat easier & make it run cooler!

Just clean the engine as well as you can & use 'engine paint'.

 

[bigbutterbean]

second on the engine paint. it should actually "bake on" if the engine gets hot enough, no primer should be necessary.

 

[youknouno]

so can you apply paint to any ol other chrome part?

 

[bigbutterbean]

heat from the engine bakes the paint on.

 

[gunslingerburrito]

Excellent, thank you everyone for all the info. I do believe this will be my next project

 

[dragray]

no black will not make it overheat. chrome is actually worse than black.
Black dissipates heat while chrome just holds heat in and it keeps getting hotter because it's like a mirror.
seriously, go set a peice of something chrome in the sun and a peice of the same material painted black in the sun.
let them sit for awhile to get nice & hot.
touch the chrome peice, but be careful (or use an infrared thermometer) and then touch the black peice.
you'll find that the chrome peice will be A LOT hotter than the black peice.

the problem you may have is that paint doesn't like to stick to chrome and it will start to peel off eventually.
to do it right, you'd have to get all of the chrome off before you paint it.
now, if this is actual chrome (and not chrome paint) you would have to sand blast it to get the chrome off.
if it's chrome paint, you can just rough it up with sandpaper & then spray the black over it. make sure to get ALL of the oil off of the surfaces or paint will not stick.
if this is a brand new engine, wipe it down with an oil, wax and grease remover (laquer thinnner can be used).
these engines are shipped with a coating of machine oil on them and you need to get it all off or the paint will not stick.
you won't need primer because once the engine gets hot the paint will bake onto the surface.
make sure that you use a high temp engine enamel paint made for engines because regular paint will just burn off.

 

[Nashville Kat]

Some red or blue or purple annodized paint might look good on chrome- a light coat that would still look real "anno"- maybe some clear coat over it- i think they even have torquoise at auto stores. The gold is not like anno but like gold leaf.

the paint really works well on chrome, because it's semi-transparent and goes too dark to look anno otherwise, but I've also put it over "chrome' paint, and it looks pretty good-but real chrome is better- in fact the best for metal "anno" paint.

I might do it on something chrome that was starting to wear or peek rust- it would protect it.

$5 at Wal-Marts- was closed out but seems back- more colors and more money at auto stores.

I've painted both my motors, although I had the same overheat worries at first- now they even have internal sound dampeners and I haven't had any problems here in hot Florida.

"tap on your blue motor, and keep saying: There's no place like home..."

 

[dragray]

That paint will not hold up to the heat and it will flake off. you need paint than can withstand 400 + Degrees.
that shielding paint is just like candy paint (semi transparent) & that's why you need a base coat of silver or chrome. its made for things that don't get hot.

 

[Nashville Kat]

The paint on the blue gliittered 50 cc motor is blue anno I've run it now 2 1/2 years with no flaking or issues of any kind- It looks darker than annodized aluminum because I put it over the natural dull silver color- now that I've done it, yes, I'd recommend a coat of metallic chrome paint first- some is more "chromey" than others- the best I've found is Red Devil at Big Lots. Krylon at Wal-Mart is not as shiney- none of it is actually as shiney as real chrome, but it's closer than regular silver.

The 66 light blue motor is my 66- 3 1/2 years since first photos in Spring '09 with no heat issues or flaking- (Not so on the muffler- there, the paint DOES burn off) That paint was a can of Duplicolor I already had.

It's the same bike and motor later- all painted chrome silver, since last Fall. The chrome paint- painted over the light blue (with Pegusus, the winged Mobile horse), is also holdiing up well. I've had no problem with the paint on the motors- even the cylinder "jug".

But yes- anno paint works best over real chrome, second best over Chrome paint. I clearcoat it all after that.

"Theres no paint like chrome, there's no paint like chrome....."