DIY: Removing chrome on plastic part

[solma]

I will use Gram light wheel certer cap as an example, any chrome plated plastic part is the same:

-You will need time(I can take a few hour to go through the process)
-Etching acid(found in most electronics part store, it is use for making printed circuit board)

Caution: put glove on and protective eyewear, it is acid, do not drink.

Be careful, this type of acid will go through any metal, including the plumbing(if made in metal) in your house, so use your head when dealing with that stuff.

Here the bottle:



Scratch the chrome surface, it acelerate the etching(plastic chrome plating is made with multiple metal layer, one of them is copper(under the chrome), the acid love copper.


Next, dip it(time will depend on multiple factor, like temperature, plating thickness, ...) normally it would be faster if you vibrate the acid/part, but depending on the application it can not be possible, like this one, I wanted to keep the chrome on the "RAYS", so I haded to be careful not to have acid to the top of the part, so no shaking. For this part, it did take a few hour to completly eat the metal.


PS: One thing to be careful is that the chrome will dissolve in small parts, those parts can stick permanently to the red silicone on top of the part.

At the end rise the part with water and you should be ready to paint.

[Gunman]

Regular household bleach will remove the chrome from a lot of plastics too. I have not tried this on BRZ/FR-S parts though.

[Jive Turkey]

none of the photos work :/

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by Gunman

Regular household bleach will remove the chrome from a lot of plastics too. I have not tried this on BRZ/FR-S parts though.

I've used this for building model kits, works very well.

[boredom.is.me]

ditto on the broken pics

[solma]

First time with pic on the forum, I think the way to do it just "etch" to my brain.