Painting over the window chrome

[240znz]

What is required to paint the chrome window surrounds black. Is it just a matter of taking them to a paint shop and they do the rest, or is there some prep work you can do before hand.

I'm just curious as I've seen a few pics of cars with black trim and they looks great with a dark body colour.

Any help appreciated.

[kmack]

When I bought my '71, it had had the black-out treatment done to it. BUt they didn't paint the window trims. They used black tape. It looked like electrical tape but it was much harder and didn't stretch hardly at all. Now the door handles and key locks had been painted.

In order to paint the chrome, you'd have to sand the chrome to a dull finish so the paint would have something to "grip" on to.

[EScanlon]

Saw this done by someone who had access to a LOT and I mean a LOT of shrink tubing in the right width.

He removed all of the trim from around the windshield, (in this case it was a 1976 Mercury Capri II), inserted the trim into the black shrink tubing. Shrank the tubing with very very mild heat, just enough to conform to shape. Re-inserted into the rubber. Looked pretty sharp.

Reason he had to be careful with the use of heat is that the Capri's trim was plastic with chrome back plating. In his case the chrome had peeled and all that was left was the yellow plastic. He used the black trim and it restored the rubber seal to taught around the window and looked outstanding.

Don't know how long it lasted as this was 1982 or so.

[Cyind]

You can powder coat with a translucent color over the chrome!

[HS30-H]

Don't do it!

Why would you want to do it?

It will always look bad!

You will never be able to maintain it!

Quit now while you are ahead!

Somebody back me up on this!

It's not an early '80's Porsche.

Somebody put a straightjacket on that man!

Oh well, you can do what you like - but plenty of others have done it before you and 99% of them made a bad job of it. I spent two weeks trying to clean this stuff off of a pair of window frames that I bought and I don't want you to go through that.

These things might look OK in a photo, but unless you go the whole hog and disassemble it and then get it all anodised, it will never continue to look as nice as the first day you did it.

If you want to do something to your Z, go and do something useful! Change the oil or something.

( hey you guys out there - don't encourage him! )............

[halz]

I've gotta agree with HS30, good chrome (especially on a dark coloured car) really stops it from looking like a shadowy blob. Keep the chrome!

[2ManyZs]

Personally I like the idea of the translucent powder coat over chrome. Especially if you can find a color that closely matches the body color. The only drawback to powder coat is the fact you can't repair a scratch like you can with paint.

I think the stuff that kmack is referring to is the old black out tape that used to be on the market to cover chrome trim (might still be on the market, just don't see it very often) that was nothing more than a tape applied over the chrome.

You only have a few choices, leave it alone,replace it, re-plate it, paint it, powder coat it, or have it anodized. Painting and powder caoting would be the cheapest if you really don't like the looks of chrome. Some people like the looks of chrome and some people prefer the monochromatic look.

IMO it might look good if you painted or powder coated the windshield and rear hatch window trim in black so that it doesn't stand out from the black gasket, and then powder coat the rest of the trim with a translucent color closely matching the body color. It would appear to be body color until the light hit it just right and then it would really stand out with the chrome reflecting through it.

[240znz]

Thanks all,

Some people out there already think we are in starightjackets for even wanting to drive a early 70's car...but look what they are missing out on...my brother in law is one but he drives a volvo...I need not say anymore (all you sensitive Volvo drivers are excused...this is not an evil attach on your safe cars..they just look boring)

I'll have a good think about changing the colour of the trim but there are a ton of other things to do first...like getting one would be a good start.

Anodising looks the best way to go.....but I thought you could only anodise aluminium. So you are saying that the side window trims are ali? I thought is was steel....I also thought you can't chrome ali?

Help:confused:

[HS30-H]

Most of the shiny stuff on the S30 series Zs is stainless steel, apart from the bumpers and door handles ( have I forgotten anything else? ). The best thing to do is to have it polished, I think.

Personally, I prefer to keep the body and paint pretty much as it was when it came from the factory ( which is difficult enough! ). They look good enough as it is, and any modifications would be better done on the drivetrain and suspension. With cars this old, going through the suspension and driveline to make sure that all joints, bushes and geometry are at least as good as they were when the car was new is one of the most effective ways to get maximum enjoyment from the car. There is a huge temptation to stamp your personality on a particular car by changing something cosmetic, rather than doing what really needs to be done. Its really tempting.................

I prefer also to keep any modifications or additions to the car in a "period spirit" - rather than try to make the car perform or look like something built last year. The S30 series Z seems to be loved by what we used to call "customisers" as well as "classic" car enthusiasts, so you can see many variations in taste and fashion in their modifications. But if you look over the period of ten or twenty years or so, you will see that what was cool or fashionable then now looks really bad, and it takes time for it to come back to being cool again. Twenty or thirty years ago candy and metalflake paint jobs would have been pretty cool - but then they were seen as garish and bad taste. Now its all coming back again, and the new TVRs are really turning heads with young people who have never seen these kind of paint effects before. What comes around goes around, and the problem is that by the time you have perfected your look fashion has already moved on and you don't look so cool any more..................

That's why I prefer to keep to "period" spirit modifications, using factory option parts or replicas of them - even down to period tuning stickers. Its fun and a real challenge to get it "right", and you don't have to kid yourself that your car will outperform an R34 GT-R if you just put a little more thought into it.

I try to think of my car as something that got stuck in a time warp, and every day is somewhere around 1973. That way I know that I am always aiming for an achievable target. I think that if I think of it as a "classic" car it is better than thinking of it as a canvas for my temporary whims and fancies. I think the owners of some of the more exotic classic machinery have got the right idea. You don't see that many Ferrari GTOs with 19 inch wheels and 35-series tyres on them. What's wrong with a little good taste?

Polish 'em!

[240znz]

Cheers HS30-H

My order of preference.

1. Brakes

2. Bushes

3. Suspension

4. Motor

5. Gearbox

6. Diff

7. Bodywork

8. Swear I'll never do it again.

I will not have much choice in selecting the colour I want as there aren't too many Z's in NZ that come up for sale. So I'm going to have to paint it the colour I prefer. It's going to cost me a arm and a leg, so it will be that last thing I do...that way I can enjoy my ride for a bit.

I have no intention on restoring it to concourse nor do I want to turn it into a hippy coloured bird pulling shag bus. Just a nice DD/Weekend car with a bit of poke when I need it. I like my cars like that.

I'll get a Volvo...nah:sleep:

[HS30-H]

Amen to your list 240znz,

I thought from your post about painting the door-surrounds black that you had taken leave of your senses! Seems you had a better idea of what was important all along.......

Didn't realise that you actually don't have your mitts on a car yet ( I'm the new boy around here ) - sorry about that.

Also thought you were based in the UK ( from your user cp ) but seems you might actually be a kiwi. If you get a Z in the UK will you take it back to NZ? Surely buying a right-hand-drive car in Japan and exporting it to NZ would be easier and cheaper? You would get a better car for about the same money, and Japan is surely nearer to NZ than the UK? Don't be scared about buying a car from Japan; there are plenty out there and there are a real LOT in better condition than most of the ones I see in the UK. Aren't there any good / affordable ones in NZ then?

Don't get tempted by the Volvo idea ( unless you get a Z and use the "modern" as a hack ). I used to drive a '73 UK-spec. 240Z as an everyday driver in central London, and just got sick of the damage and vandalism ( mostly parking damage by my neighbours ). Was sad to do it, but ended up buying a "modern" as a hack / parts chaser / shopping car - and the wife doesn't moan about how cold / hot / noisy / bumpy it is! Now that she is happy, the freedom has allowed me to make the Zs more radical, so it paid off in the long run...........

Glad to hear that you are not thinking "concours" - as in my experience a few stone-chips and some oil stains are nothing to worry about. I like cars to look as though they are driven, and we all know that that's what these cars are all about.

All the best to you,

Alan Thomas ( HS30-H ).