Say my Name!!

Jeepster Nameplate

With the weather here being so poor, I decided it would be a nice time to try and work on some small projects that didn't require me being outside too much. I thought I would try to refurbish my hood ornaments, I mean, how hard could it be to paint some chrome trim? In a word - Hard! I have a renewed respect for people who can paint things by hand; it can be done, but it's not easy.

As you can see, these have seen better days, I thought, how about a good cleaning to see where we stand.

After a bit of a scrub and some time with the buffer, they were looking better, but it was still obvious that they needed help. Since I don't have access to a chrome shop, I thought to myself "Lets try out some of that metallic spray paint"

I put down a few coats of primer, then I sprayed the metallic. 

The metallic paint was really, really slow to dry. I'm not sue if it was because it was so cold, or if it's just the nature of the paint, but 24 hrs between coats seems to work out the best. Unfortunately, all of the pits and imperfections in the surface became really apparent once the metallic was on, so I filled what low spots I could with clear nail polish. It did help, but as it turns out, the metallic paint likes to dissolve when it meets other paints, as I found out when I applied both the nail polish and the black and white Rustoleum which I used for the lettering. The lettering turned out to be the hardest part, tedious but overall better than where I started.

I will post a pic once I get them back on the hood.