The technology is improving all the time with these processes. It will be the way of the future I'm sure. I'm all for it if it's durable and cheaper. Getting stuff done at a chrome shop now sure chews into your budget.
What I was told: It has to be a perfect surface, any imperfections will show. You can do normal body work under it. It doesn't work well in high impact areas. It's only as good as the clear coat as far as survival. Couple years on a bumper is considered pretty good. Works best for items not normally chromed or that won't survive the normal chrome process with all the buffings. It's not going to put chromers out of business any time soon. SPark
AND........IS REALLY EXPENSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a quote done for my two tailight bezels for my maverick, I made them to have 3 sections for sequential lights, and the quote was $320. to have them spray-on chromed. That was with ME doing all the prep work, holy cow, are you kidding me? Anyway, I have since decided to just paint them black.
Geeze, a guy just up the road had a whole system, cage, sprayer, turntable and all for $5000.00 on Craigslist, I guess he sold it, listing is gone if I had know there was decent money in it, I might have been interested in it.
Through my employer, we have worked with two different people that have spent 100's of hours and many thousands of dollars trying to master that process for dash pieces. It has been very frustrating for these guys. Not much technical support from the vendors, and the product has a 6 month shelf life. The one guy Andy, has probably 15 years experience doing fiberglass, paint, and body work for May Trucking. Definitely not a noob, when it comes to painting, and preparation.
Not hard to imagine that when you consider the metallic deposition is in the ten thousandths.. maybe even hundredths of thousandths?.. of an inch thick. I've been a painter almost all my life and that's some seriously demanding prepwork needed to achieve perfection. Chrome prep is a piece of cake compared to that stuff. I've also seen failures on youtube where the coating literally peels off in larger sheets when it does let go. Can't imagine a daily drivers bumper or other frontend pieces lasting all that long if it's clearcoat isn't constantly being touched up to prevent delamination.
