Re-chroming bumpers and painting stripes

I'm redoing a original Monogram circa 1983 68 Chevelle SS 454. I already stripped the entire model in CSC and have painted the body Tamiya Red. Now on to my questions:

1) I need to re-chrome the front and rear bumpers. What should i use, I'm sure eveybody will say Alcald II, but what else can I use?

2) I want to paint two black racing stripes on the car. My question is should polish/cut the red first then tape and spray the stripes or tape and spray the stripes and then polish all together?

1) Can't tell you anything you haven't figured out already ;)

2) I'd go in the following order: paint the spripes, clearcoat (so that there is no ridge between the stripes and the bodywork), polish. If you polish before painting the stripes you're running a risk of paint not sticking well to the surface you had used chemical compounds on. If you polish without clearcoating you may rub off the stripes because they will be raised above the rest of the surface and consequently will be the first to "fall victims" to the polishing process.

That sounds good if my paint was perfect to start with. I WILL need to polish/cut (no wax yet) the red paint, now your saying that after I polish/cut the red I will have paint adhesion problems with the black stripes? I understand what your saying abount the ridge between the black and red.

Maybe I should polish/cut the red and then lay a coat of clear, then mask and lay on the stripes, polish/cut the stripes and then another coat of clear?

Another question, other than Future what clear can I use with Tamiya Acrylic's?

There are two other options to rechrome the bumpers:
1. There are companies that do this. I think ChromTech USA is one, but I can't seem to remember their names. There's another one in Eastern Canada, but the name escapes me right now. This will be expensive once you consider shipping and everything.
2. You can try putting Bare-Metal Foil onto the bumper, but I've never had very good success on something that irregularly shaped. I guess it depends on what your expectations are.

Alclad II is the easiest/cheapest that I know of.

Murray

1. As you expect Alclad II or GSI Creos Plate Silver are pretty close to chrome. Is there a reason why you can't use Alclad? BMF looks good on small areas but not so much large or irregular ones. Having parts chrome plated sounds like an expensive option, but may be worth it if you want super bright chrome.

2. For the stripes another alternative is to get some black decal, cut to correct width and stick 'em on. Much quicker and you don't have to worry about masking, paint leakage, etc.

You can use Bare metal foil.
I done all these bumpers here with it...........

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/1PMan/Mvc-042f.jpg

2) if your paint is really bad with orange peel, go to wal mart and pick up some 2000 grit automotive wet/dry sand paper, mix up some warm water with a touch of mild soap, and wet/color sand until all the paint is a dull color, then lay on another coat of red, that should eliminate the orange peel, then mask off and spray the stripes, then lay on a your clear coat, if you see some orange peel in the clear, you can use the wet/color sand method here as well to elminate the problem, lay down another couple coats of clear, let the paint cure and polish......hmmm, just remembered that you are using acrylic, i doubt this is as hard as the automotive paints i typically use but this method should work.

If the red needs to be smoothed out, color sand and polish first. Do not wax. Wash the body with water and a little detergent and let it fully dry before masking the for the black stripes. Polishing both colors at once can lead to staining of the colors.
I'd vote for BareMetal if you want bright looking chrome. It takes patience, but I like the look of it better. - Mark

I ve just tried duplicolour chrome, wasn't able to use Alclad due to the crappiness of my airbrush, and I must sau it comes close to real chrome on cars, and is exactly the same thing as you might find on chromed trees qua colour...

Only little thing is that's it's quite fragile to handle, if you rub it hard the paint might come off I heard...

Olivier