Written By Steven Craig

ARTIST PROFILE

STEVEN CRAIG

DATA

Steven Craig is the owner and head painter of SKC CUSTOMZ in Lake Havasu City, AZ. In the past Steven has won the House of Kolor Prestigeous Painter Award and was a 1st Place winner of Dupont's Hot Hues Awards. He most  recently was awarded the Matrix System's FX Grand Prize Award. Steve paints a wide range
of jobs from guitars to large off shore boats. Visit  his web site at

Airbrush : Iwata HP-BH, Custom Micron B
Spray Guns: Iwata LPH400 ,Iwata LPH300, Iwata LPH-80
Paint Media: PPG, Xotic Colours, Dupont and Matrix Systems
Surface Media: Everything I can get paint to stick to.
Masking : R-Tape and 3M Masking Tapes
Projector: Artograph
Lighting : Natural and Florescent. Spray-Line and Spray King Paint Booths

"Chrome Paint"

 The key to the Chrome paints is all in the preparation that has to be done before applying the chrome. Start by performing all the steps necessary for doing a solid color base-coat/clear-coat show finish. Black seems to work the best under the motochrome to obtain a shiny chrome look. It is best to use a high solids clear that has little or no solvents (reducer) added.

 The clear coat needs to be fully cured before proceeding. Allow a normal high performance clear coat 5 to 10 days to cure. To speed the process up, I used PPG's DC 3000. This is a speed clear that can be color-sanded and buffed in 2 hours at 70 degrees. Apply 4 heavy coats of clear. You will need a good mil thickness because there is a considerable amount of color sanding to be done.

 Do not scuff the substrate like an ordinary paint job. A dull rough surface will result in a dull titanium look.  This photo depicts an example of the conventional way of color-sanding. Using a sanding block with sandpaper. Starting with a course sandpaper as 1200 grit and working down to 2000 grit prior to buffing. When wet sanding the clear coat, keep in mind that the smallest of scratches left in the surface will be visible when the Motochrome is applied. When using this procedure, spend the time to carefully work out any deep sanding scratches.

 I prefer to machine finish my work and figured this would be the best route to achieve the finish needed before applying the Motochrome. I wouldn't recommend this route for those who have little or no experience when using air sanders for finishing. I also prefer the air sanders due to the cut pattern they produce. Hand sanding could leave long-deep sanding marks. The air sanders are orbital and provide a fine circular cut pattern. Using a Mirka "Bulldog" I started by removing any "orange peel" with 1200 grit sandpaper. I followed that by going over the surface again with 1500 grit.

 This might seem like the long route to go for color-sanding but its not. It is actually much faster than sanding by hand. Here I've switched to a Hutchins "Jitter-Bug" sander. The base of the sander is similar to a soft sanding block which is good for leveling the surface. Start by making a complete pass over the surface with 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Follow that by going over it again with 2000 grit paper. Look closely at this picture, you can see the extremely fine cut the 2000 grit sandpaper is producing.

 This is one of the best finishing products made. The "Abralon" pads from Mirka Abrasives. The Abralon pads are a foam backed finishing pad that come in equivilants to 2000 and 4000 grit sandpapers.

 Here is what the sanded surface looks like at this point. Most of you that have color-sanded before know how dull a surface looks before buffing with compound at this point. Notice that the surface almost looks polished already. By inspecting the surface there are no visible signs of ever having sandpaper come in contact with the substrate.

 This is a close-up photo showing the micro-cut material that the Abralon pads are made of.

 In this photograph you can see the results of the sanding process I went through. Notice the gloss after one low speed pass with the Presta "Micro-Cut" compound. Once I finished buffing with the wool pad, I went over the surface again with the Presta and a foam compound pad to remove any swirls marks left by the wool pad. Keep in mind, any form of swirl mark will show when the Motochrome is applied.

 Start with the 2000 Abralon pad. Keep water running constantly over the surface and make several passes. After a few passes, the water should begin to bead off the surface. Change to the 4000 Abralon and repeat the process. You will know when you are done when the water literally rolls off the surface.

 This next step is one of the reasons I stayed away from the "Chrome" paints for so long. To give the illusion of Chrome, the surface has to be prepared by buffing with a cutting compound and finished with a polish. Most of the compounds and polishes made today have some form of wax and filler in them. For the "Chrome" I chose to go with the Presta line of compounds. They contain no wax, silicones or fillers.

 Wash off any remaining compound with soap and water. Bring the gloss out by finishing with a Foam Polishing Pad and Presta Polishing Glaze. I use 3M Perfect-It compounds for finishing all my custom work, but I must stress not to use them when doing Chrome effects. Any residue from them will create dull spots in the Chrome.

 Wash the surface with soap and water. It is recommended that you follow that by cleaning  the surface with alcohol and water. I did this but had a hard time removing streaks that were left from the alcohol drying too fast. Use a micro-fiber cloth when wiping down the surface. Even scratches left from a towel will show through the chrome.

 I went over the surface one more time with a wax and grease remover and a micro-fiber cloth. I wanted to make sure that there were no impurities left on the surface. I discovered in my test run that even an area that the wax/gease remover dried before it could be wiped off left dull spots in the chrome.

 Now comes the tricky part, applying the motochrome. Actually, once you figure out the proper gun settings, applying the motochrome is very easy. It is best to use a detail gun on smaller projects. The spray gun should be set up by cutting the air pressure and amount of paint delivery way down. You want only 5 to 25% of the material to to exit the gun. The fan pattern should be closed down to a 2 inch pattern.  This is the absolute most important part for applying chrome paint. You do not want to spray this like a base-coat. All you want to come out of the gun is a very light mist. The motochrome is extremely transparent. As you can see in this picture, two coats have been applied and the black base is still visible.

 There is no "flash" time needed between coats. Keep applying the motochrome in thin coats. You will see the paint dry almost instantly. The trick to spraying the chrome is not to put too much on. As soon as you no longer see any black showing through, stop!  If too much motochrome is applied it will start looking more like polished aluminum. If any imperfections arise you can stop and start over. The motochrome is easily removed with alcohol.

 Let the motochrome sit for 1 to 2 hours before clear coating.  Make sure not to handle the surface or it will discolor or leave finger prints that can not be removed. Do not wipe down with any type of pre cleaner. Basically, you want to have absolutely no contact with the motochrome at all. Do not attempt to add graphics at this stage. There is no adhesion properties to the motochrome so any taping on it might lift the paint.

 If the clear coat is not done correctly the motochrome, once again, will look more like polished aluminum or dull titanium rather than chrome. It is imperative that you use a chrome with very little or no solvents at all. Stay away from clears with an amber cast to them. There are several high solids/low voc clears on the market that don't require solvents (reducers) added to them. You want the clear coat to lay on top of the motochrome and not penetrate through it. Spray very light "tack" coats and let them completely "flash" before apply a full wet coat.

 A layer of clear-coat will diminish the shine by 5-30%. Xotic Colours has released a new clear that was developed especially for the Motochrome. The Motoclear was designed to go over the Motochrome with a minimal loss of 5 to 10% shine.
 Here is the cleared piece before color sanding and adding graphics. I took this photo outdoors and as you can see, it reflected the sunlight so hard that the camera could not get an accurate reading to get a clear/sharp photograph.

X-otic Colours'
Motochrome Paint

I've stayed away from the "Chrome " paints since they came out. I wanted to see what their failure rate would be before I jumped in with them on a project. I was told that 9 out of 10 painters had such bad luck with the paint that they would never use it again. So, I did a lot of research by talking to other painters and technicians before attempting to use it. After figuring out the best techniques and what not to do, the motochrome was actually very user friendly. There are two major factors in producing the "Chrome" look. The clear-coated black finish that is to be used as a base for the chrome has to be free of any imperfections. And, the biggest key is not to apply the motochrome as you would a base-coat or candy. Practice with gun settings so it will only produce a light mist of paint being delivered. If you get these two variables figured out the chrome application becomes easy and you as a painter can do some amazing visual effects with it.

 Once the Clear-coat has had it's required cure time,wet sand the entire surface with 800 grit wet sandpaper. Keep water running over the surface continuously as you are sanding so the sandpaper will not clog and create deep scratches. Deep sanding marks will show if they are created on top of the chrome effect.

 Clean the surface with a wax/grease remover. Here, I created my design using 3M 1/16" Fineline tape. Mask off the areas that are not to be painted.

 One way to create a striking effect over the chrome is to apply a Candy color. Light will bounce off the Chrome and back up through the Candy, producing a very electrifying effect. The best way I can describe it is that it looks like a colored ChristmasTree Ornament.

 Setting up to do an illustration, I applied Transfer Tape over the area I will be illustrating. The Transfer Tape is good for many reasons. It will protect the outside area from over-spray, it's semi-transparent, easy to cut and you can draw directly onto it.

 Here I'm transferring a pre-designed illustration to the transfer tape. Lightly cut the outside edge with a new razor blade. Be extremely careful not to score the clearcoat.

 A White Base will need to be applied before doing any illustration work. Unless you want the Chrome to show through the illustration. I will demonstrate that effect by doing a single color (black candy) at the back of the display tank.

 Here is another kool effect. First I pinstriped the graphic with gold. Once the gold had dried to the touch I went back over it with a mixture of Xotic's Clear Striping paint and a Prism Metal Flake added to it.

 The final product after several coats of a Premium Clear and a colorsanded/buffed finish.