unworthy1

I am about to try this myself on a fork crown with panto (early Ciocc) which once had chrome, then powder coated, but is now bare steel.
I will try to record and/or at least report my results.

I note that nobody applied this mystery pen paint to fully bare steel (well those chainstays on the Merckx were at least partially bare steel, plus residual chrome and some rust) and was wondering if some sort of primer is reco'd, at least to give a bit more rust prevention then whatever the chrome paint will provide?
But since that adds another variable I'm going to throw a Hail Mary and see what happens...

billytwosheds 

Eager to see results

unworthy1

^please stand by^
other projects have interceded and have yet to put pen to forkcrown, but it's gonna happen one day soon!

smd4

Not sure if this is useful--perhaps for those with 50th anniversary components and such--but this same company also makes a "gold" chrome pen.

RB1-luvr

I bought a chrome pen after seeing this thread, and after using it on my chrome stays, I found a second use for it with plastic and metal model kits. I'm going to be buying these pens regularly.

SharpByCoop 

^^ Both GREAT results shown above. Went from 20% appeal to 80%. All for $9. WIN!

Count me in as a believer. Ordered.

unworthy1

Started my experiment with a double-tip Zeyar brand "Liquid Chrome" pen (made in China, bought on Amazon)
I'm trying to document the steps but my photo skills (oh Hell, I blame my equipment!) will leave much to be desired...but here goes:


I stripped the crummy dull aluminum-looking paint off this once-chrome-plated CIOCC crown so it's not exactly the "before" pic, but this is one side with rough sanding

this is opposite side with same level sanding using emery cloth

one side with 2 more levels sanded with wet/dry paper then gray 3M pad, it's not "perfect" but I consider it "smooth enough" for this fork

same deal on opposite side, next going to wipe the raw steel with alcohol and make ready for the pen (but ambient weather is too wet and cold so that's going to be in a day or two)
My hope is this "chrome" will look (and wear) well enough to satisfy me, if the crown does then the only other bits on the frame I will give the treatment to are the stay caps, since they are also panto'd (and the powder-coat had filled in all detail)

unworthy1

weather poor so lighting doesn't give best results but this looks better "in person"

Third try to get my text and a pic into a post without BF "timing me out" so i lose it all!
I applied the paint to one side of this crown and after overnight cure it is really quite good, better than any paint I tried before plus easy application (to a small surface)
Self-levelled and edges got crisper after drying, those little " pin-prick "spots are nearly invisible in life and shine very good, color a bit more like polished silver than chrome or nickel plating...but not bad at all!

only time will tell how this paint weathers and wears but my thumb is (so far) UP.

unworthy1

final shot (both sides of this crown) until the sun comes out (maybe next week?) and I may update again when I do the stay caps.
This just isn't good natural light for photographing chrome, IMO.



it looks better than my camera will record

easyupbug 

Impressive

tiger1964 

I finally used mine, sorry no photos quite yet. Campy NR downtube shifters, every part cleaned up beautiful except the chrome rusted off from the face of the "wing nuts". The chrome pen did a great job (after buffing the rust off with a white ScocthBrite pad, of course), you can just about still make out the Cmapy markings, as fine as they are on this small part. Also did a scrape on the top race of the Campy headset, almost as good.