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Bezel Refurbishment

TheRealPorkchop

Certified Sith Pimp
Aug 25, 2015
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I’ve been looking at options to refurb the plastic chrome bezels on some of these radios I’ve got laying around. The “chrome” paint definitely isn’t an option, I thought I’d found one that would work but no.

Trying to find someone that can redo the chrome on plastic is turning into a nightmare also. And some of these are impossible to find replacements for, such as the Magnum S9.

So what have you guys done to make beat up bezels look better? I’ve thought about hydro dipping but nothing beats chrome, I’m old school. What’s out there that I’m not thinking about or overlooking? The guy that powder coats all my amps says you can’t powder coat it because you’d have to strip the chrome off and plus it’s plastic. Probably wouldn’t like being baked and it being plastic.

Anybody got a solution, a fairly inexpensive one?
 
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Just a cover decal mt dew sales on ebay makes original and custom decals but the chrome is another matter .if just scratched might try majic wadding chrome cleaner and polish,the truckers friend
 
I’ve seen the aftermarket faceplates and I’m just not a fan, nothing beats the original in my opinion. For the S9, I can’t get the factory one but I can get the one that was included in the box with the flag. Close enough I guess and the distributor has a small boat load of those.

I’m more worried about that chrome bezel. And that’s just on the S9, not to mention the few others I have. Of course, a lot of those are still available, if I don’t fool around too long.
 
Thinking about it, I converted this S9 to an S-980. Now I need a matching meter (insert string of profanity here).

Why can’t I leave well enough alone?

As Bobby told his momma in The Water Boy, “no momma, the search continues”.
 
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a long time ago I use to use model car chrome on small chips. if you took your time with it it did a nice job. you could even thin it a little and use a air brush sprayer and it came out nice. this was only for small chrome chips. never did try a large area.
 
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Yes, if previous owners or repair guys had used painters tape then maybe it wouldn’t be trashed. Too late for it now though.

I shall investigate the spectra chrome.
 
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Uh, holy sweet lord... I’ll sign up for the Spectra Chrome but every single one of you guys on this forum has to sign up for something to be chromed by me. That system is freakin’ expensive but it does look to be a great option.

Wow.
 
Let me think
Old guy i used to truck for had a saying
CHROME
WONT GET YOU HOME
 
faceplates can be fixed fairly easy by just finding a faceplate sticker for your radio and just remove the knobs and stick it on...As for the bezel, if it were me I would just sand it down and paint it a simi-gloss or egg shell black...you could even paint it whatever color you want, and paint the case to match...

I've done this with a couple of D 104 Mic's I bought that the chrome was all pitted and rusty looking and IMO they turned out pretty good!

You first have to sand down the chrome with very-fine sand paper, then use self-etching primer before the final color is applied.

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I also replaced the mic elements in these with some new ones I bought off ebay.
 
Spray can Plastidip. Walmart. Paint dept. Reworked my bezel with it. Although I took the time to remove the chrome first, sanded with med grit sanding block, applied tree coats. The multiple applications fill in the scratches from the sanding. Been running on tree years now through wind, rain, sand, salt, bugs. Just wash it off with a pressure washer and comes clean every time. Nice matte black finish.

[NOTE] The bezel in the mention above is the one on the front of my Dodge Ram.
 
The mics look freaking great, nice job!

I’m a chrome guy though, I like things to look factory. I’m looking into the options here though, there has to be a simple and easy solution to this problem. Wrap is a good idea, wonder how close to the factory chrome that will come?

The Spectra Chrome is BA. there’s another called PC Chrome too, been considering that one cause it’s a lot of cheaper. Well, it’s expensive to start with but if I do enough of them then it’ll pay for itself.
 
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Its
The mics look freaking great, nice job!

I’m a chrome guy though, I like things to look factory. I’m looking into the options here though, there has to be a simple and easy solution to this problem. Wrap is a good idea, wonder how close to the factory chrome that will come?

The Spectra Chrome is BA. there’s another called PC Chrome too, been considering that one cause it’s a lot of cheaper. Well, it’s expensive to start with but if I do enough of them then it’ll pay for itself.
only money,our government prints lots daily lol
 

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