maybe Brasso and elbow grease
This was Philip's reply when I had the thought, 'Hey, how will I make the stripes shiny silver after I've already applied primer?!?'
After another night soaking in acetone and some minor scrubbing to get the last of the yellow flakes off, I had this:
I once had this car, a 2010 Mini Clubman, that I was very fond of. Unfortunately I leased it and had to give it back to the dealer when its time was up. So with this Mini custom I am trying to recreate the color scheme my Clubman had: black with a silver roof and stripes.
I went and bought primer today and was ready to move on to the next step when I started thinking about it. My idea has been to paint it black but cover the stripes and the roof, hopefully making a sort of ZAMAC/Black color combo, but how could I get a ZAMAC look if I sprayed it with primer?
I was at a Fred Meyer and looked around in the paint section. Didn't seem to be anything quite what I was looking for. (For the record I didn't see any Brasso either). I headed to the automotive section and found a couple products that could possibly(?) work. Most were chrome cleaners. After some debate I settled on this:
Well, the name worked for me.
When I got home to the garage I opened the container and HOLY CHRIST IS THIS STUFF TOXIC!
No way could I do this in an enclosed garage. I had to take it outside and definitely get the gloves on. Very quickly I came to the realization that this would, in fact, be another "elbow grease" job as well. Tear off a few strips of this wadding, scrub, then dry with a cloth. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
But I started seeing results too! Here is it after maybe 30 minutes:
I kept at it until the a hole ripped in my latex glove. No way was I messing with this stuff against my skin. Also, even though I was outside, the fumes were strong enough for me to call it. Here's what I have now:
Clearly not completed, but I think I did alright. Tomorrow I buy more gloves and continue!
