NOOOOO. Stay away from Alsa chrome paint. I have a story for you:


So I was doing well. I had finished a front fender on my Super Se7en and it was fantastic. I used the Alsa chrome paint as a base and then put the Carrizma (DuPont) candy on as a basecoat rather than a true tinted clearcoat. Worked out rather well. But let me tell you how much work that **** is: First you must paint the part black and cut/buff it to a mirror surface. It has to be even shinier than you'd do for the actual finish coat, since any swirls show through the chrome. Then you apply the chrome by dusting it on with a touch-up gun. Its essentially airbrushing and it takes about one hour per square foot! Then you have to clear it with their crappy 'fast clear'. Then of course comes light sanding, and the transparent red layers, then some DC92 BASF clearcoat, then cutting/buffing again. Of course I had some black trim stages in there too.

Here's where it went bad:

While doing a little buffing on this fender, a chunk blew off the size of a dime. Looking close the flaw was in the chrome paint layer. It stuck just fine to the polished black layer, and to the clearcoat on top, but it didn't stick to itself. See, its more or less a powdered aluminum layer with little to bind the particles to each other. If a buffer can do that kind of damage, imagine what rock chips would look like. Seeing as a Lotus 7 is open-wheeled, the paint would be stripped by rock chips in a week with paint that brittle. I had done 3 fenders and had spent weeks on the paint scheme so far. I had to strip it all down, and let me tell you it stripped easily with a razor blade due to the weak chrome layer.

In the end I used simple fine metalic as the candy base and started over. The paint looks good, but not as good as the ALSA stuff did. However, at 20K miles the BASF paint is holding up great to rock chips and it sure was easier to implement.

If you want to do red chrome, use a wrap.

Oh, and on a side note, I had gone for ALSA's "black candy" in an attempt to make a sort of black chrome look. Once again ALSA let me down. The black candy, when mixed with clear, created a battleship gray with no depth nor anything interesting about it. Think of the color of an overcast sky where the sea meets the horizon. Worse, it had little clumps that caused black zits with streaks flowing out from them even though I mixed and strained the paint using normal methods.


Here you can see the ALSA base candy on the fender and the BASF basecoat metalic on the red for the nosecone. The ALSA has crisp reflections that give nicely red-tinted speculars and everything you'd want... Except its too hard to apply and wont last a week on the road.

[This message has been edited by CharlieHorse (edited 02-12-2015).]

whoa......I am so used to talking to myself so much here I don't know where to start

I think since I am talking about my "Hope To Be" early Mera.....I am thinking a red chrome wrap would be the best. unless I am wrong in thinking I can peel it off and have some semblance of my OEM Red, intact not sure aint looked into it that far.......

I fell in love with this color early on in my ownership of Mera X and vowed to paint this color.......if needed.
now I get guys at work telling me I have to paint X but its original paint as far as I know.....and don't look that bad so I am years away from a paint job barring any mishaps......but this is where I drooled my first dripple for the Rosso Rubino Metallizado!

[This message has been edited by batousai666 (edited 02-12-2015).]

[This message has been edited by batousai666 (edited 02-12-2015).]

quote Originally posted by hnthomps: Dan, You may be closer to correct than you think about the 3800 SC numbers. One of mine is a Series III with a mild cam (VS), intercooler, N* tv, 3" exhaust, etc. with a conservative tune and it dynoed at around 300 HP and 300 ft lbs torque at the wheels. Nelson

RIGHT ON!! thanks for that tid bit
its all about the money then with my tax refund I think I want to go big this year.........but maybe a turbo V8 would be better
I think Mera X needs to take a year off in the mods dept. that way I can focus on Big Daddy Dynamite

[This message has been edited by batousai666 (edited 02-12-2015).]

quote Originally posted by batousai666: RIGHT ON!! thanks for that tid bit its all about the money then with my tax refund I think I want to go big this year.........but maybe a turbo V8 would be better I think Mera X needs to take a year off in the mods dept. that way I can focus on Big Daddy Dynamite

I did try the V8 route with one of the Meras and it now sports a fuel injected 383 engine. This should be somewhere around 400 HP and 400 ft lbs of torque. I will let you know if I ever get around to doing a dyno run on the car. I can tell you that 300 hp at the wheels (on a 3800 SC Series III engine) can be a bit scary sometimes so I wonder what the extra 100 hp will do.

Nelson

[This message has been edited by hnthomps (edited 02-16-2015).]

quote Originally posted by hnthomps: I did try the V8 route with one of the Meras and it now sports a fuel injected 383 engine. This should be somewhere around 400 HP and 400 ft lbs of torque. I will let you know if I ever get around to doing a dyno run on the car. I can tell you that 300 hp at the wheels (on a 3800 SC Series III engine) can be a bit scary sometimes so I wonder what the extra 100 hp will do. Nelson

Noice!!

make sure to get a video.....I would love to hear it roar!!

I am trying to make a Mera X slideshow video.........with live action shots. hopefully I can post something by Spring

if I get a good one......maybe I can make a Mera Compilation Video of all our rides
with you and yours permission of course.................speaking of which.

I have a sad feeling........cant find last years, not sure I got one but I have been getting a Hawaii calendar from Tommy every year since I joined this little love affair we got going on here.....and I don't think I got one last year and know I aint got one this year.

my question.....Has anyone talked to "Fiero In Paradise" in the last year??? I hope for the best here.......but I fear the worse.

best case TOMMY STICKS HIS HEAD IN HERE.......Malhalo Braghs!

[This message has been edited by batousai666 (edited 02-16-2015).]

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Dick
Mera #8046 (Miss January, Mile High Fieros 2014 calendar)
1987 GT T-boned (RIP)
1988 GT T-Top (The Fiero Store Calendar: Miss February 2012)
1987 McBurnie Daytona Spyder

[This message has been edited by batousai666 (edited 02-19-2015).]