I have been looking to remove the chrome from my gas door and door handles. I do not want to buy the plastic over lays that cover them because I want to paint them. I could not find anything about this and want to ask you all as I trust your opinions. So, how can I effectively remove the chrome the easiest without hours of sanding?

 

You can try plasti dip on the chrome pieces. It does not require sanding and can be removed if you do not like the look. Google for images of minis with plasti dip. You should find lots of images of people that have used it.

 

+1 for Plastidip.

 

Gel bleach. Really, it will strip the "chrome" off plastic parts. YouTube has several videos.

That said, I found plasti-dip to work much better/easier/safer.

 

I've removed chrome on many plastic trim pieces over the years and Muriatic acid works in 24- 48 hours. You can buy it at the hardware store but read and follow all the warnings since it's very toxic stuff.

 

Dude it's way easier to use the beltline trim kit and plastidip.

 

I did that to my cabriolet. (No chrome gas cap.) I was having some body work done and decided to buy an extra set of door handles and have them painted At first, I thought I'd just give them a really good sanding so the paint would stick, but I noticed a bit of chrome lifting on one edge and I used some fine tip needle nose pliers to grab and pull. Voila!....a large piece simply peeled off. I used a fine knife to lift a bit more material and voila! again, another substantial piece peeled right off, leaving a nice smooth plastic surface underneath. I set to it and in about 2 hours, I had every bit of chrome simply peeled off and with some light sanding and some masking, they were ready for paint. In the end the job looked factory perfect.

See this thread with pix: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...r-handles.html

 

Easiest and reversible way is Plastidip. I did the gas cap two years ago and it held up great, but ended up replacing the gas cap and mechanism with the base Cooper one. As for the handles, I've bought the Aesthetic Creation plastic covers, they are nice and fit pretty well. Over time the plastic will get greyish tho, but I guess painting or plastidiping them would be an option. Painting the handles would mean removing the whole thing from the car first, but that's your choice.

 

I know that for flash-plated plastic pieces in model kits, oven cleaner whips it off in no time.

 

On the topic of removing chrome bits, is there an easy way to get the chrome pieces around your headlights off? I may plasti-dip them and would rather take them off and dip them if i can, rather than taping the car up.

 

For those, I just sanded really well and painted.

 

The headlight rings just pop right off. Open the hood and you can press the tabs in with a screwdriver.

2010 R57S Chili Red w/ Blackout

 

I have an R53 MCS 2005, all i did was remove the 3 nuts that hold the headlight on, removed the headlight assembly, and popped the rings off. Very simple to do. There are little metal clips that hold the ring on, just use a flat tip screw driver and a little pressure and "pop", they come right off. Install is the same. Press the rings back on, reinstall the headlight and you are good to go.

 

Thanks guys! Just got my plasti-dip order in today so hopefully i can get started tomorrow.

 

Ignore what I said. I didn't realize this was the first gen. Sorry.

 

How do you get the mini badge off the hood? I bought a nice new replacement at Pelican but can't figure out how to remove the cracked and stained original.

 

A little bit of heat from a hair dryer (don't get it too hot - just warm it or work in the sun) and some dental floss and saw at it with the floss.