that is the question. i was just wondering if i should paint the chrome bed molding the same color as the car. please let me know what yall think. thanks

painted mine on my 85 looks great to me 8)

I kept mine chrome. I think you should keep it chrome, especially since no new cars come with any chrome. You gotta show those new cars up.

I've seen Elkys that have it painted, normal and one or two that removed the chrome and welded the seams, smoothed them and painted - No chrome and no seams.

It boils down to "What do you like?" Its your truck make your statement.

Its realy what ever you like, but myself i like realy the chrome it just goes the best with the 70s and 80s style.

I painted my trim black because I think it goes real well with all that orange. I did leave some front end chrome & the bumpers.

One Word .... CHROME!!!! :lol:

One Word .... CROME!!!! :lol:Ya! He knows what he's talking about! If only he could spell it.

oops :cry: :evil: !
CHROME!!!!

not the first misspelling on this forum. :-)

If we got kicked out for misspelling, their would be no one here!

yeah but i should have spell checked it. Try iespell, Works Great!
Get it! >>> (http://www.iespell.com/download.php)

I use a websters program that is simular to that. I just sometimes get to lazy to bring it up. Besides you all know what I mean! Now back on subject... I think a combo of chrome & black trim looks great.

well i have 2 sets so i think i'm going to leave the ones in good condition chrome and paint the other ones and see which one i like.

I say paint it an accent color to compliment the body color. If you paint it body color it will just kinda disappear. I recently painted my Elky Silver but the trim I had powder coated gloss black.

Hey Poltergiest, did you paint your elky silver or have somebody do it? I painted mine silver with the big black chevelle power stripes, first paint job ever, and it didn't turn out too shiny. I've heard that silver is the trickiest color to shoot. I'll send you a pic. I also need help getting my pic on this site. How do I do that?
thanx,,,,,,,ElcaFreak

from what i understand from macco and private painters that gold metalic's are the hardest to paint. This is because it usually has large gold flakes in it. So i assume that any paint with large flake in it would be hard to shoot. Also you may have shot it too cold, when large metallic paint is cold and is bonding to cold metal it gives a ripple pattern. If you want to see where it happened on mine I'll email you a pic of it before it was fixed.

yea that'd be great. I'm always trying to get more info to help me on my own ride. Pics are cool.

alright, just uploaded the pics i took. take a look at the end of the gallery (pages 3-4)
JUST FOR YOU! :P

I had it painted. Have you color sanded it and buffed it yet? Until it's buffed it will be dull. My paint guy did say that Silver is a hard color. Temp, humidity, and even the air pressure for the gun can affect the color.

For member pages go to the generation you want, in the upper right you will see a pull down menu that says 'admin options'.

Pull that down and select 'new nested album'.

Go into the new album and select the pull down menu again and there will be a selection for adding photos.

If you have trouble uploading the pictures you can email them to me and I can add them. But I need for you to create the album so you will have the admin rights to change things.

Before doing anything I would decide on an overall color & trim scheme that suits your personal style and be prepared to stick with it throughout the construction of the car, that way even if there are large gaps of time between progress in each project area you have a plan with guidelines to follow which will keep everything consistant. If you want to wipe out the chrome, then wipe all of it out to give the car a uniform look, or else use the chrome sparingly as an accent for things you want to hi-light; like grilles, emblems, badges, shifters, center caps, handles, mirrors, bumpers, ect.

If you decide to paint the trim and have pieces that are really clean and undamaged then you might consider selling it to someone who wants to keep a bare metal finish and pick up a rougher pieces for yourself, which you can repair, and what can't be repaired will be covered by paint. Most dings and kinks can be finessed out using almost identical techniques and principals as sheet metal body work. You would use a pick, a small body spoon or thin round dolly, some pliers, a sandbag, and a small finishing hammer. Any cracks can be carefully welded up, preferably with a TIG, and smoothed out with a fine file or sanding block. Classic Motorbooks makes a great book on trim restoration for anyone who plans on undertaking the task. It's not very hard, but it helps to remember that a shortcut or use of improper tools in removal that damages the trim will take at least 3 to 4 times as long to fix during restoration. Take your time, use the correct tools, and do it right the first time.

When using solvent based paints make sure to use a flex agent in all coats to prevent cracking. If you decide to use an opaque color for your basecoat you can utilize a heavy fill polyester primer to hide minor depressions and scratches without having to deal with the risk of brittle body filler cracking during installation. You would be surprised how much a polyester primer, like Dura-tech, can hide. We use it at RTTI on anything and everything that's getting painted, prepping most surfaces only down to 220 grit before spraying a few heavy wet coats of the polyester primer, which after having been blocked out with a guide coat, can work miracles on an otherwise rough part.

Another option to consider is powder coating all your metal trim. There are metal body fillers out there for use in powder coating, so you can still use a rough set of trim, and because of powder coatings unique bonding at the molecular level during curing the cured coating is highly resistant to scratching, chipping, and cracking. All the common colors like black, white, blue, and red, as well as popular specialty shades like Chevy Orange and Ford Blue, are available off the shelf, and just like solvent based paints you can color match by blending the colored powders to reach a desired shade. Thru the addition of special colorless powders the surface finish can be controled and made to vary from super mirror gloss to a semi-gloss satin to a no-gloss flat, and there's even colors in wrinkle finishes, which have become very popular for dress up parts. There are some really beautiful translucent candy, smooth metallic, metallic vein, metal flake, and many other types of special fx powders available. The majority of powders are safe for any automotive environment, even under the hood, as the powder is cured at up to 500 degrees, and there are now hi-temp powders, specifically designed for use on exhaust parts, that are safe up to 1500 degrees. In tests, these hi-temp powder coatings exhibit the same heat reduction properties as ceramic coatings or cloth/foil wraps, creating drastically reduced under hood temperatures.

Back to the trim, even if you decide to leave your trim bare metal, be it polished, plated, brushed, or unfinished, you should consider having them powder coated with a clear powder coat, which is far superior to solvent based clear coat in durability, anti-oxidation, and UV protection, as well as not suffering from some of the yellowing with age or heat that's found to be a problem with many solvent based clear coats when applied to bare metal. I've seen clear powder coatings on nickel chrome plated rims and polished intake manifolds that look incredible. Once the pieces were cured and cooled it looked as if you could run your fingers across the part and the coating would still be wet. Because of the versatility of powder coating multiple coats can be applied for great depth, or a flattening agent can be added to compliment a brushed, cast, or unpolished finish.

The bottom line is that with powder coating you are able to alter enough variables so that you may achieve any desired look imaginable, from a simple single coat hi-temp flat wrinkle black for exhaust manifolds, to the decadent marble effect of a multi-coat deep gloss translucent candy over silver vein.

Sorry if I'm sounding like a powder coating salesman, but I'm stoked because I picked up a powder coating gun from Harbor Freight Tools on sale for $70, a beginners book & a few pounds of powder from www.columbiacoatings.com, and now I'm just waiting for an infrared laser thermometer I order on e-bay to arrive. I'm on the lookout for an old kitchen oven or some infrared gas heaters on sale, but I figure in the mean time I just snagged this old toaster oven my old man was going to throw out, and I figure I can use it to start practicing with until I'm good enough to do parts for my car. With cooking ovens you have to be careful, because while spraying the powder coating releases very little VOCs (the electrostatic charge draws everything to the part), it's during the curing process that powder coatings release small amounts of VOCs, as well as other not so good for you chemicals, so once you use an oven for curing you can never use it to cook again. I'm thinking that infrared gas heaters may be the smart buy I have the funds to make a big purchase, because, if you crunch the numbers, it costs less to fill the propane tanks for infrared gas heaters then it does to pay the power bill every month for electric ovens, regardless of if they run on 110 or 220, and because the heater's mobile and not enclosed like an oven I'm able to coat large parts by curing them in small sections at a time. So I'm thinking that with a lot of practice, and 2-3 infrared gas heaters, I may be able to do the frame of my El. That's the theory anyway.

Man, I really hijacked the thread, sorry about that. Just trying to share my new found knowledge and enthusiasm for powder coating. Hope I was informative. 8)

well i'm going to put the chrome on there and see how i like it. if i don't then i'll paint the other set to match the car.