Stripping Chrome Off of ABS Plastic

[Magoo]

I've got a Honda VTX. The thing is loaded with chromed ABS. I HATE chromed ABS. I want it gone. Props to Honda, though. They used the good stuff. It's actually chrome, not some vacuumized nonsense or paint. Problem is, because of that, I can't get the crap off. I've tried blasting, sanding, scraping at a bubble; it's impervious to abrasion.

I'm guessing this is gonna get chemical, but I don't know how to approach this. The internet is divided as well. Any of you fine folks have any suggestions?

It will be prepped and painted afterwards, so no worries, though I'd rather not eat away the ABS.

Thanks!

[Carp]

Why not just paint them to begin with? Maybe hit 'em with an "etching" coat 1st. Then hit 'em w/ a couple "primary" coats after? I've heard good things about Krylon plastics paint also. 😉

Full disclosure: I also dislikes chrome/shiny stuff/things!

[Magoo]

I've done that, actually. It almost worked nicely, too. One of the parts I painted, well, as fate would have it, the chrome bubbled and peeled, ruining the paint and leaving a gouge I'd have to fill with body filler. The chrome that peeled off exposed the ABS, so that was a decent start, but the rest isn't simply peeling off. I wanted to even the rest of it out.

[Deus Machina]

I'm a fan of shiny, but not in chrome. Stainless, maybe, Black chrome or black nickel, heck yes. But somehow I can tell when chrome is on plastic and it always looks cheap or tacky.
Unfortunately, I think anything that will attack a good chrome plating is likely to remove all the ABS before the chrome.

Test a spot first, then try ammonia. It's one of the few things I haven't tried on ABS, and in the past it would start chrome bubbling up from any scratches; it eats copper, and chrome-plating metal used a copper under-layer. Not sure how it affects ABS or if they even use the copper base coat on it, but might be worth a try.

[DocsMachine]

The only workable way is to "deplate" it- that is, electrolytically remove it, in a reverse of the process used to plate the stuff on steel. Any chrome shop will do it for you, often for free, since the chromium ends up in their bath and can be replated onto another part.

Apart from that chrome is going to be largely impervious to anything that won't also eat or degrade the plastic.

Two options: Make silicone molds of the badges, and cast replacements in black resin (or whatever color you wanted to do them in) or whip up a CAD model and find some poor unsuspecting schmuck with a 3D printer to make you some replacements.

With the latter, you could also have fun with it- call it a TVX, XTV or Ex-TV and see if anyone notices. Spell it HÖNDA or HØNDA and tell everyone it's Swedish, not Japanese.

Doc.

[Shaftski]

A lot of people have good luck just coating the trim in some of this:

https://plastidip.com/our-products/plasti-dip/

Masking will take forever but the end result is pretty good.

[Siress]

I think Doc nailed it. You'll have to remove the parts to do this properly. The easiest method would be to roughen them up and spray paint them.

The smaller parts could be ultrasonically cleaned in ~20% bleach sol'n with some effect, but it's not as effective and the larger parts wouldn't fit. If you really want, you could soak them in brake cleaner for a few days (OUTSIDE!) and see how that goes.

[DocsMachine]

If you soak it in brake cleaner, you'll basically be removing the ABS from the chrome, not the other way around. Chrome is going to be nearly or completely impervious to just about any household chemical- the ABS, not so much.

Doc.

[Siress]

you might be surprised by this. Give it a shot.

[Magoo]

Weeeeeelllllll given all this information, I've decided to just remove as much of the ABS chrome trim as possible, altogether. The covers that need to be there, I'll paint. I did find replacement battery box covers which are just black ABS, so that's a start. I'll keep the chrome ones as replacements if ever necessary, I guess.