Painting an Exa Black?

[tunalegs]

So I have two sorry "parts" Exas in my collection. I think I could make one nice one out of the two. I've been wanting to make a black Exa for a while, since there is relatively little chrome to begin with.

I know there are many ways to remove the chrome, but does anybody have ideas for what method works best or easiest?

I also want to know what paint works best? Since the pieces I need to paint are small, I'm thinking about just painting them by dipping them in Lacquer then hanging to dry. Would anybody foresee a problem with this method?

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[farlymac]

Buy a small sonic cleaner, and some Lime Kool-aid. Mix about half the pack of Kool-aid with enough water to fill the cleaning basket when the parts are in the machine, and let it run until you see nothing but brass.

This method also works if you are just wanting to remove verdigris from your parts, by reducing the run time to only what is necessary to remove the green.

PF

 

[B-9]

Curious if lime kool-aid actually works...?

Ive tried atleast two dozen household chemicals recommended by many different sites and "experts" for chrome removal. None of them actually work.

Coca-Cola works great on chrome attached to plastic model parts.

Oven cleaner will dull out chrome, but its still there!

Pool acid, 4 days of soaking, nothing. (aka Diluted Muriatic Acid)

The only way I have successfully removed chrome from a camera part is by Electrolysis, which is not a Sunday project!

I suggest you visit MetalxUSA.com for dedicated chemistry to use at home.

 

[Steve M.]

You could start w/ something like 200 grit wet sandpaper and then work to wet 600. Or try using a red scotch brite pad first, it will eliminate a lot of that paint dust. I know of nothing except acids like sulfuric acid that will dissolve the chrome w/o dissolving other stuff too, and even that may not dissolve the nickle. Most chrome plating shops refuse to remove chrome plate. You'll have to send it out to a pro for expensive chemical removal, and sandpaper/scotch brite will do the job for free, it's just messy.

For paint, I used some Rust-Olium Black Gloss spray paint (enamel) by shooting some out in a cup and using a small sable brush to flow it on thickly on areas I masked w/ tape. Worked seamlessly (you need to practice up a bit on something else to see how it feels when you do it). It sticks to darned near anything, and looks exactly like the glossy paint on the Zeiss Nettar 515 I restored. You could always use black nail polish w/ a sable brush too, but I didn't want to deal w/ the smell and clean up. The Rust-Olium just wipes off if you make a mistake. If you're painting big areas, just mask and spray. Two or three thin coats is better if you spray.

Not sure what the Nettar is made of. It's heavy, so maybe steel. The trim that I painted was flaking off, and was a nice shiny colour underneath that I could have left as is once I took the paint off, but it looked a little odd that way so I painted it like it was in the beginning. Was able to scrape the old paint off w/ a plastic scraper as it was peeling anyway, put the Rust-Oleum right on it, and it's as if it's baked on! Good stuff.

 

[tunalegs]

Yeah. Kool aid did nothing. I tried barkeeper's friend which is acidic and abrasive and that did nothing too.

I decided to just try cleaning and painting the parts to see how it would work, so I took my shabbiest exa, pulled the chrome bits off, cleaned them, and then sprayed them with rustoleum black lacquer. If I had been a little more careful the results would have been near perfect.

Now that I've seen what it'd look like I'm going to go back and do it proper on the slightly less beat up camera. I've also noted that if I want it to look good I'll have to clean and touch up the black paint on the camera body, and use new leatherette.

 

[analoged]

Thanks for saving me from buying some lime Kool-Aid!

 

[tunalegs]

I practiced filling in the engraving, and I just can't see how to do it. I tried using a very fine tipped dip pen and white acrylic ink, but it came out looking pretty crude. And trying to wipe the excess off like I would when doing this on a chrome camera just made things look worse.

Any ideas?

 

[nhchen]

I practiced filling in the engraving, and I just can't see how to do it. I tried using a very fine tipped dip pen and white acrylic ink, but it came out looking pretty crude. And trying to wipe the excess off like I would when doing this on a chrome camera just made things look worse.

Any ideas?

I'm sure others will have better solutions, the only successful time filled engravings on my canon P I painted black was when I just put some white acrylic paint on to the engravings and then gently wiped the excess off with my partially wet finger!

nathan