Windscreen chrome trim challenge

[jjbunn]

I've successfully urethane'd the windscreen in place, but am now faced with a challenge. There was no chrome trim when I got the car, so I intended to apply sticky chrome strip around the perimeter, and mitre the ends.

However, the 20mm wide strip I bought, while flexible, will not bend up into the corners. I tried applying heat, but the chrome film wrinkles  I've also tried thinner strip, 12mm and 8mm, and although these are a little more easy to bend, they are really too narrow to cover the glass-body gap. What's more, when I tried sticking the chrome strip to the edge, it doesn't really stick at all, probably because the sticky tape is mainly on the urethane, rather than on the glass.

If worse comes to worse, I'll just have to tidy up the appearance of the existing urethane seal - but I'm out of ideas on how to do that, too!

Suggestions/inspired ideas would be very welcome. Here is a photo of the current situation:

[jbcollier]

The corner pics are now being reproduced (Banks, RD Enterprises).  Buy matching stick on stuff for the straight sections.

[jjbunn]

The corner pics are now being reproduced (Banks, RD Enterprises).  Buy matching stick on stuff for the straight sections.

Thanks - I made corner pieces on my 3D printer, as a test, which I could chrome paint if they worked. But even with these, the curves of the top and bottom edges of the windscreen are too much for the chrome strip.

I feel like I may be missing a trick on how to bend the chrome strip without damaging the finish ...

[EuropaTC]

I feel like I may be missing a trick on how to bend the chrome strip without damaging the finish ...

I don't know how it would go with the plastic you've got there, but the way you bend the plastic chrome trim for the Elan front bumper is to warm it gently. In the past I've used steam from a boiling kettle, it doesn't get the plastic to 100C but warm enough to flex.  The trick was to do the job very slowly.

There also seems to be different varieties of chrome trim available these days with some being more flexible than others.  I bought some plastic strip to replace the sill trim (UK Ebay) and it was almost too bendy - just when  I wanted straight lines !

Brian

[jjbunn]

OK, thanks - I'm going to have another try at bending it with heat. I'll try hot water first ...

[3929R]

As I remember it (not to be trusted).... I put my trim in the sun on a warm day and had the car in a warm garage.  The trim I used was shipped in a loose roll and difficult to get it to lay flat. It wanted to curl up, so I put lengths of in on the garage floor for days/weeks and held it down and flat with weights.

Good luck!

http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=291.msg1712#msg1712

[BDA]

That looks really good! I went to the link for the molding and that page no longer exists. For those who are looking for this, can you possibly provide some key words to help in using their search feature?

[buzzer]

I had the same problem and also trying to source in the uk. The URL referred to chromebrite wide, but that didn't help much when I used that for the search.

Dave

[andy harwood]

I found this
http://cowlesproducts.com/oldcontent/wp/protektotrim/chrome-trim/

[jjbunn]

As I remember it (not to be trusted).... I put my trim in the sun on a warm day and had the car in a warm garage.  The trim I used was shipped in a loose roll and difficult to get it to lay flat. It wanted to curl up, so I put lengths of in on the garage floor for days/weeks and held it down and flat with weights.

Good luck!

http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=291.msg1712#msg1712

I knew I'd seen this somewhere - it's what inspired me to use the trim - thanks for the link!

The chrome strip I'm using I've got in 3 sizes: 20mm, 12mm and 8mm. Easily found on Ebay and Amazon. The 20mm simply wont bend enough even with heat, without wrinkling the plastic. Perhaps the sort you used is more flexible? So, I've had to cut it in three or four strips and butt them together near each corner to get the radius needed. I'll post some photos when the job is finished, but I'm not optimistic that it will look anything other than crappy within a few feet of viewing 

[3929R]

Well bummer! I believe I used 1" wide Chrome Bright moulding, but I can no longer find it on the Sportrwing webpage or elsewhere.
UPDATE- I believe this is what I used- https://www.sportwing.com/Dawn-Enterprises-Inc/AB10014-S-All-Brite-Molding?sort=p.price&order=ASC&limit=100
1" ALL BRITE MOLDING; 14' ROLL / AB10014-S

BRAND: Dawn Enterprises Inc.
PRODUCT CODE: AB10014-S

It looks and may be the same as ProtektoTrim Andy found on the Cowles webpage- http://shop.cowlesproducts.com/c/protektotrim_chrome-accessorizing-molding_1-custom-chrome?pkey=63d5e2acfa778ef6cc244f51a9fe8ea3&ckey=1076676.1076701.1079920.0.0  Their how to page video gives an indication of how flexible their trim is, though the wider trim is probably less flexible than the thin stuff shown. http://cowlesproducts.com/oldcontent/wp/chrome-trim-installation/

I believe I originally considered using flexible chrome trim after seeing it on the side of a hot rod. Along this line, maybe one of these products might work? http://www.flexchrome.com/products/extruded.htm

Sorry I can’t be of more help,
Mark

[3929R]

P.S. It also worked well on the refrigerator in one of our rentals (new fridge with flexible chrome trim and old stove handles) 

[BDA]

I wonder if we're all talking (or thinking) about the same thing. IIRC my molding had an 'L' shaped flange under the chrome "molding part' that grabbed the windshield. The moldings people seem to be showing are flat. Does flat molding seal properly?

[andy harwood]

you are correct BDA, there is a lip.
When I had my windshield reset, I asked if they could reuse original moulding. Reply was maybe, if it comes off ok. My reply was, ok, but if not, no problem, don't reuse. Thinking I"d use some of the moulding in question here. Well, mine came off ok, and it was reused. It's just the aluminum inside the trim looks as if it's been wadded up and smoothed out.           

It was a good job on the glass though.

[BDA]

That's what happens with the original style chrome molding. It looks like a foil that gives the chrome look and when that's bent around it doesn't "unbend around" that well. The stuff shown here looks really great, but I'm wondering how it works without that lip (but then I'm NOT a windshield guy).