painting over chrome is easy.
in order for paint to stick, polished chrome is about impossible to paint with good results unless you remove the chrome. it's easy, go to a lumber yard or lowes, etc, and get a bottle of muriatic acid. pour half of the volume of muriatic acid into a plastic bucket that will hold twice that volume. now add the same amount of water slowly, just like you would with an old car battery. two very important precautions, perhaps three. (1) do this outside and downwind so you don't breathe the fumes, (2) when mixing acid to water always add water to the acid, never acid to the water as this can cause a violent chemical reaction, and (3) wear goggles and rubber gloves, muriatic acid likes to eat skin.
now back to the method, pour for example a gallon of water into the bucket which already has a gallon of water in it. it will self mix. this gives you two gallons of solution and the last muriatic acid i used cost about 6 or 7 bucks a gallon, pretty cheap considering what it'll do. hook a steel wire like bailing wire to the part you want to dip and gently dip it into the bucket covering however much you can of the part with the solution. take the part out after a half hour to see if you got down to the steel base of the bear claw and turn it top for bottom if it didn't immerse completely so that the acid can attack the other half of the part. you'll know when the chrome is gone cause it'll no longer be shiny and chromed. duh for that part, sorry. rinse completely with clean water and carefully with using the aforementioned goggles and gloves, safety, etc. dry the part with a cloth, paper towels, whatever you have around. you now have a paintable surface, but rough up the surface prior to priming it so the paint will stick. por 15 is a priming product available at auto paint stores. on an added note, do not, i repeat, do not dip chromed aluminum, magnesium, or other exotic metals because not only does muriatic acid eat skin, it'll disolve aluminum, and perhaps act violently with magnesium. this is the easiest way i've found to remove chrome from steel. find a suitable place to dump the acid mix like an old stump you've been trying to get rid of or wherever is safe for you, and legal of course.
