Remove Bling from LX570.. Dechrome (2 Viewers)

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Okay, so I’m in full swing on the dechroming project. I’ve been working on the rear gates and window belt strips. Getting the chrome bits off the tailgates isn’t too challenging; but having a panel tool kit will make your life so much easier. The belt stripping is a different story. Everywhere you read people will say “it just pops right off.” Hysterical. The last thing that belt stripping does is pop right off. Ended up using a panel tool, patience, a hammer, and pure aggression to remove them and not damage them. If anyone wants to remove theirs give me shout and I can potentially give you some pointers.

Here’s where I’m at in my process:

Remove parts
Sand with 220, 320, and 400
Apply adhesive promoter
Prime
All my pieces are drying and will add pictures of the belt molding tomorrow.

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Would love to see the final product if you’re at a good point and willing to share...
 
Would love to see the final product if you’re at a good point and willing to share...
Sorry! I took pictures a while ago and forgot to post them.

Overall it turned out pretty good. The gloss black + clear coat basically blends in with the OEM paint. Is it perfect? No. But looks really great.

The window belt molding turned out less than good. I think I’m just going to replace them with the OEM land cruiser moldings. For the rear glass I’m going to get some vinyl wrap and try my hand.

What’s left/my plan for de-chroming

-Tail Lights: Replace with Land Cruiser Tails
-Door Handles: Replace with Land Cruiser handles
-Belt Moldings: Replace all 4 doors with Land Cruiser moldings. Rear glass moldings I will wrap with vinyl
-Fog Lights: Replace with Diode Dynamics fogs
-Front Grill: To be determined. Still kicking around options. Aka, I don’t have a clue on the best option and don’t really have any options I’m kicking around.
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We will need visual proof! Looks sharp, curious to see the 33”’s and rack. Cheers
Here's the frontrunner rack installed. Pic was taken on this sweet little trail a couple miles from Great Sand Dunes national park in CO that apparently goes up to 12,000+ elevation where you find the 4th highest lake in the USA. We only made it to about 9,800ft before turning back on account of still having the stock 20s, didn't want to damage a rim by accident as the obstacles were getting a little more dicey. My first trail in the LX and we will be heading back to complete it as soon as the new tires are on.

The tires showed up a couple weeks ago but after placing 6 different orders for rims and having them canceled one after the other due to supply chain issues, the best I could get was an estimate of 6 weeks for delivery. I'll post pics when they're on. Got black rhino cinco rims in 18x9.5 and some Nitto ridge grapplers in 33x12.5.

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Here's the frontrunner rack installed. Pic was taken on this sweet little trail a couple miles from Great Sand Dunes national park in CO that apparently goes up to 12,000+ elevation where you find the 4th highest lake in the USA. We only made it to about 9,800ft before turning back on account of still having the stock 20s, didn't want to damage a rim by accident as the obstacles were getting a little more dicey. My first trail in the LX and we will be heading back to complete it as soon as the new tires are on.

The tires showed up a couple weeks ago but after placing 6 different orders for rims and having them canceled one after the other due to supply chain issues, the best I could get was an estimate of 6 weeks for delivery. I'll post pics when they're on. Got black rhino cinco rims in 18x9.5 and some Nitto ridge grapplers in 33x12.5.

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Love the rack and the backdrop! Looks awesome!
 

Hi all, I've been doing some dipping to see if I like the look and to try out cokors befor committing. I’m down to being left with the window chrome and the door handles.

the window molding has confused me due to the layered rubber on top... I’m hoping to dip them to see if I like the look after which I probably will buy the LC parts.

can anyone pls post a pic and or guidance if you’ve successfully dipped the window trim and or the door handles?

specifically trying to figure out how to tape, and deal with the layered rubber on top of the chrome window trim, and how or if to dip the back Of the door handles without interfering with the tech/sensor.

thanks
 
Hi all, I've been doing some dipping to see if I like the look and to try out cokors befor committing. I’m down to being left with the window chrome and the door handles.

the window molding has confused me due to the layered rubber on top... I’m hoping to dip them to see if I like the look after which I probably will buy the LC parts.

can anyone pls post a pic and or guidance if you’ve successfully dipped the window trim and or the door handles?

specifically trying to figure out how to tape, and deal with the layered rubber on top of the chrome window trim, and how or if to dip the back Of the door handles without interfering with the tech/sensor.

thanks
I didn’t dip my belt molding but I did paint it. Here were my steps.

1. Tape off the sections not chrome.
2. Wet sand the chrome strip with 600
3. Apply Adhesive promoter
4. Apply 3 coats of primer
5. Apply 3 coats of paint
6. Apply 3 coats of clear.

I kind of rushed the job and think I could’ve had a better outcome if I took more time.
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I think the best option for door handles is to replace with yota handles. Trying to paint, wrap, etc isn’t a great option because the handles get so much use. Won’t hold up over time.

Im replacing my belt moldings with the Toyota ones. $150 is a small price to pay for perfection.

I also ordered some vinyl wrap to get the chrome strips on the two rear glass portions deleted.

It comes in Monday and will update the thread with the outcome.

lastly, I’m going to change my rear badge color to either matte bronze or classic Lexus gold. Not too happy with the emblem being black. 🙃
 
can anyone pls post a pic and or guidance if you’ve successfully dipped the window trim and or the door handles?
I painted my handles with Superwrap a few weeks ago - so far so good. Several coats of primer to stick to the plastic, then several coats of paint and clear. The expense and effort required to replace them with black LC handles is not worth it to me, and if they get worn I'll strip and reapply.


Just tape the backside so you don't get paint back there, and stuff some rags between the door and the handle so you're painting the handle in the open position for the first few layers. to ensure coverage throughout.
 
Alright, made a couple more strides today. I got the rear glass chrome trim blacked out, and I started working on the front and rear emblems.

For the rear glass I ordered some matte black vinyl wrap that’s 2” wide. I got a 25ft roll so had some time to experiment to see what worked best. I prepped the trim by cleaning with paint thinner before each application.

1. Cut the vinyl strip into 25” long piece.
2. Cut the 2” wide strip in half. You actually have to be very precise with all of the cutting as you want all of your lines to be straight when installing.

Here is where I started the experimenting. My first try I attempted to lay the vinyl on the top edge of the chrome all the way across. Then press down to apply and cut out the bottom. This didn’t turn out well.

My second attempt I laid the vinyl over the entire piece of chrome and tried to cut out a perfect inlay, again, didn’t turn out well.

My last attempt I decided to wrap the entire piece, chrome, black rubber, and all. I laid a perfect line across the top glass and worked the vinyl done towards the paint. Once I had the vinyl how I wanted it I used a razor to cut along the bottom edge of the trim between the paint and the trim.
Overall I’m happy with how it turned out.

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I’ll make this write up short. Decided to change my rear emblem from chrome to gloss black. Then decided to change it to matte bronze to match my whee color. I pulled the front one and painted as well. Simple, 600grit wet sand chrome then apply in this order:
-Adhesive Promoter (2 coats)
-Bonding Primer (3-4 light coats. First coat should not cover the entire surface. Keep it light.)
-Paint of choice (3-5 coats)
-Clear of choice (2-3 coats.)

Pretty stoked on my final product here
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Front grill is done but not done. I don’t like the way it turned out and will be re-painting. I painted it using duplicolor’s universal black and their 2x High Gloss clear. I ordered OEM aerosol paint today and will be redoing my work. Thinking about painting the grill slats flat black but we will see.

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F#%K my life. Got my grill apart today. Wet sanded all the silver bits with 600 grit paper. Was ready to lay down a coat of primer. Hit it with Duplicolor’s prep spray (basically just a surface cleaner.) Went and grabbed my adhesive promoter and when I came back, the solver was bumbling and flaking. That’s where the fun began. I started scraping the bubbled pieces off and quickly realized I would have to strip the whole thing. Off to Home Depot I went. I grabbed paint remover, hosed it does , waited 30 minutes and hit it with a pressure washer. Repeated that process and this is what I’m left with. It’s actually quite smooth but there is still an extremely thin layer of what seems to be glue. I’m going to hit it with goof off tomorrow and hope for the best.
What a PITA.
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@Zarchery - I bet u still have your hands full with the grill, but was curious if u have plans for the door handles? I def want to tone mine down but don’t think I’m ready to buy oem 200s ones yet.

with the sensors on the back I’m not convinced wrapping or dip will work well without peeling due to not being able to cover the back of the handle where the sensors are.
 
@Zarchery - I bet u still have your hands full with the grill, but was curious if u have plans for the door handles? I def want to tone mine down but don’t think I’m ready to buy oem 200s ones yet.

with the sensors on the back I’m not convinced wrapping or dip will work well without peeling due to not being able to cover the back of the handle where the sensors are.
I’ve got my entire truck disassembled right now. Waiting on the OEM aerosol paint to arrive so I can get things going. I plan on replacing the door handles with LC handles. I think this is one of the only parts I can’t black out and make last for a long time.

Here is my current grill progress; tons of work but have it ready for clear coat tomorrow.

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Ok fellas, here’s where I’m at. My goal is to tone down the bling, test things out before going with anything permanent, and to stay true to the original design notes. I love the fully blacked out trucks but for me personally I don’t think I can pull it off. This is a family hauler, won’t go off-rod for the next couple years, my 60 and 40 are the fun vehicles.

I don’t yet what I’m gonna do with the handles or the wheels. I’m not ready to pull the trigger on new wheels and tires yet, so might just do a temporary color change at some point.

I did plastidip smoke on the front and rear chrome bits, and the lower door bling, I did plastidip black original on the lower window bling and was thrilled at how well it matched the matte black sun faded plastic around my windows.

I like the smoke dip because it matches the factory roof rack, it keeps some accents while also toning it down to a nice gunmetal finish. The pics don’t really do it justice.

lemme know what u guys think. Might dip the handles temporarily to see if I like it before a permanent change. Won’t hold up too long but long enough for me to see if I like it.

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As for technique, I quickly learned that oversparay is a real problem and a bit of prep time invested before spraying is well worth the investment of time but at like $7 a roll of blue tape I tried to also take advantage of my unadvertised prime membership benefits…

i taped right up to the chrome window trim and it peeled off great, found the original black dip is easier to work with than the smoke. For emblems and rear chrome I didn’t tape right up to the edges and kinda struggled with the peel process.

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Got creative, insert your own glorious jokes here…
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As for technique, I quickly learned that oversparay is a real problem and a bit of prep time invested before spraying is well worth the investment of time but at like $7 a roll of blue tape I tried to also take advantage of my unadvertised prime membership benefits…

i taped right up to the chrome window trim and it peeled off great, found the original black dip is easier to work with than the smoke. For emblems and rear chrome I didn’t tape right up to the edges and kinda struggled with the peel process.

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Got creative, insert your own glorious jokes here…View attachment 2704173
Dude great work! I actually love the grey color! I might mimic that but I have plans to change my roof rack in the next few months.
Well done!
 
Ok tried out the smoke plastidip on the handles, can’t remember how many coats I did but it was a lot. I taped the back of the handle to protect the sensors, I initially stuffed some rags behind the handles to keep them in the pulled out position. The rags didn’t work well, not sure how or when but somehow the back of handle was peeling and blotchy. Second attempt went much better when I used a golf ball. Have no fear no pro v1’s were harmed, only a practice ball.

I wanted to try smoke before black because if and when it peels I think it will be less obvious when a little bling shows through.

curious how this will hold up over time, I’ll need to be conscious to pull from the back of the handle not the top/bottom/front. Keep ya posted, I don’t have high hopes but I do like the uniform toned down look. Matches the factory rack nicely.


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EDIT: I did notice the handles are a darker matte gray than the rest of the trim, emblems and hood, I think this is because I applied extra coats of dip so less chrome pops through therefore making it less metallic. Not a big deal, especially if it holds up better. Another observation is that the rubber feels weird when u open the door.
 
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