For plastics you can use etching primer. It chemically glues to the plastic and then use rustoleum brand chrome paint and then cover it with spray epoxy. I prefer cutting steps out when I can. Sometimes you can get lucky and find rustoluem epoxy paint which it much tougher and doesn't require s protective top coat. I used epoxy white on squeegee.

Be careful with a clear coat over chrome paint. I did that once. The chrome paint looked perfect; it was like a mirror. I put clear over it to keep it that way, but as soon as it went on it turned to flat grey. I then read the cans more carefully. I don't remember now if the clear said not put over chrome, or the chrome said not to use clear, but it was stated somewhere not to do it.

Here are a few pictures. For the two large lights, I used milk jug covers painted silver. I used gloss black Rustolium Plastic paint, with Duplicolor Chrome paint over it. It is hard to see in this picture, but they look pretty good. This is where I had the trouble with the clear coat over it though. I had to soak them in paint thinner, clean them off and start again. I have had no problems with peeling, wrinkles, etc.

If you are interested, the torso itself was painted with Rustolium Textured Metallic over automotive primer.

@Danger Gotcha! Thats why I recommended resin spray. I do it a lot, I build custom guitars and I make metallic finishes that way...chrome base, transparent paint on top, then resin clearcoat. The clear is not exactly paint, but polyester resin thats thinned enough to spray. It dries like a shell, so crappy basecoats are somewhat forgiven. It also fills in imperfections.

If you want to see my work:

www.ikoncustoms.com

If not sorry for the spam.

Thanks for the tip @Doombot. Maybe I'll try that. I would like to protect it from dulling, without ruining it again. PS. Your link didn't work. I would like to check it out.

Ikon Customs

You need to include the http:// in the url

Some clear is really horrible and milky. If you use spray epoxy or jewellers epoxy it's 95 percent clear and you don't need to spray a thick coat on. If you hold the can 12 to 16 inches away and mist like I did on my snakeskin paint job it leaves a thin Matt finish. You can gloss it over if you want but Matt will look closer to the original finish.

Best suggestion would be to try out Rustoleum Hammered Metal. I used it on all my costume pieces to make it look like metal. It has a awesome texture ans is a rugged scratch resistant finish.

Cheers for the advice all...

And thanks @Rich for the step by step instructions you gave earlier and all the other advice you've given me.

@Danger, I ordered some rustoleum clear paint already so I will be careful and only do a small area first to see if it reacts with the chrome. I'm gonna rub it down so it's nice n ruff and then respray the original chrome spray and then a layer of the clear paint. It's the cheapest option at the minute seeing as I already have a few tins left, If that fails I'll take the advice @Doombot gave and try the resin spray. Nice guitars by the way Doombot, would love that job lol I used to repair musical instruments so can appreciate the work thats put into them

@Danger just copy the link and paste it to your browser bar. By the way I like the retro looking light fittings on your robot

@jstarne1 I may try that paint if all else fails with the chrome I have Thanks for the help and advice.