MOLOTOW Liquid Chrome paint pens go bunk after a few years. They were perfect chrome head light and chrome parts touch-up paint when they were brand new. A great product then after a few years they just turn metallic gray.
Anyone else have this happen to their pens?
Yes. I’m lucky to get a year out of them.
Are you saying the pens go bad like CA goes bad, or do you mean the chromed parts oxidize and turn gray on the kit?
ok, so not just mine. I cleaned the fiber tips with lacquer thinner until they were white again but that didn’t help. Metallic gray…
The pens go bad kind of quick. In our experience.
The paint in the pens. The parts that I painted chrome are still chrome
One year then. I bought mine in 2017.
Since they are not $3 each then get all your homies and club members chrome projects ready and set just prior to purchase then go chrome nuts! 
Saw this and passing along. No experience with chrome pens…
Per thread above, over one year shelf life is possible when Molotow looks like crappy Testor’s silver paint, it can be revived sometimes. Please see thread.
“Pump it up some by repeatedly pressing the tip down on a piece of paper. Should start flowing again. I have had this situation a time or two and was able to revive mine. If that doesn’t start it up, dip the tip into a little puddle of 92 pct isopropol alcohol, and then pump it. I have had the same pens for over a year now and both work great still with the pumping exercise every once in a while.”
Have had mine for a couple of years and it still works fine. Not only do you need to pump it as per above but it also need to be shaken to ensure that it’s chrome and not just metallic.
First thing I did when I bought mine was decant it into a small empty Testor’s sqare bottle. Has been fine for a couple of years so far.
I have been pumping mine and I have shaken the devil out of it. It’s as if the components have separated and won’t recombine.
A coat of lacquer is supposed to prevent this happening to the painted parts. Don’t know how you would stop the pens going bad.
AK Super Chrome, can be airbrushed, or hand painted for smaller items (headlights, mirrors, etc, etc), requires no prep other than normal (ie does not need a gloss black base coat). Dries over night and is far more durable than Molotow.
The chrome was just sprayed over the bare plastic, and left to dry. First time using it, and was impressed.
Also hand painted the mirrors on the kit as they were just black plastic and they turned out well, which was surprising as I wasn’t expecting to be able to brush paint with it.
The stuff looks like Mercury in the bottle.
The only downside I see with this stuff vs Molotow is you have to clean a paint brush as opposed to just applying it out of a pen, but with the brush, it gives you a bit more control. Seems to flow well from the brush and fill the area you need.
I don’t think I would want to try and brush paint a bumper with it (not saying it couldn’t do it). Probably depends on how fast it flashes off. Seems to flow well, and self level pretty well however.
Was almost a shame to cover those wheels up with mud and dirt!
I bought a couple in 2020, didn’t use them most of last year, and started using them again recently…after a good shaking, and some pumping, still works with good chrome results. Like everything else, any poor results must be because of a “bad batch”.
Thanks for that link of a similar issue. My pen flows paint properly. The paint just does not chrome anymore.
Interesting idea
Is the AK Super Chrome an enamel or lacquer?
Those rims look nice!
Very true. Could be a bad batch
Alcohol based
You guys persuaded me to check mine out, purchased 3 years ago and worked perfectly at the time. The guy in the shop emphasized it needed to be shaken for a couple of minutes before each use and that’s exactly what I did. Disused since then, at least half full. I just shook it around today for several minutes, pumped it and….some kinda metallic dark grey comes out. Useless 
(But if you pump it & shake it around too much, apparently you might go blind)
