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The automotive forum may be a strange place to ask this, so feel free to move the post. To me though it sorta made seems to ask this here, and I don't know where else to put this question.
I bought a pair of eyeglasses at a thrift store and had an optometrist put my new lenses into the frames to save some money. The metal on the frames may be titanium, but maybe not. They're awfully light though, and have a gold type of coating that is beginning to wear off in places. I was thinking of spraying or brushing something clear on the frames in an attempt to arrest the coating deterioration as well as protect the coatings from the elements.
I have various ideas on this. Nail polish perhaps? There's clear acrylic and lacquer in that form. Then there's spraying something like epoxy, acrylic or lacquer. Walmart had quite a selection in their spray cans. What might be the best way to go on this? I don't want to have to deal w/ whatever I use to coat the glasses causing me more problems down the road like yellowing, crackling or frosting due to UV and rain exposure, and I'd like something durable because I'll be continually taking the glasses on and off ( so there's the oils from my hands. Any suggestions. Whatever I use will have to be flexible because the frames are very thin and bend easily, especially if I end up sitting on them like the old ones :]
These are some of the nicest and most expensive glasses I've ever owned, what w/ the eye exam, 1 yr warranty on the lenses, lens coatings, etc, and would like to care for them as best at possible.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Krypton Matte clear would work, but you would have to disassemble them and remove the lenses before spraying 2-3 very light coats. If you have an airbrush, I would use it with One-Shot waterborne clear topcoat as the best solution.
Thanks Hem. My new glasses are rimless (the type w/ the fishing line around the lenses) so popping them out of the frames is easy. I'd prefer clear to matte, but they probably offer both types in spray. I wonder how durable that stuff is? I'll call them at their 800 number, so this is a good start for suggestions.
I bought last pair of Rx glasses, Ti, $52. Yes, Rxlenses with frame. Just don't do anything polarized from them. But you have 30 days no question replacement or return for store credit or 50/50 refund. And they are fast. About a week. Beats any optometrists hands down.
I ain't gonna ruin them ukrkoz. I'm an artist, painter, and former certified mechanic, as well as a former tool and die maker. I understand both metals and paints, but this particular job is closer to an automotive clear coating project, as glasses are exposed to the elements just like cars, and automotive paints and coatings are what I don't totally know about. But thanks for the link to that website. My optometrist is going to pop the polycarbonate lenses out of the frames for me, I'll coat the frames, then when dried the frames go back to the optometrist to have the lenses put back in. Easy cheesy. I saved some money on these by going to thrift stores and rooting around in their eyeglasses bins and came up w/ these nice frames, as well as some titanium frames for my wife. That's how I was able to afford some really good lenses.
Actually, I found what should work in the medicine cabinet last night. It's a little bottle of clear nail polish called Sally Hansen Hard as Nails, Hard as Wraps, Powerful Acrylic Gel. Whew, that's some name. The wife of the previous owner of my place must have left it in there, and everything they left behind has been in the place for years and years. Let me tell you, I like to never got the top off because it had dried so hard under there. It also dried totally clear, and that's what I wanted.
When I saw the bottle last night I tried it out on a little patch with my old glasses frames, and it looks beautiful on there today after drying. It dried really hard too. The only question mark is how it will hold up over time to UV and temperature changes, but I'm 90% sure it will work great. To be 100% sure, the plan is to put the old frames in the oven after coating them fully w/ this stuff at about 130 degrees, and then they go in the fridge. This cycle will be repeated for a week or so to see how they hold up. Here in Florida we don't get many weather extremes, so if it holds up to these environments it will work. The list of chemicals that make it up are reassuring: Ethyl Acetate, Acrylates Copolymer, Butyl Acetate, Nitrocellulose, Butylphthalimide, Isopropylphthalimide, Isopropyl Alcohol, Camphor, Benzophenone-1, Violet 2. Good stuff.
OK. Bravery takes on cities.
Just in case, old man ukrkoz was actually right - as a tool and die maker himself, a mechanic, etc etc, - save that site. As there is HUGE difference between anodized or galvanized coating and nail polish.
For what it is - I actually pop lenses out of frames myself, so apparently it makes me more all of the above than you - you could rig simple galvanizing station at home and do galvanize frames.
I am very curious about the final result. No, not immediate. 4-6 months down the road, when it will all start peeling off.
But hey, you might just have that magic touch, no one really knows, right?
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