I've heard that there is "chrome" powder coat available. Is that true? If so, does it look any good or does it just look like silver powder coat?

From what I've seen, it looks better than silver not quite chrome. It depends a lot on surface prep.

Meaning I should assure good prep first before I go to the power coater, like sanding? Or do you mean that the powder coat guys just need to do a good job of their normal prep.

The powder coater I do work for media blasts EVERYTHING to my knowledge. Similar to painting, the key to a nice final product is prep, prep, and,......oh yeah, prep!

I've seen "chrome" powder coat up against real chrome, obviously, it's NOT chrome, but for sure lasts much longer and requires NO maintenance.

Here's the deal. Refurbing some old aluminum valve covers. I've already blasted them with walnuts. Not happy with that, I hit them with fine glass beads. Better but not bright by any means. Then, I've sanded one with 600 then 1000, polished with three grades of compound. Came out pretty nice but the casting surface is so non-perfect that I'm not into that much work on all four covers to only be sort of happy with it.

So, maybe I'll powder coat them black and sand off the tops of the fins like stock. Then I heard about "chrome" powder coating. Guess I'll need to see some examples.

Dave .... Any pitting will show thru the powder coat unless they take steps to fill in the pitting .. I had a drive PC and it turned out ok but you could see any pitting ...My PC guy said one way too correct the problem is to PC then sand off the PC leaving the pitted area's filled ...somtimes 3 steps .... $$$...
I have also read where after prep and blasting there is a filler they can use to fill imperfections ....m

Thanks for the info Mike.

NIC has a chrome that looks just like chrome. Problem is, you have to clear-coat it which kills some of the shine. Depending on the heat tolerance of the material, there are several ceramic coatings that mimic chrome very well. They cure at 450/475 degrees and then need polished. They'll still show thru polishing imperfections though. These coatings are commonly used on headers.