Cruddy bumpers!

[huddy]

My '30 Coupe has dingy looking bumpers. They do not look like the nice polished stainless or chrome that you typically see on nicely restored cars. I'm wondering if at some point in the past, someone sanded off the chrome and just painted them. They look like painted steel. Other than buying new ones, is there anything I can do to pretty them up?

[Bruce]

If you are not willing to pay for new ones and replating the ones you have is not good for you, take what you have to your local powder coater. There is a "chrome" powder coat that might be just shiny enough for your tastes.
Send us a picture if you do. I've always been curious just how good ... or bad ... they would look.

[CarlG]

Berts has re-chromed ones, Little Dearbourn has new ones. Either one of these would probably be not much more (if any) than re-plating the ones you have.

[takomaned]

Do a search for " chrome tape". Donvito posted some pics of his "poor man's chrome".
The pictures looked good

[mot]

heres a couple of pictures of chrome tape
it sticks good ,but will peel off
and if theres and pits it will show right through
it scratches easy,and looks like tape

[huddy]

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Well, don't think I want to try the tape. And I think my existing bumpers would require way too much preparation before being rechromed or even powder coated. Looks like the only option is to purcha$e some new or rechromed bumpers. I priced them on Snyder's and Bert's and it appears that new ones are not that much more expensive than rechromed ones. I'm inclined to go with new stainless ones, especially in the upstate NY environment. I was hoping I would be able to magically polish out the existing ones, but I can see that's not realistic.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

[whirnot]

I would try polishing then first. HF has metal polishing kits pretty cheap. Did a good job on mine.

[karasmer]

Go to Youtube and search do-it yourself chrome plating, there are some neat ideas there.

[Mike V. Florida]

re paint them

[1931 flamingo]

Mine were painted black when I got the car. Don't know if chrome is there or not. Look good and NO ONE has mentioned to me that they're not chrome.
Paul in CT

[pat in Santa Cruz]

be aware that stainless bumpers are not as strong as spring steel. They will bend more easily than re plated originals or new plated steel. But if you never bump them, they will shine up really well and never deteriorate like plating. Neither the new steel nor the stainless, nor most replated bumpers look exactly like originals if you're looking for high point bumpers.

[huddy]

Again, thanks all for the ideas.

I'm not going for high point - yet. The bug hasn't bit me at this point. I AM going for original, though, and I want it to look like it just left the factory, as much as practically possible.

It's put away for the winter (no way I'm driving a totally spotless rust-free California car in New York winter weather) so at this point I'm just making a list of things I want to fix/take care of/restore. I was looking at my desktop photo (same as my avatar) and decided I didn't like the looks of the bumpers. I've still got a lot of other stuff to do - shocks & tires at the top of the list - so we'll see what happens in the spring.

[Bruce,Upstate NY]

Forty years ago a friend ground and polished his bumpers to the point that they looked nearly as good as chrome. Most people didn't notice the difference.

[huddy]

Originally Posted by Bruce,Upstate NY

Forty years ago a friend ground and polished his bumpers to the point that they looked nearly as good as chrome. Most people didn't notice the difference.

How did he do that? Body grinder? Sander?

That sounds intriguing.

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Bruce,Upstate NY

Forty years ago a friend ground and polished his bumpers to the point that they looked nearly as good as chrome. Most people didn't notice the difference.

Ready for plating! Most of the labor in plating is to get the part looking like your friend had it.