>Any good recommendations and experiences with chrome plating services
>for bumpers... how much? I'm getting quotes of $160-190 each
>for the bumpers and $40-50 each for the guards.
>Randy Zimmermann
Randy, First, what do you want out of your "restoration"? Are you putting
together a nut and bolt concours car that will only see the light of day
when you bring it out of the "box" for the heavy weight shows or are you
doing a "Cosmetic" resto for a car that'll be street driven, wiht the
occasional club autocross? Sort out what your purposes are in the car and
let that dictate what you do with the chroming, as well as the other
systems of the car.
With that said there are a couple approaches to plating. there is the
insurrance claim "flash chrome" process where your bumpers are stripped to
metal, straightened, buffed and then chromiun plated. It looks pretty
goodand lasts a couple years or more if taken care of. On the other end
there is your "triple chrome", or "show chrome". Here the bumper is
stripped, straightened and sometimes ground and filled as necessary. Once
the metal part meets the approval of the metal worker it is copper plated
and buffed, perhaps a couple times filling small pin holes and other voids.
The next step is for the part to be nickel plated and buffed, again making
it more and more "perfect". When the nickel plated part is as good as it
is going to get it is plated with a thin layer of chromium, then buffed.
The chromium gives it the marvelous sparkle and glitter. The thinness
gives it the incredible depth. With care and maintainance this should last
a looooooong time.
All this in the perfect world. The better the finish the more straight and
perfect the part has to be because imperfections show more.
I can't really tell you which way to go but this gives you some idea of
what is out there at both ends of the curve. With this little knowledge in
hand (read more on the subject if you'd really like to go over the edge)
I'd suggest you talk to some of the shops. See what they can provide and
for how much. Ask questions. Look at their (Yeah, ask to get the tour)
shop and their work. Look at it CLOSELY. (As in a bumper) Are there clean
uniform curvatures or are there ripples in the reflections? Are there pin
hole voids (pits- they'll be the points of future rust)? Are the edges
smooth or are there little blobbies on them? On interior curves or holes
are there voids where the plating didn't happen? This IS a labor intensive
industry so a lot of the $ should be reflected in the labor which is
necessary to end up with the higher end results.
Knowing what you want in your bumpers, balance what you have to give for
what you get, find a shop that'll work with you to achieve your goal, and
go for it!
Let me know if you want the names of some high end shops here on the west
coast.
Good luck.
Darrell
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