When I had chrome done, years ago, I made the mistake of having the parts sandblasted first, as they were pitted. The chrome shop did their best, but the result was not so good.
A good chrome shop should have the ability to chemically derust and strip the old plating off the parts, and can copper plate and polish them to fill in pits. They then nickel plate, which is the actual "shine", do more polishing, and then a flash of chrome to seal the nickel. When you get the parts back, you can seal them with a clear coating, or wax the heck out of them. My experience with "show chrome" is that it's easier to screw up with exposure to salt, etc. than factory plating - might have been the shop I used. If you want to paint, simply sanding off the roughness may work, if the original plating isn't peeling. Once it starts to peel, all you can do is strip it down to base metal and start from scratch. POR will adhere well to the rust in the pits, but I don't know how well it sticks to the remaining plating. At least, the POR would help fill in the pits. Perhaps wet sanding the bumper would allow POR or primer to bite on the plating - really don't know. I bought new "show chrome" bumpers for my '67 a few years ago, from a major supplier - they pitted and rusted in one winter outside, even without driving in the salt. Sure looked nice right out of the box, though. Chuck Kuecker On 7/31/2011 2:17 PM, Bert Knupp wrote: > Volks, > > An old question (aren't they all?). I'm fixing up a '72 SuperBeetle as a > daily driver -- not a show car or anything. It has pretty good original > bumpers, not sprung or dented, but with some surface rust on the chrome and > quite a bit on the insides. > > Aftermarket bumpers are around for about $85-$90 apiece, plus freight, but > they're probably Mexican or Brazilian flimsies. The "show-quality" new > bumpers in the catalogs would run to over $175 apiece -- more than the car > cost me. > > I'm shopping about nearby for a chrome plating place. What's the going > price for replating original VW bumbers in your areas? What should I be > looking for? I'm assuming that I can do the backsides with POR-15 and > they'll be fine. Or should I seriously consider painting the bumpers? What > prepping would the rusty chrome need? > > Bert Knupp in Music City USA > > |__n__ > (_____)º > (Ô\_|_/Ô) > ü ° ° ü > Polizeikäfer '70 > _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list [email protected] http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw
