I would like to paint My Bumpers... One is discoloured in places... plus I was thinking of painting the 1/4 windows black ... but mainly the Bumpers... You do see them all the time in Magazines...
Lee

Remove the bumpers from teh car and have the chrome electrolitically stripped at the local electroplaters.
You only have to take the chrome off not all the way back to bare metal as the paint will bond to the nickle if theres any on there.

Is this a costly process Dave??

If its too expensive , [old bumpers]
it would pay Me to buy new bumpers ..

Lee

Ring a chrome plater and ask the cost of stripping, and the cost of rechroming?

You can then compare the difference and see if it will be less to paint them.

With new bumpers if they are Brazillian, you will have to get then rechromed anyway as they are only held in the air within seeing distance of the chrome bath.

Is this what everyone does??

Lee

I got mine sandblasted on the last car I did up. Was the cheaper option for me as no one was chroming up here.....:jesus

You could probably get them sandblasted to paint them. Or even get them sandblasted and powdercoated. Satin black. :thumb

[Edited on 22-2-2004 by Helbus]

Now yer talkin' !!!!!!

sandblasted sounds cheaper....
I wouldn't have thought that sand blasting would have any effect on chrome.
It would probably take a long time to sand blast the chrome to roughen it enough to paint...
I was hoping there was some special undercoat to do the job..
I wonder how POR 15 would go on top of the chrome??? It won't come off properly prepaired metal!!! My Son Has some, I might have to try a bit....
thanks fellas
Lee

Sandblasting will tear the chrome to bits/remove everything and even cut the bumpers into little bits if you want it to!!! Good thought with the por15...but it still might blister...worth a try though. Thanx again for the mag. Is a good read!!!!!!!!!!!

IT cost me $100 to have two Porsche 356 wheels stripped of their old chrome. A set of bumpers wouldnt be much different I reckon. Got the wheels powder coated afterwards and they came up a treat!

Steve

why waste money felas
just use elbow grease
use fine sanding disc on fast speed sander all over quickly till it looks flat
dont burn them youll see sparks if you go to hard on metal take of chrome coat off
use 2 pack high fill primer sticks to anything rub down and paint
ive had bumpers like this for 10 years looks good if done well

Lee

It cost me $40 per bar. You carnt get all the chrome off by either sanding or blasting.

If you dont get it all off by chemical stripping the new paint wont BOND to the surface.

It will cause the new paint to LIFT and seperate just like a BRA advert

I spoke to a sandblaster who mentioned the thickness of chrome on the old German bumpers, which apparently takes some effort to remove. Newer Brazillian ones I imagine are a lot easier.

After talking to them though I took a coarse sanding disk to mine, which scratched it up enough for the paint to get purchase, but also left some gouges in the metal- so I should have used a finer grade disk. Then I just primered and painted the bumper as normal. The paint is stuck but chips a little easier than I'd like.

I also painted the head light rings, and used a fine grade sand paper and tried some etch primer before the top coats.

The etch primer works a treat. The paint has only chipped in places where the bugger of a panel beater carlessly removed the lights- but then he also twisted and bent some of the trim when he removed it to..... Needless to say I'm not going back there!!!!!

Cheers
Jeremy

If you go over the chrome and sand or key it up with somthing like 180 or 120 grit sand paper and the use a good etch primer like a single pack epoxy primer. Wattle make a good one called super etch and it comes in a spray can.

Then you can use any top coat or high build undercoat you like single, or 2 pack.

Make sure you feather out any blisters or bubbles in the chrome.