Bumper Chroming Problem

I dropped off my bumpers with a plating company from Tenn. during the Charlotte Auto Fair (thanks to BruceEconoline) and got a call from them saying they can't be plated.

The guy told me that the previous owner used bondo in the mounting holes or mounting plate and that the chroming wouldn't come out right.

I had a hard time understanding his heavy Tenn. accent and I really don't understand what he is talking about in relation to why this can't be done.  

Does this make sense to anyone?  I am bummed as I was trying to make some progress with this van and looking for new bumpers that can be chromed is not in my plan.  These had already been shaved a bit.  I also know finding bumpers isn't an easy thing.

Would powder coating or anodizing have any chance of coming close to the look of chrome?

Both of those options will not work if there is bondo on the bumper.

You will have to remove the bondo and see what it's hiding.

Thanks for answer.  I assumed the bondo was removed during the paint stripping process. Didn't know it had any and not sure why it would. He was mentioning the bracket and holes?

The former owner is one of the moderators of VCVC, Greg, and is the short cut king, so no telling what he did.  Just discovered he used lamp cord/speaker wire to wire the tailights and sautered the light bulbs to the end of the wire....Don't ever buy a van from that guy.  All is not what it appears.  FYI..

'Shaved' usually refers to welding the bolts to the back of the bumper and filling the hole to make a smooth bumper.

If you are planning to chrome. you would fill with weld and grind smooth. If you are painting, you can take a 'shortcut' and bondo the holes.

Where the issue comes in is if there are pinholes in the weld, the bondo may be stuck in there and will migrate out during the chroming process and ruin the chrome finish.

Anodizing is an electrical/chemical process, and because the coating is literally atoms thick, the surface must be perfect as any flaws will show through.

Powdercoating requires heating the part in an oven, which will cause the bondo to burn and ruin the finish.

I'm going a different route with the 65, I am stripping the bumpers and headlight rings to bare metal, working out any imperfections, and then clearcoating.

I'd love to see how the bare metal and clearcoating turns out. Please take pics when you do the process. Thanks in advance...I'm curious to see how this looks!

Here's a teaser....

i DEFINITELY do not understand! take it down to bare metal! if the guy is too lazy to do it himself take it to someone else

Sounds like there's plastic filler in your bumpers somewhere and the chrome guy knows that it won't stand up to the chroming process. I've never chromed anything but from what I've seen on TV it involves several steps of dipping the metal part in really hot tanks of acid and/or metal solutions. In other words it's sure to ruin/melt/separate any plastic filler from the metal part.

That being said, I wonder if something like JB Weld or other metal based fillers could be substituted and live through the chroming process? Maybe even go old school and lead the areas once the plastic filler is gone. Hopefully someone who knows more about chrome plating can jump in with a definitive answer...

Lead is the only thing that can survive chemical or electrocoating.

Even so- the lead will have a different 'color' to the chrome than the steel around it.

Generally, you would fill pits or holes with a MIG welder, and grind and polish smooth.

If you can see the repair before chroming. it will look 10x worse after.

The only exception is chroming potmetal, you can solder/braze pits and get a decent outcome, but that's because potmetal is essentially a mixture of zinc, lead, iron, and pretty much anything else laying around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_metal

Brazing is good(brass rod) and can be used as a filler,same with silver solder, Just check with the plater and make sure its good for him as things change.

jimthefred wrote:Brazing is good(brass rod) and can be used as a filler,same with silver solder, Just check with the plater and make sure its good for him as things change.

This is the best advice right here.

The plater should be able to tell you what will produce the best results, or at the least, what he wants to deal with.

Thanks for all the great info, Vanner68. If I stripped all of the old bondo/plastic filler, etc off the van, would it not chrome just fine then, even if I could see the open holes?

Not sure that is what I had in mind in any regard.

I would use BIX aircraft stripper to remove everything, repair whatever damage exists, powerwash the bumpers several times to make sure all the chemical stripper is gone, and the cross my fingers just in case.


Here's the thing with chrome- whatever you see in bare metal is what you will see with chrome, just shinier.

If you are happy with how they look, that's all the matters in the end.

Mine were bent, repaired, welded and filled, way beyond plating so I had a body shop paint them a nice metallic silver gray and clear coat them, look real nice and easy to live with in lieu of chrome...here's few pics...


as you said yourself, good chrome bumpers are hard to find, painting is the next best thing unless you are luck into a set!
Here is the rear, bondo-ed and painted, so you can see how a painted one looks, so it ain't chrome, next best thing...

Hey Laz do you have a pic of the bumper as it is now. Took me a while but I finally found a pic and it looks like it is running without the outer brackets and has the frame bolt holes shaved. I can see what you probably are talking about now. backer plate behind holes then body filler. Not uncommon for a painted and shaved look. But chrome. ick! You would be very unhappy getting it chromed without doing something about the divits left there. A half a**ed decent fab guy or welder should be able to fix that up for you. Cut small squares and weld in instead of filling it all with weld. At least that is what I'd do and I'm a 1/2 a**ed fabber.

Yeah- weld in slugs.

I forget sometimes that not everyone does fabrication work/