Dechroming?

I've got a set of small chrome bumpers for my 2002 that I've been meaning to put on for, well, too long. Part of the problem is that the chrome is shot, and I'm not interested in rechroming. They're 73 bumpers, with the trim strip and overriders, both of which I want to get rid of. Painting them black is the current plan, which will hide a multitude of sins, but going straight over what's left of the chrome seems less than ideal. What's the quick and dirty way to get the chrome gone, or at least prepped for paint?

You aren't interested in re chroming but I'm pretty sure step 1 in re chroming them is stripping off what's left, so a plating shop might still be helpful. You tend to end up with some really nasty/dangerous waste products when you start trying to dissolve chrome.

Plating shop or a blast cabinet big enough to handle a bumper.

If you have a plating shop nearby, having the bumpers dechromed should be fairly inexpensive (there's not much labor involved in that step, they just dip them in a tank.) The other option is to grind/sand them yourself until the loose flakes are removed and smoothed off, the rust is removed, and any chrome still left has a 'tooth' for the paint to adhere to. More work, less cost, and the appearance of the final result is up to your preparation.

Plating shop is definitely the easy button. If you're anywhere near Harrisburg, PA I can give you a recommendation.

Called a local shop (pretty much the only local one). Dechroming would probably be in the $3-400 range, which is considerably more than I would like to spend on this. So now the question is what to use to knock the loose chrome off and rough up the rest: angle grinder, with either a grinding wheel or a wire brush? random orbit sander? something else?

wrap?

fasted58 wrote: wrap?

Interesting - never thought of that. However, a very quick look at the options there tell me that durability isn't great - most say up to three years. Not sure I want to spend several hundred dollars every few years to redo the bumpers, let alone spend the time to do it.

I wonder if a flap disc on the grinder would work? To remove the loose chrome and scuff up the chrome that's stuck on, I mean. I doubt it would take the well stuck chrome off.

dculberson wrote: I wonder if a flap disc on the grinder would work? To remove the loose chrome and scuff up the chrome that's stuck on, I mean. I doubt it would take the well stuck chrome off.

It does work to rough it up and remove the loose chrome but it leaves a very rough surface. It would need some filler of some sort to smooth it out for paint.

take it to a sandblasting shop cant be more than 100 bucks then 20 bucks in paint?

Talked to a local blasting shop. Going to take the bumpers over tomorrow for a look, but he said somewhere around $100 or so to do the pair, which is closer to what I had in mind.

I have a set of chromed Panasports. I wonder if a blasting shop could do them and then I'd paint them.

Don't attempt to dechrome with electrolysis, result is very toxic hexavalent chrome compounds.

I suppose you're aware that some '02 owners lust after the over riders you want.

M2Pilot wrote: I suppose you're aware that some '02 owners lust after the over riders you want.

Vaguely, though I've been out of (or at least not active in) the 02 community for some time. I'll have to have a better look at them and see if they're in decent enough shape to sell.

The chrome shop must be busy to turn away easy work, try another chrome shop! That should run you 150 tops.

I painted the bumpers of a Malibu body color by peckering up the surface with media blast, hitting it with Adherto, then paint.

Worked fine.

In reply to 914Driver:

How long ago and how many miles are on it? I've had 1-day old paint that looked great but peeled 6 months later :(

Last time I saw the car it was fine. ~15k miles.

Dropped the bumpers at the blasting shop. $60 for the pair, done by Monday.

Now to the painting. I was just planning to do etch primer, high-build primer if needed, primer sealer, and paint. Is an adhesion promoter really necessary? Any recommendations for good semi-gloss black I can get in a rattle can? I have a compressor and spray gun, but I'd really prefer not to have to go through all that setup and cleanup if I can avoid it.

With the bumpers off the car how about a wrap! They have about any color you can imagine plus a very believable chrome. A wrap shouldn't be that expensive with a clean surface to work with and would also hide some or any defects left over after blasting

pirate wrote: With the bumpers off the car how about a wrap! They have about any color you can imagine plus a very believable chrome. A wrap shouldn't be that expensive with a clean surface to work with and would also hide some or any defects left over after blasting

Wrap was suggested above, and the thought of chrome was mildly appealing, but as I noted, I'm not interested in something that only has a ~3 year durability (according to every manufacturer I looked at) - the cost and effort of replacing it repeatedly would be excessive for my purposes.

In reply to 02Pilot:

If you're just wrapping the bumpers though, would it be that much in material?

I feel like I've seen rolls of vinyl for $40-60 that would do just the bumpers several times.

I do understand the not wanting to repeat yourself every couple years thing though, it's the same thought I have about buying a Chinese stainless manifold to put the turbo on my miata. They're good for ~5000 miles according to forums, so I'd be replacing it every 2 years, no thanks.

I've never wrapped anything in vinyl, and I'm not sure of the total area of the bumpers, but the durability is the primary issue in any case. Each bumper is three pieces (center and ends), so there would be removing them from the car, taking them apart, wrapping each piece, reassembling, and reinstalling. It's just not worth it unless I was dead-set on chrome or some other finish I couldn't achieve with paint, but I'm not.