polishing bumpers????

[kustumizer]

Has anybody ever stripped the chrome off the bumpers and smoothed them out and kept going down in grit and tried to polish them, then clear coat them after you polish them? Im trying to find a different look and save a few bucks from the chrome shop. Thanks nate

[praisethelowered]

That sounds like a ton of work- from what I understand the expensive part of chroming is the polishing time inbetwenn the plating "coats". And polishing steel is probably even tougher than polishing the copper and nickel that are the first steps of chrome plate.

All in all with the clearcoat I think it woiuld be more expensive than chrome and less durable.

If you want to do the polishing yourself to save money - I have heard of some chrome shops that will work with that- most won't though.

[Tim]

never done it but yeah ive seen lots of bumpers sanded to bare metal and clear coated

[dehudso]

You thinking about the look of the buckets on earth moving equipment that has been polished by dirt?

[kustumizer]

sure?? excpet clear coated without all the scratches! Nate

[polisher]

Don't work.
Nothing is tough enough and non porous enough to seal steel.Rusting on naked steel begins immediately it is exposed to oxygen.If you seal it immediately after polishing deterioration might be slow but it'll happen.
Plus clear coats and glazes dicolor and load up with road grit.
That's why they use nickel and chrome.
Dynamic plating out of Nashville have been turning out some good prices on bumpers.
I only do bumperettes, full bumper are too long for me.
But dynamic seem to be quite cheap and I've seen good reports on their work.
Perp it yourself by sanding to a scratch free 400 grit and get them to buff the copper.
Should be quite reasonable.