Rear chrome bumper.....

mrvette

Phantom of the Opera
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
15,207
Location
NE Florida
My car was treated to new bumpers, some 25? years ago, and so have been perfect and rust free in the REAR, front has been damaged due to wrecks....

but now over the last several months, I have noticed the right REAR bumper has developed a crack on the surface, very small in width, but about 2" long in the surface of the chrome, just from the apex of the wrap around turn, out to the radius of the metal outer edge/fold/wrap...it's in the flatter area...noted when washing, and yes I can catch my fingernail on it....no other rust or defects, just this crack....

I don't want China junk, so any other suggestions???? this is not caused by accident damage, so question is.....could repeated exposure to HOT FLORIDA sunlight in the PM hours cause enough metal flex to make it stress crack???

I know it can be welded and then maybe rechromed....but I not doing that until hell freezes over....any suggestions as to stopping rust forming in the crack???

without messing up the chrome surface??

:hissyfit::banghead::gurney:
 
Is the steel bumper cracked or just the chrome coating ???

Chrome can separate from the steel.

If the crack is in the actual steel then no, even the FL sun cannot cause that kind of damage
 
My car was treated to new bumpers, some 25? years ago, and so have been perfect and rust free in the REAR, front has been damaged due to wrecks....

I know it can be welded and then maybe rechromed....but I not doing that until hell freezes over....any suggestions as to stopping rust forming in the crack???

without messing up the chrome surface??

:hissyfit::banghead::gurney:

Hard call. Maybe try to blast out the crack with distilled water to irrigate any salt in there. (Even here, in relatively dry climate there's airborne salt from the nearby ocean.). Then dry the crack with a hair dryer and then next:
(1) fill the crack with carnubu wax. This is to seal it from the atmosphere.
(2) or, try to swab it with a small paint brush with Rustoleum silver paint to fill up the crack.
(3) or, as I do with my 68's chrome, I keep it covered in a thick film of WD40. The WD40 does attract the fine salt laden sand that's blown in the air, and so I periodically go Windex all the old WD40 off, and then use re-coat it.

Paragon does sell GM Restoration parts rear bumpers...they're about $700 the pair. Pretty much a budget buster. Be careful if you want to replate. ...not to sure here about what I'm saying...but EPA restrictions mean some chrome shops can't do a good job. There's a local Cali chrome shop that advertises they can still do tri-valent chrome replating..don't have a clue what trivalent means but they can only do this because they are grandfathered in. I know the owners...known them for about 40 years. They are obviously of retirement age...but they can't sell their replating business. All of their grandfathered waivers will not pass to new owners...so their business is basically worthless as far as retirement sell out. Really sad, the polishing part of the replating business is really hard tedious work. Even with grandfather exemptions, every January they pay $40,000 to the state/federal governments for their plating permits. $40,000 for permits and tremendous expenses for disposing of plating fluids means that they have to charge embarrassingly large costs for replating.
They apologize for the amounts they have to charge...me a really long term customer.
 
Yes, I have heard of the EPA screwing up most industrial operations, and they even have to mess with mom/pop.....damn weenies.....we all going to be in caves with them jerks running shit.....

:suicide:
 
My car was treated to new bumpers, some 25? years ago, and so have been perfect and rust free in the REAR, front has been damaged due to wrecks....

I know it can be welded and then maybe rechromed....but I not doing that until hell freezes over....any suggestions as to stopping rust forming in the crack???

without messing up the chrome surface??

:hissyfit::banghead::gurney:

Hard call. Maybe try to blast out the crack with distilled water to irrigate any salt in there. (Even here, in relatively dry climate there's airborne salt from the nearby ocean.). Then dry the crack with a hair dryer and then next:
(1) fill the crack with carnubu wax. This is to seal it from the atmosphere.
(2) or, try to swab it with a small paint brush with Rustoleum silver paint to fill up the crack.


Course another trick would be to take all the bumpers off, and get them painted gloss black powdercoat, after it's welded.....match some of the other powder black on the car....I have thought of this anyway, but unsure how I"d like it....:crap::censored:

thing is, this 'crack' is VERY SMALL....gotta catch it in the sunlight to see it, far as I can tell, it's in the metal, as my fingernail catches on underside, same as top side....damnit.....:censored:
 
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Regular sand is not going to remove the chrome, 80grit aluminum oxide might ....
If you decide to go this route, I have a welder, a blaster and I can paint ..... Bring some beer and we'll git R done .....
 
Regular sand is not going to remove the chrome, 80grit aluminum oxide might ....
If you decide to go this route, I have a welder, a blaster and I can paint ..... Bring some beer and we'll git R done .....

It spends more time in the garage these daze, and damn little rain driving, more from washing than roads.....I going to let it set a while and see what happens....maybe later....I maybe need take it off there when the weather breaks a bit, and it's not such a seizure world moment....

:cussing::goodevil:
 
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