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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:34 am 
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Location: rhode island
I would say if you had perfect chrome bumpers, than I would go chrome all the way. Some of us don't, and blacked out bumpers look better than peeled chrome. Then going all black is a good option. imo.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:55 am 
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Location: Northborough MA
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Current:1972 240z 5.3L
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:43 am 
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Well, what worked OK for my mind's eye was a combination of flat-black and chrome bumpers. My front bumper had been rechromed while the PO owned the car, but the center section began to peel when I got the car back. The end units were OK.

Pricing all my options, I decided to black-out the center section only and leave the end units chromed. A body shop actually had a rough time removing the chrome from the center bumper so they could flat-black it, but they stuck to their original estimate anyway.

For the contrast I wanted, I pulled and painted my grille silver. So now my grille is 'chrome silver' and the center of my bumper is flat-black, rather than the other way 'round.

It's odd, but I like it.

So what I'm saying is, you can mix and match to suit your taste and budget. Flat black and chrome seem to go pretty well together, in my eye.

Frank


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File comment: Blacked-out center bumper section, silver grille for contrast
IMGA0330.JPG
IMGA0330.JPG [ 56.45 KiB | Viewed 6693 times ]

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Last edited by Frank T on Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:50 pm 
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Location: Jamestown, RI
r_3,

After looking at the pictures I have a few more questions. There is a small black mark right below the center of the passenger taillight, what is it? When you said it needs to be straightened out a little bit, what do you mean, is it dented or bent in some way. It doesn't look like it from the pictures.

That bumper looks savable to me and could probably be brought back to look great. I have restored a few cars that the chrome bumpers looked very similar, but came out awesome looking after a few steps. I'm pretty sure you could get it to look about the same as mine does. Mine doesn't look like brand new chrome. It just looks like chrome that was taken care of for 40 years. When you look up close you see fine scratches. If you want a bumper that looks like mine I think you can do that to yours. If you want perfect chrome, you should have yours re-chromed and then get new rubber strips.

What I do to restore old chrome:
1) Scrub or soak with oxalic acid and water. I usually make a paste with the powder and scrub it with a green scrub pad (not steel wool) on big parts. On areas that have a decent amount of rust you need to scrub and then let sit for a while and then scrub again. Going back and forth on the part as you scrub the whole piece. The oxalic acid will completely remove the rust. When I feel the hole piece is done I leave it to sit overnight.
2) The next day the piece will have a greenish slimy residue all over it. Completely scrub all the residue off the whole bumper using lots of fresh water. The last time I did this I did it in my bathtub with the shower running. Oxalic acid is not a very bad acid, but using gloves is important as well as doing it in a well ventilated area.
3) Wash the whole bumper with soap and water to neutralize the acid.
4) Throughly dry the bumper. I usually use a heat gun to do this quickly. A hair dryer would work too.
5) Use aluminum foil to rub in Mothers mag and wheel polish. I think it says it's for aluminum, but it works awesome on chromed steel too. You really want to rub this stuff in until it is turning black (it starts out white). You are essentially compounding/polishing the surface when doing this.
6) Wipe off all the polish. I use paper towels for this step. First I'm trying to rub most of it off, then with a clean paper towel you lightly polish it to a shine. It should look great at this point, but isn't protected yet.
7) Apply your favorite wax to protect the finish and prevent the rust from coming back.

After that all you would need to due is buy and install new rubber strips. MSA has them.

I bet if you did that to your bumper it would look great. It would at least look good enough until the bumper could be re-chromed. Try a little section of the bumper to see if will work well enough for you. You will be amazed.

Oxalic acid is sold as wood bleach at Ace or True Value. It's usually in the paint section. Comes in a small plastic container, maybe a pint. Here's a picture.

Rob


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Oxalic Acid.jpeg
Oxalic Acid.jpeg [ 6.23 KiB | Viewed 6725 times ]

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:06 pm 
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The small dot is a small hole. The area that is slightly dented is where the left (drivers side) vertical bumper piece is. Very slight. My reasoning for offering the trade is that if you were just going to paint it black, patching the hole, straightening and painting would be all you would need to do. For me it would be straightening, patching and paying to be rechromed.

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:20 pm 
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I thought that might be a hole. Too bad. If I do go to black, I think I'll probably just get the fiberglass bumpers. I'm not exactly sure when It will happen as I have to get other stuff done first. If you're still looking when I do it you can have my bumper. I'm going to try my hardest to get everything done before summer, but we'll see.

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:27 pm 
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Location: rhode island
Frank, to whatever your taste is, is a good answere. :D I use semi-flat black. Darn, there goes my secret. :shock:


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:32 pm 
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Plasti dip

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:35 pm 
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The stuff you do your hammer handles in? Is this at home depot, auto zone, wal-mart??? ect.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:51 pm 
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Check my car build thread and check the fiberglass bumper on the front. That was plastidipped

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:09 pm 
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I've watched a bunch of videos on YouTube about plastidip. It looks like a really cool product. I've never seen it in person, but I have given a lot of thought about trying it. How durable is the finish? If I did my front bumper with it and I wanted to clean off a bunch of dead bugs, would it clean up fine and still look good? It definitely looks like the easiest way to go about this. If I wanted to go back to chrome I could then just peel it off. I would think the edges would be the part that fails first. The more I think about it, the more I think it is the right thing for me to do.

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:14 pm 
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Its very durable and will peel off if/when you want to. I've used it on a lot of cars and can't say enough good stuff.

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Current:1972 240z 5.3L
Former 73 240z LT1 owner


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:18 pm 
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Did my grille with it and had the car for years and it looked stock

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:21 pm 
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Rob, pleaZe consider putting your chrome restoration tips in our RESTORATION / REPAIR TIPS forum.

Seems like a handy thing to know about ~ like using Coca Cola to remove rust from a chrome bumper because it has acid in it, too.

Thnx,
Frank

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:28 pm 
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Your car looks nice. I think I'm going to give it a try. It can't hurt. Did you order it online or can you buy it locally?

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1971 240z


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