Prepping bumpers for plating

Question:

I am restoring a 1957 Mercury Montclair 4-door hardtop, and need to know more about restoring the bumpers prior to chroming. Could you guide me to some information, procedures, etc?

Answer:

Most people choose to simply remove the bumpers and turn them over to the chrome shop just as they are, entrusting all necessary work, including the prep work, to the shop. In addition to the fact that they likely have all of the equipment and experience needed to properly prepare the bumpers for new chrome and you don’t, the shop may not agree to stand behind the final result if they did not do the prep work.

If you’re still determined to do the preliminary work yourself, then by all means go for it.

The bumpers need to be stripped down to bare metal. You can remove paint and rust by sand or media blasting but the best way to remove the old chrome is with an electro-chemical process that essentially reverses the procedure used to apply the chrome and underlying platings.

It is also possible to remove the chrome by blasting it but you normally need aggressive blast media and high pressure to get through the plating and this, of course, will leave a pretty rough surface behind. When the bumpers are down to bare steel, any needed repairs have to be done. That means fixing rust pits and holes and doing serious metal work to straighten out dents, kinks, bends, and any other problems. Once the bumper is stripped bare and repaired as needed, the surface has to be worked so it’s consistently smooth, but not so smooth that the copper plating doesn’t adhere well.