trugley

I need to get my bumpers and a couple other things re-chromed for my 72. Is there anywhere in the Grand Rapids area to get this done locally or will I need to ship them out. Never had anything re chromed before so I am at a loss. The couple places in town I called would not even recommend anyone or give idea who might do this. Also what is reasonable price for this (bumpers are straight and in pretty good condition, scratches and starting to pit a little on rear). Thanks to all of you for your advice.

Ratfinkharley

I have had excellent experiences with Paul's Chroming in Evans City, PA. They restored and chromed the grill to my 35 Ford plus parts for my servi car.

Check out their website. They have great customer service.

Sunstroked

I can't help you with a chrome shop in your area, but I can give you an idea of what price you'll pay. I just had my chrome re done on my grilles, bumpers, and the t top corners, and the chrome trim aft of the windows. Sticker shock warning!! My bumpers were like $150 ea. for the rears, $175 for the front, the bumper guards were $75 ea. I had to have a repair on 1 of the rear bumpers, that was $50. T top corners were $75 ea. I had my front grilles redone too. $300 for the 3 pcs.
I live in the Las Vegas area. The problem is the EPA. The shop I used prepped them in NV and sent them to their Los Angeles shop for the actual plating. Funny, CA was more lenient then NV. I'm actually saving money by buying new exhaust bezels and license plate bezel vs having mine re chromed. Now the stuff I had chromed is absolutely stunning. Show quality chrome.

Jughead

Thats where I had my stuff done, but I live about 25 miles from them.

Roco71

I can honestly says that's less than I thought it would cost.

Hadez

Another vote for Paul's Chroming

63vette427

To have the front bumper on my 71 re chromed is $550. It sounds like yours in about the same condition as mine. That was the price through Paul's Chrome. Then you have to add in the shipping cost. I will say it does sound like he does some amazing work but that price is pretty scary to me. I guess I got sticker shock as well.

BOSTONCAMARO

There are a few chrome shops in my area and I have heard horror stories about all of them, in fact heard a new one the other day.

I am on the HAMB and figure I would post there, I got the name of this company and sent out my Corvette belt buckles that were in terrible shape, to be honest wasn't sure they could be saved. I had to break them apart to get the pin out (which pretty much everyone has to do) I had to re-weld them and I opted to polish them up, smoothed out the metal as much as I could before I sent them off, but some places would frown on that, but I have done a lot of metal work before.....anyways, to me it was worth shipping to these guys, they were great to work with and price was also great!

Custom Metal Finishing IN
1-866-489-4089
Call or Email for spot-on bumper quotes!
ChromePlater1@Yahoo.com
www.ChromePlatingIN.com

zwede

I had my bumpers done locally (Dallas) and they came back horrible. Wavy, pin holes, and the entire edge on the front bumper had been ground down (unevenly). It was truly depressing looking at the mess.

Alan71 recommended Librandi's so I shipped the front bumper off to them. I think they charged $350 which included return shipping. It came back perfect. They somehow managed to get the front edge back, and all the waves gone. Save yourself the grief and ship them off to someone that gives a damn. Either Librandi's or Paul's.

lvmyvt76

there is a plating company in St. Louis, Mo that did plating for me, thought they were reasonable in price, was not chrome plating though.

Black & Tan

Not near Grand Rapids, but Sioux City Plating in IA did a fantastic job on my rear bumpers. The had a fair amount of rust and some dents and came back in show condition for $225 each.

Alan 71

Hi t,
Just to give you another possibility:
Librandi's Plating in Middletown, Pa. Near Harrisburg.
Regards,
Alan

PS: DON'T be tempted to buy new, regardless of the price... not a good idea!

kdf1986

As for the pricing issue, I had a quote for my 73 bumpers in the San Jose, CA area. It was $375 for both bumpers. I did not get it done yet, but at least have a price reference point.

kdf

68/70Vette

Don't know what LA chrome shop you had experience with. I use XXXX's Chrome shop in Gardena, Ca. Due to grandfathering provisions they can perform plating that other shops cannot. It's not easy for them nevertheless. Every January they spend many thousands of dollars just to keep their licenses, even though grandfathered. I takes them months (?) of income to pay off their license fees. I've been doing business with them since the mid 1970's. These later years, they have to apologize for the really high prices they have to charge me. It's just all the EPA surcharges and permits. These guys would like to retire, but if they sell their shop, all the grandfather privileges will disappear and their business will be worthless. Thanks to the EPA.

trugley

Thanks for all the quick replies. i have a few places now from you all and a couple friends. I will make a list of all the parts with pics to send them and get quotes and go from there. Quality is important to me and want to keep the originals. I will post some pics b4 and after with cost for anyone else that has to do this. Thanks again everyone.

trugley

I got my chrome done and back finally, actually got them back a couple weeks or so ago. I ended up using Knox Custom Chrome. i was told by many that they did not repair anything if needed and others pricing was extremely high. Knox does fix things in shop if needed and there pricing was lower than anyone else I talked with.

The bumpers only had some scratching and a little bit of pitting starting. the bumperettes I got from ebay were the worst I had since they were rusting and pitting but not extremely bad. The backrest brackets were not to bad either. When i got everything back there was one small blemish or tiny yellowish circle on 1 backrest leg but its in a area that wont be noticed. As far as bumpers and bumperettes all were awesome except 1 bumperette has a extremely small area that looks like a hair on chrome but its in the chrome. Its approximately 1/8 by 3/36 and so light i couldnt get it to show in pic even under light. So no big deal. It cost me to package and ship $65 everything to them. They charged me after shipping to return a total of $1050. OK, I am having difficulty in posting pics but will try again later. i got a new mac and having problems working it correctly, lol.

trugley

The size is actually little smaller than the 1/8x3/16 i said and it was like 2 strands hair identically in shape and size about 1/16 apart. hard to describe but like I said so light couldnt get a pic of and even took some very close looking over to find.

1974ta

If you are in Michigan, contact Richard Fortier. While he does not do the actual chroming, whomever he uses does excellent work.

I ended up going with Librandi's. Rear bumpers came out perfect.

Bill