I'm having my bumpers re-chromed. I'm curious what the front bumperette finish is suppose to look like. Is the bumperette suppose to be painted black in the area of the grill? How about the front grill itself, all black or any chrome?

As a side note, I've included photos of the front bumper. I;ve always thought the fit was a little funny. Theres a "fold" in the center of the bumper and a lot of space on both the sides. Is this how the original bumpers were suppose to fit?









This "fold" doesn't show up very well in the picture. Looks like the bumper was bent to fit the angle of the body. I have noticed this on most of the other chrome bumper cars I've looked at, but I havn't been looking at these C3's for long...









Thanks!
Taco

 

You have to have the entire grill chromed, then mask off the edges and spray with the appropriate color. There are several (many) threads recommending the brand or code of color. Original was a "metallic gray" with some texture, if I recall. I did mine in simple satin black.

Yes the bumperette is painted to continue the "curve" of the grill, just as can be seen in your second photo where it looks faded and worn.

Search "front+grill+color" in the General section, you'll get dozens of threads...start with these 3...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...ill-color.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...ter-grill.html

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...storation.html

Here's how mine turned out...

 

Hi T,
Here are some pictures of my 71's grill and bumper.
As MS72 said there are lots of suggestions in the links he posted. Someone suggested Krylon Fusion in a gray that looks good to me. I used Zinc Phosphate gray from Eastwood.
The bottom row of egg-crates vertical bars don't show any chrome. The 'racetrack' around the lens was black, not gray.
You can see the fit of my original bumper.... not too different than yours. From your picture I can't tell if it's been kinked a bit or not.
Regards,
Alan

 

Alan's pictures of the front grill work shows how it's supposed to look. Also, compare his bumper fit with yours. Notice the close fit at the ends' of Alans bumper. I'd guess that you have a repro bumper because it doesn't fit the sides of the left and right fenders...it sticks out. This is a common report bumper problem. Also, the fitment of the front grills and the bumperettes on your car shows some overly large gaps. Also, you bumper doesn't appear to have it's center alighned up with the center of the fiberglass hood extention.

Hate to ask, but has your car had a front end collision repair? Don't feel too bad if it has. My 70 indicated a front end collision when I bought it 18 years ago. Recently, removing the engine, going through the car, I've discovered that the repair is so terrible, I'll most certainly have to repair the front clip.

 

And I hate to consider that. But it's definitely a possibility. It did have a very hasty paint job done by a previous owner. It seems just as possible that the shop used the same haste when putting the bumpers back together. Maybe they just didn't take the time to line everything up and put it back together right.

I will post more pics of the possible "kink" in the morning, I'm intrigued as to this possibly being a repro. If so I will be less likely to rush off and have it re-chromed with the rest of my bumper/bumperettes.

 

FYI the textured coating that was used in the areas behind the chrome leading edges is called Light Argent.
There were 3 types of Argent used on cars in the Musclecar era. Light Medium and Heavy Argent.
Most noticable use of Argent was used on the tail panel and Grills of Cuda's & Challengers, and almost every steel wheel from all MFg's used argent.
Argent wheel paint
Mix your own Argent

 

Here's a picture of my center grill. Does this look like the light argent color your referring to Azmotorhead? The grill is honestly in great shape.

I have an extra center grill and had considered having it chromed. I would then try leaving the entire bumper/grill combo chrome in lieu of painting. Any thoughts?



As for the front bumper being misfit... my impulse is to have everything else chromed and wait as I research its originality/repro. It is also the most awkward to ship... The chrome on the long front bumper is considerably more presentable anyway. Has anyone heard a reason to have all the chrome work done at one time? Possibly different finish/color even if I use the SAME chromer?

In the process of removing these parts it is evident there was some front end damage to the car, still not sure the extent... With that in mind I had never intended to go NCRS quality with this refinish, Its just an opportunity to enhance the look of the car with fresh chrome. I still love the car and will have to work with what I've got.

So I removed the front bumperettes and have enclosed pictures. A couple concerns of mine. The first is their overall condition. There is definitely some significant surface rust on the front and a little pitting on the back.







An additional concern is that the threads on the bottom mounts are all but ruined, one doesn't even exist as shown in the picture below. The left bumperette in the picture was installed using a bolt with a nut on the backside, the metal was cutaway to allow the installation of this bolt. I'm not even really sure how I was able to remove it, I would of expected the bolt head to just keep spinning in the bumper... Any suggestions on work arounds here?

 

After spending some time this afternoon trying to sweeten up the front bumper's placement I'm pretty sure the picture posted earlier was a little misleading. The body has a center-line ridge that the center of the bumper lines up with. The point in the fiberglass edge does not quite correspond to this ridge in the plastic and center of the installed bumper. I'm thinking I can actually see a similar phenomenon in Alan's front bumper, offset to the right instead of the left.

 

Hi N,
Here's a couple of pictures of my 71's center grill.
The light shows the shade of gray, the 'sparkle', and the texture I believe the originals had.
The screws are the same as those used on the inner ends of the left and right grills.
I used Eastwood's Zinc Phosphate paint.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Alan

 

Alan thank you. Great pics, the center grill I have is like brand new, exact same color as yours, so I definitely won't be chroming that one. They both have the same numbers printed on the back too. I have the same fasteners but they're covered in overspray, guess they were installed after the grills were removed but before the car was repainted.