can i just take a wirewheel to the bumper and get the stock chrome plating off and then rattle can clear coat it so it doesnt rust up???
You might try abrasives the cromme plating is probably harder than the metal the wire brush is made of.
it won't come off with a wire wheel. it wouldn't even touch it. go a head and try it. chrome is some tuff **** to get off.your best bet is acid or use a da sander.
how about a grinder with a grinding wheel? it's gonna take a lotta work, hours at least to grind the chrome off with a co**** abrasive, then more hours of labor if you want it smooth again. there are acid dips and such that take some chrome off, but nothing at home that is very effective against the hex chrome or whatever it is on most old bumpers.
Take the part(s) to your local plater, they should be able to strip the plating off by reversing the plating process that put it on there. As most of the cost of plating is in the polishing, the cost of doing so shouldn't be too bad, and is most likely comparable to what ever other means you might try. Also, in the for what it's worth category, if it was good chrome plating, it will have three distinct layers of coating. Chrome on the top, nickel in the middle, copper on the bottom. The copper is used as a way of filling all the imperfections still left in the base metal before the plating process itself (it's the polishing of the copper between multiple strikes or layers that makes the surface it's smoothest before the nickel and chrome layers are added on). I think also (based on my experiences only) striking with copper first, promotes adhesion of the nickel and chrome because I once had a set of wheels plated and the plater talked me into double striking the nickel instead of using copper. The wheels never had the depth they should have and the plating just didn't hold up. Even keeping them waxed, they started having corrosion problems within a couple of years. The nickel gives it most of it's silverish colouring. The chrome makes the surface very hard and allows the nickel to give off the distinct brilliance most of us think of when we think of chrome. By using mechanical means of removal (grinding), even on steel, you may never get all vestiges of the plating (especially the copper) out of the base metal without taking it's surface down significantly (destroying the part in all probability). And don't even think about grinding on parts made of pot metal or the like. The restoration of parts made from soft metal alloys is a science unto itself.
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