I'm in my "buying chrome bumpers stage" of a couple of my shop jobs.... I just bought a new front and a new rear for my 57 Chevy Suburban Im "collecting"[not buildin yet] ....they were kinda reasonable for new at 150 each [delivered from Arizona]. I also need a rear for a 49 chevy and found a rechrome for 160.......on ebay. My query is why is it so damned high to get most of our original bumpers rechromed and how can you buy[in some instances] a NEW one cheaper? We only have a chrome shop that does bumpers in KC and StLouis and maybe DesMoines that I am aware of but they charged a buddy[KCplace]400.00 plus- each -for his to be redone.......Plus they are 2-3hundred miles one way from here.......what am I missing here?
just a total guess here, but maybe the ones you can buy "new" are not as good of quality as a reconditioned stock bumper. or they are made with third world slave labor. that seems to be the reason all things made over seas is cheaper (but not better) than stuff made right here at home. just a guess.
Can you say big brother. The tree huggers and envior police are crackin down hardly any good chrome shops left and the ones that are probl struggle everyday with all the regulations.I run a body shop and the prices on materials keep climbing higher and higher everyday.We in Indiana have unannouced inspections at our facility by different agencies.And let me tell you they want to know when you wiped and what you did with the paper and be able to prove it. thats my 2 cents later Shoe
i wonder the same thing just a couple weeks ago....putting bumpers on a `40 ford......plating shop wanted $350 each to replate...new ones were $265 the old ford parts dealer told me the new ones are not made of spring steel like the originals..and he would only use rechromed originals on his own car the new ones where made and plated in the USA....indiana i beleive
I called a friend today about chroming my bumpers and grill for my 53. He has a good friend who owns a chrome shop. We got talking about cost, and he was telling me that the big reason the cost is so much, according to the owner is primarily due to enviromental regulations. The owner told him that within this past year he had to have one of his tanks emptied, which cost him 5000.00, and refilled at the cost of 8000.00.. He also said the the EPA is watching very close. Every gallon that is bought and held there has to be accounted for. They do allow for some absence due to the dipping and the heat, but they are very strict..and the cost's of following the rules are high. Also, above and beyond the EPA, the labor involved to straighten and prep the parts is a factor, unless you do the hard work and get them straight and in polished condition before they get there Maybe one of the reasons for finding re-chromed stuff cheeper through either the 'Bay, or swap meets is because they have been swaped a few time's and the initial cost was eaten by the guy that had it chromed the first time.. Or, like was mentioned earlier, the quality could be of question in comparison to a reputable chrome shop. This is just stuff thats been going through my mind today since i talked to him.. Either way, it's gonna cost me more than i have to do my stuff..haha Tony.
The answer to your question is simple. When new parts are cast, fabricated or what ever, the polishing and plating is part of the finishing process and it is done in shops dedicated to that job, very often with robotic equipment. Parts are clean, in good condition and un-oxidized, When you send a part to be rechromed it has to be stripped, usually electrochemically or sand blasted, then polished until it is perfectly flat, any rust being neutralised or removed in the process. That generally means pits have to be opened up enough to sure there is no oxidization in the bottom, soldered and polished. Then the piece is coppered or nickeled and coppered, and the copper is buffed down to remove surface imperfections. If it gets thin, more copper is put on and it is buffed again until the finish is good enough for nickel and chrome. Being done in custom shops, there will be no robotics and everything will be done by hand with a combination of hand and bench machines. The anodes may then have to be placed in the tank and robbers applied if it is an awkward piece to ensure the part does not burn and plates properly. The dedicated shops will have specially designed tanks with auxilliary anodes racks and robbers already set up for the parts they are working. A custom shop has to build them for almost every job. A taylor made suit always costs more than off the peg. A chrome shop has to take beaten up and aging material and make it look brand new. We are literally expected to make a silk purse out of a pigs ear. That is why it costs.
36 3 Window you have Wonder Warthog as your avitar..you are my HERO!!! Oh yeah and good info on the cost of new vs re-chroming. I'm going to get some stuff for the Chevy & the HUdson redone and I'm expecting to have to shell out some $$$$
Where you can do you're own prep through to 320 grit at least and save yourself some money. That's where all the labor is.
Thanks guys-I haven't recieved the pickup bumpers yet but will report back on their quality of lack of it......
Good ole' EPA! The same thing is happening with sandblasting. There is an ole' fella that lives out the road from that has worked out of his shop his whole life. He does sandblasting for a reasonable price. A couple of months ago, an EPA fella stopped in to check it all out. He told him to buy a machine that filters the air and reclaims the particulate. The setup is 10k. The ole' guy asked him if he could do it for a year or two more because he is going to retire. "Nope!", was the answer.......So, he no longer sandblasts....
what's the worst thing that could happen if someone set up a chroming shop in their own ba*****t, and they charged half the price.......... what kind of charges if any could you get if you got caught?
Economy of scale - the price goes down as the volume goes up. I can say you do get what you pay for. I thought I had found a bargain a while back on a rechromed bumper and it was a waste of money. Pay more for a guy like Polisher (with a good reputation).
Sometimes the eBay bumper is a left over unclaimed already plated bumper. When I was bumper shopping for my 40 Ford standard coupe......the repros where flimsy and not of the quality of the original Ford ones. I priced rechroming mine...OUCH.... about $450 each. I bought 2 already done off eBay for $300 (both) and they were pretty nice. They still looked good when I sold the 40 ... .
If you live above the work area, you will pay wth your health. If you have kid's the law will nail you for Child Endagerment. The exact fine and charge's will vary state to state.
imho the epa and all the other "tree hugger" agencies out there are doing very important work. sure it's a pain in the *** to keep a cap on pollution but it is vitally necessary for our health. i mean there's cases of babies being born in el paso with half a brain because of pollution blowing in from mexico. when i was a kid growing up in pittsburgh you couldn't put a fibergl*** boat in the river because it would eat it. forget about fishing or swimming. how many people ,kids and adults, have had their lives and/or health destroyed by some greedy or lazy son of a ***** who figured he could save some time or money by dumping his toxic **** behind the plant ? right now, drinkable water costs more than gasoline. i ran a garage on the big island in hawaii and had a little epa guy breathing up my *** 24/7. i didn't like it but without guys like him that little slice of paradise would have quickly become unlivable. i can remember the "good old days" before there were many enviromentalists and laws. they were nasty, poisonous, dangerous and foul. i don't want to get political here but some people need to be controlled for the common good.
Polisher's and Lilbill's posts are both informed and rational... NOBODY in our 'hobby' will benefit from renegade at***udes towards the environment. That is a fact. When I start my uncatalyzed, gas guzzling '53 in the morning, you KNOW it is a privilege, NOT a 'right'. 'Tree huggers' was a term invented in the '50's when the reality was very different. 50 years later we cant afford to have this at***ude... I will continue to buy my chrome from professional, certified shops. Too expensive? Paint your bumpers 'Tree Hugger Green'... My 2 cents...
Too- my experience has shown re chromes are more apt to crack more easily around the bolt holes [as if the chrome was more brittle] than "new"- chrome the first application???any arguments there......?
do the tanks with chrome, and copper make fumes? a well designed system could contain it. are the chemicals more dangerous than lead?
Right with you on that one Choprods and just peel off of the nickle for no obvious reason to. I once sent some die cast door handles for chroming and they disolved, damn it.
SNorton-- as I understand the fumes are VERY bad for you, and the environment. This isn't something you do at home, and I imagine the fines (and possible jail time?) greatly outweigh the dough to get parts done professionally.
I'm friends with one of the only chrome shops left in the area that still use the copper processes. He told me getting rid of the copper waste was very expensive and that's why alot of the shops now days are skipping the copper steps in the process, and one of the reasons I'm sure in the price difference. His shop is more expensive then the one down the street but in this case the statement, "you get what you pay for", couldn't be truer. My buddy's shop guarantees his plating for life. Even though the thought of paying that much for rechroming pieces rubs me the wrong way, I know I will only be paying for this process once for Big Olds no matter how long I have him. Also makes me feel little better knowing that my business helps keep him in business.
Kenny, do you remember, in 86/87 when D&G Chrome (Glen) in Laclede had to close down his business? EPA said he could not mix or change out, or drain his own tanks. Said he had to hire a haz-mat company to come in and do it for him. After a long fight, he closed the doors and told them that they now owned it. Put him totaly out of business. This all took place in about 1986 thru 89???
Anyone have any comments on the '36 stainless steel bumpers vs chrome vs an original bumper that is rechromed?
I worked for years at a major manufacturer of early Ford parts, and my main job there was to prep parts for chrome (weld on brackets, deburr, sand until flat, etc). We used very high quality spring steel for bumpers, and they came back from the platers looking beautiful! Then the platers began having EPA trouble, and priced us out. Fabbing and plating the bumpers (and other parts) went to Tiawan (along with my job!), and quality went down. Today I stopped by there, and found that they got an even cheaper deal in India, but again, quality is down another notch... In my opinion, the bottom line is, we have so many brilliant chemists and engineers here at home, why hasn't someone come up with an affordable way to do this work without the nasty side-effects? Maybe because the public has decided they can get along okay without chrome, so there's no motivation to spend the money neccessary to make the needed changes... Just my two cents.....
Kenny, Cuba (by Rolla) is the place to go, we`ve used them a few times and they alway`s do a very nice job. Prices are the same and at times cheaper.
Well for a start there is the direct health aspect, plus you need a polishing shop. Polishing in a ba*****t is more dangerous than chroming. Then there is the waste disposal problem. Put unsuitable waste to ground or in the sewer, and have somebody get sick,you won't have a ba*****t to work in. DEP will take your house and you'll still probably owe them. Then you have to get the chemicals, many of which are illegal when sold to unregistered businesses and tracked by DEP. Then you have to be able to ****yze your solutions regularly or they will fail. No lab will accept them from an unregistered business. These " plating in a bucket" guys won't tell you all this or they are out of business. Last year I stripped and rechromed 5 jobs messed by amateurs, and I advised two guys with messed up primary covers to get replacements as I considered theirs un-salvageable after being messed up. People forget that while plating is not exactly rocket science, It is a science, and polishing for chrome is very much an art. At the end of the day, setting up a chrome shop in the ba*****t has just about as much chance of success as digging in the garden for oil with a shovel.
While building my 57, I bought re-chromed front bumper/hood trim and sent mine as cores. The gaps between the orriginal hood and end piece were so close you could barely slip a piece of paper between them, the "re-chromed" would never fit better than 1/4-1/2" gap, no matter how mutch adjusting we did! I dont think they were re-pop (early 80's) because they looked like re-chromed orriginals, just never fit like the ones that came on the car. RE-chrome your orriginal parts if at all possible! GMB
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