Custom bumpers

Whats the best way to weld a steel bumper that will later get re-chromed? I want to mod my front bumper and remove the license plate reccess, but not sure on the best welding process and smoothing the welds out.

 

i was to V-groove the ends & not grind any welds down-let the chrome shop do the finishing it's gonna cost ya alittle more but if ya grind it to low they'll have to build it up & grind it down anyway,

 

^^^ what he said ^^^

 

TIG welds usually have the least amount of pitting. Pitting, or voids in the welds, are the single biggest issue with plating welded bumpers to look like they weren't welded. These pits have to be filled with either more welds, brazing, or soldering. Even the heaviest of copper plating will not fill all weld pitting.

The actual type of steel the weld is made of is irrelivent as far as plating is concerned, as long as it isn't a stainless weld. Don't use stainless welds.

The other big issue that would seem obvious is lining everything up correctly first.

As stated earlier, do not grind down the welds unless you are awesome; almost everyone overgrinds them, and then it is a major pain ($) to get them level again.

All straightening should be done before cutting or welding.
If you are welding up mounting holes, make sure they are flush first. They are almost always slightly sunk in and if you weld them this way, it makes it a lot harder to straighten. This really goes back to making sure everything is lined up properly.

 

ChromePlaterJosh - Thats good info, thank you for sharing. I did not know you werent supposed to use stainless rod if you're going to plate it. whats the reason for that?

 

I can answer that.
Stainless will not allow the plating to adhere with conventional methods. It requires a special activator before being nickel striked.
I have never worked with the activator required but from what I have been told, steel (ferrous materials) can not go through this process or at least shouldn't go through it.
The reason being is that stainless steels contain a good amount of chromium in them which will not allow proper adhesion of other materials on to it as well.
Most shops do not offer the plating of stainless as its a small market especially in the custom world.

 

I use gas welding and normal bodywork techniques to repair or modify bumpers. I have made a few as well. I will post some photos if I can find some.

David

 

Thanks!

 

I have some home made stainless headers that I took to the chrome shop just for polishing out. They told me they would also flash chrome them (just chrome, no copper or nickel) after polishing so they wouldn't yellow again. They didn't charge me extra for it and they came out great.