Chrome bumper restoration

I have many other things to take care of on the list of to do's but while it was on my mind I thought I would ask.

My 74 original bumpers are in good condition in terms of dents etc... They are spotted (pitted) though with tiny little spots (not sure if this rust or what, but I think this may be common on older chrome bumpers). Can you have them re-done..re-chromed as it were? Is it more cost effective and/or worth the expenditure? or should I think about replacing them?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Bumpers can be rechromed. The advantage is that you would have a renewed genuine piece rather than one of the less than perfect knock offs.

re-chroming (from a good shop--get references)is worth it--even when it's more (sokmetimes substantially more) than the repro items, I can assure you the replacements do not last long at all. (The little marks are rust underneath the chrome layer, by the way)

Check with your local metal plating shops. You may find one that will make it worth rechroming. Chrome plating has gotten very expensive due to environmental waste concerns. The bumper on my son's pickup needed rechroming and it was much cheaper to buy a new one from the dealer.

Charlie

I've no idea what the situation with you over there with respect to environmental concerns and cost. It's getting more expensive all the time to get parts redone. I also don't know whether any or all of your repro parts are made in Chindia or the UK.

Over here, if you're looking for top notch chrome, you ask a Harley rider where to get it done. They sure like their chrome, and lots of it. But don't expect "cheap".

Matt, to what degree are you restoring your car?

If you are going top-o-the-line, then keep your genuine original bumpers, if they are actually original (make sure first - post a pic and we'll tell ya.) and actually have these re-chromed. This is by far the best way to go. There's also different degrees of chrome repair too. show chrome, driver chrome, cheapo chrome, etc.

If you are just going to do your car to a driver state, or even very, very nice driver state, its ok and acceptable among most circles to have repro bumpers.

They're readily available, the last Moss bumper I saw had very, very nice chrome on it, as did their overriders. While they are not exactly the same shape, they are very close.

Only a knowledgable MG person would notice the difference.

Here's an example: Repro new bumper from Moss: $125 complete kit $250
Rechromed original Bumper: $700 the last time I checked.

This was really nice triple plated chrome, and they, of course, fill in any voids, fix any dents, etc.
They'll be PERFECT when done, and the chrome will be extremely durable. Much better than the Moss chrome.

You may find some cheaper places, and more expensive places.

and you may get lucky and find a place needing work now. I would imagine these types of places are hurting for work with the slowdown in the economy, you might be able to strike a deal with someone.

You should ask yourself how PERFECT you're cars gonna be. If very nice is ok, you could probably offset much of the price of the Moss chrome, by selling your original bumper. they are getting very scarce!

Have Fun!

Brian, at this time, no intentions of going for a full blown resto. I drive it every day to work right now. I might (if the price is right and I get attached to it) ship it back to the US when my time is up over here. I have a whle before I have to make that call.

There are a couple of MG specialty garages near me (I'll be visiting one soon). I'll see if I can get some pricing and ask if these are indeed original bumpers. When I get a chance, I'll take some pics and post them here (see below, its not a close up tho). It seems there is a pretty wide cost range between replacement and restoration of the old ones.

I had my rear bumper and overriders rechromed by a local big commercial bumper shop and the cost was within a few dollars of new pieces from Moss. The benefit was they bolted right back on the car without any "fitting", unlike what sometimes happens with replacement parts.
The quality of the chrome job was certainly acceptable as far as I was concerned, but the guys that want everything absolutely perfect would probably find some things to squawk about. Like they had to fix a couple of small dents, and on at least one of them if you know exactly where to look at the right angle and your nose a foot from the bumper you can see the place that had been fixed. But $190 vs $700? Plenty good enough for my money.

its hard to tell whether that is original or that just the side bracket isn't bolted up.

The original bumpers fit very well into the void in the body, see how yours kind of has a gap in between the top of the bumper and the body? right below the blinkers? Unsually this is indicative of a replacement fender, but, its hard to say from this angle exactly, plus, I don't know the later bumpers as well as the earlier bumpers.

Bob Munch has a site devoted to this originality issue. although he doesn;t talk much about the front grille I don't think.

<http://www.cibolas7.net/22801.html>

For what you're gonna do, a Moss grille will be more than adequate.

don't get me wrong Matt, they're very, very nice. Just that some people don;t like the fit of them, and they're a little different. It just depends on how "perfect" you need to be.

The success (or otherwise) of rechroming, depends (as does painting) on the surface preparation.

The chrome plating itself is porous; it is the quality of the surface underneath that determines the end result. Nickel plating will most definitely extend the life of the chrome which ideally should be at least 50 microns thick.

As others have already said, a good re-plating job will be far superior to the current offerings, wherever they are from.

But that's just my opinion.

Matt....I can see from the picture that your bumpers (front and rear) are original. Moss repos are not closed on the end.

Gents,

Thanks for the info. I have a few things to mull over now armed with much better knowledge. I am going to do a little research with the my local MG garage to see what it might cost to re-chrome. I have a feeling its going to be quite expensive over here. If I find out anything worth passing along, I post it.

Matt