I scratched my bumper and need help

[Jack P.]

First let me admit that without my car, (being painted) I am I little out of my mind.

The results of my being really stupid is what I did to my 43 year old rear bumper on my 66 roadster.

Having my bumpers off, I thought it would be a good time to clean and polish them.

I used a cleaner to get off the carbon from exhaust and any other stuff sticking to it.

Even after all these years, they still look OK with no pitting to speak of. But they did have a bit of glaze in some areas.

So , I took a drill with a ( I just can't go on ) you know the rest.

Hear are the pictures of what I did. Fine scratches on top of bumper.
Can they be buffed out or polished out? Re-chrome is not any option with my summer trip coming up.

Thanks for any help, looks like I should have asked before I lost my mind.

Jack

[Wayne P.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

Jack I feel the pain. Do you have a local detailing shop that could give you advice. Good luck.

[Tracy C.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

Jack,

You are definitely through the chrome layer and into the nickel. The best you can hope for at this point will be achieved by wet sanding the area with 600 and 1500 grit sand paper and then buffing it with white rouge and a bench grinder mounted buffing wheel.

This will minimize the scratches but not completely eliminate them. Ultimately, you need to rechrome, because surface rust is around the corner here.

tc

[Steven B.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

Jack, to remove some (not all) amount of scratching try a gentle polish by hand. I have used jewelers rouge(sp?) and water diluted polishing compound on light scratches. This worked for me to minimize light scratching. Begin with gentle pressure and polish before you try more pressure and a course polish. You can always go with more but not the other way around as your chrome may not be very thick.

Sorry about your problem.

Steve

[Steven B.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

Tracy, after looking closer at your scratches Tracy is correct and I would follow his suggestion.

Steve

[Jack P.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

Jack, to remove some (not all) amount of scratching try a gentle polish by hand. I have used jewelers rouge(sp?) and water diluted polishing compound on light scratches. This worked for me to minimize light scratching. Begin with gentle pressure and polish before you try more pressure and a course polish. You can always go with more but not the other way around as your chrome may not be very thick.

Sorry about your problem.

Steve

Hi, Chrome is not very think, you can almost see a little brown (nickel) wanting to show through. I tried a little toothpaste, did not scratch the scratches. I think I am stuck, a victim of myself. I just don't know what I was thinking. I used a polishing kit for plastic and thought it would not even scratch the chrome, " wrong " so , just one more little ding.

Please be kind to me on my trip. I am going to blame it on the grandchild of the last person who I have visited on my trip. I figure I get to blame at least 40 or 50 grandchildren before I am done.

Sounds like a good story to tell !!!

Jack

[Tracy C.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

The brown you think you see is probably the copper under the nickel. Nickel plate is thin as well. Your best bet may just be to find a nice "See the USA in your Chevrolet" bumper sticker and cover it up until you get back from your trip.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CHEVROLET-SEE-THE-USA-IN-YOUR-CHEVROLET-BUMPER-STICKER_W0QQitemZ110425763766QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b5e36fb6

tc

[Jack P.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

The brown you think you see is probably the copper under the nickel. Nickel plate is thin as well. Your best bet may just be to find a nice "See the USA in your Chevrolet" bumper sticker and cover it up until you get back from your trip.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CHEVROLET-SEE-THE-USA-IN-YOUR-CHEVROLET-BUMPER-STICKER_W0QQitemZ110425763766QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b5e36fb6

tc

I think you are right. It won't come out, and I am not going to worry about it any more. I did a bad thing and now I have to pay for it until next year. Please be kind to me on my trip.

I hope everyone remembers that the trip is about researching and meeting long time owners and their cars, not mine. Right?

I can just see everyone biting their tongue , just wanting to tell me about the belt without the logo on it, or saying when I leave, to each other " how can he drive that car on this trip "

I am laughing now just thinking about it.

Jack

[Patrick H.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

I'm trying to figure out why you would not want to consider either a) having it replated, or b) buying a replated one for the short term, or c) trying a repop for 9 months if it bothers you.

Just my thoughts.

Patrick

[Jack P.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

I'm trying to figure out why you would not want to consider either a) having it replated, or b) buying a replated one for the short term, or c) trying a repop for 9 months if it bothers you.

Just my thoughts.

Patrick

Patrick, what bothers me it being foolish enough to do it in the first place. I ,like most of us , have been around cars for a long time and should have known better.

I have pretty thick skin and have listened to comments about our cars for over 41 years, some good , some bad. I just love to kid the guys on this forum . Like many, I belong to several forums and it is fun to deal with the different forum personalities.

I think we are a bunch of lucky guys and gals, to own a corvette (s) like we do.

See you this summer and fall

Jack

[Francis F.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

JACK,
Sorry to hear(see)your BoBO! Do Not Feel like the lone ranger
of bobo's,been there a few times my self.For your up and comming trip
I feel your answer should be BUMPER STICKERS,Perhaps some obama election type,you know the ones with all the promises on them,the bigger the better they would draw the attention away from any imperfections in the bumpers.
see you this summer,
Francis

[Paul J.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

Jack, when you stop by I can show you two sets of bumpers with scratches from wiping them when they were dry. After I bought my first Harley I learned that you don't polish chrome...ever. You clean chrome. Now I never use polish on the good cars (or the bikes) and don't touch the chrome unless it is wet. I use glass cleaner and live with the small scratches.

Paul

[Patrick H.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

Patrick, what bothers me it being foolish enough to do it in the first place. I ,like most of us , have been around cars for a long time and should have known better.

Jack

Oh yeah, note that I did not say that I've never done anything stupid on a car or a Corvette.

I was just commenting on your line "Re-chrome is not any option with my summer trip coming up." I would suspect that with the right contacts on this board you could find a chrome plater that would have the bumpers back to you in plenty of time to install them on the car and take your trip.

Patrick

[Don H.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

Jack, when you stop by I can show you two sets of bumpers with scratches from wiping them when they were dry. After I bought my first Harley I learned that you don't polish chrome...ever. You clean chrome. Now I never use polish on the good cars (or the bikes) and don't touch the chrome unless it is wet. I use glass cleaner and live with the small scratches.

Paul

you mean chrome bumpers on a 45 year old driver car are not supposed to be all scratched up !? Well I'll be darned. Here I thought my bumpers were just fine. Not wipe them when dry ?! that's a good one... If I needed help or could not drive my car because the bumpers were scratched, I would not a lot of help, and I would be taking the bus a lot.

[Timothy B.]

Re: I scratched my bumper and need help

Jack,

Enjoy your car this year after it's painted.. Have the bumpers chromed by a top notch shop, you get what you pay for with chrome..

Make sure you keep those originals as they are much nicer than later service parts..