Shining Bumper Issue

[lelshaddai]

I am having trouble bring this bumper back to life. The center piece shines OK, but not great. The outsides are foggy looking. The chrome is not cracked or peeling just cloudy. I tried steel wool and metal cleaner but it will not bring it back. Any suggestions? (yes this is from my 62 Volvo that I am working on at the same time as the 53 Commander)

[thunderations]

The chrome may be gone and you are trying to make the nickel base shine. Nickel is silver but much duller then chrome. The chroming process for triple plating is cooper, nickel, chrome.

[345 DeSoto]

What HE said ^^^^^^^^^^

[57pack]

Need a trip to the replater shop...and the bank.

[TWChamp]

I'm thinking the same, and it may be time for a rechrome. You could try buffing a small spot with SemiChrome, but if it doesn't shine up, then a replate is most likely the only solution.

[jclary]

We have a member who is a plater. Hopefully, he will see this thread and comment. My knowledge, of the plating process, comes from supplying customers with pumps and associated equipment. I may be looking at it wrong, but your bumper seems to have three distinct pieces. The shiny middle part could have been plated in a different vat, or by a different company. Like any process, chrome plating has a variety of issues that can negatively affect quality. Poorly grounded parts, contaminated chemicals, plate time, turbulence, Faraday cage effect, and parts hung too close. Most of these flaws I've observed, reveal themselves as spots, or splotches. I've rarely seen them as uniformly bad over the entire part. It could be that someone skipped a step, or didn't allow the parts enough time to gain appropriate chrome thickness. Like has been suggested, the thin chrome has worn or been polished away.