Painting chrome bumper

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OLEred03

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Has anyone painted their chrome bumper to match their truck? If so can someone post pictures, thanks in advance.


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Bullitt5339

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I didn't paint over the chrome and I suggest against anyone doing it, especially when a primered steel bumper is super cheap to buy, a lot easier to prep and will hold the paint a lot longer.
 

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OLEred03

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Did you have to modify the lower portion of the bumper for the air dam?


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Fishstickz

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I recently plastidipped my bumpers because the paint was chipping. Mine was an all-black bumper so I didn't have any chrome, I think the dealership I bought it from might've stole the bumper and put this one on because its SUPPOSED to be chrome but oh well.

It isn't the greatest pics but my truck is black so it looks great imo. I'm just happy I'm not staring at chipping paint and rust anymore

But as Bullitt said I wouldn't recommend painting a chrome bumper because it most likely won't last too long. I assume you could try plastidipping your bumper to make sure you will like a different color bumper (Don't quote me because I've never dipped chrome) but even so the plastidip most likely won't stay forever
 

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BigBlue05

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You can plastidip chrome but it won't stay long at all on the front of your truck. We dipped my buddies grill about a month ago and he already has chips in it from driving.
 
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OLEred03

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Thanks everybody for the opinions and help. I had forgot about the option of a black steel bumper. I currently have a srt10 front bumper on it and I want to go back to a sport bumper or paint a Steele bumper because the srt10 didn't look as good as I had thought it would.


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Demon-HeMi

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go with the sport bumper if you already have the brackets and stuff from the SRT bumper
 
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Bullitt5339

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Demon-HeMi said:
go with the sport bumper if you already have the brackets and stuff from the SRT bumper
Click to expand...

Sport bumper covers for the 02-05 are absolutely ridiculous compared to buying an 06+ one. I agree with you though, if you've already got the supports and brackets, it makes sense to spend the extra money.
 
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OLEred03

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Well the problem with that is, the guy that did the work on my truck claimed he couldn't get the correct parts for a sport/srt10 from bumper so he just took a steel bumper and hacked it up to make it work. So long story short he just butchered things up to get it to go on. It's not even lined up correctly. So I got stuck on that and now I'm looking to try and fix it the easiest way possible without spending a whole lot of extra money, but if it comes down to it i will order all new parts and pieces to make it right for a sport bumper. I was just curious if anyone had painted a steel bumper and now that I have seen that it has been done it is now a viable option in this decision.


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Demon-HeMi

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Bullitt5339 said:
Sport bumper covers for the 02-05 are absolutely ridiculous compared to buying an 06+ one. I agree with you though, if you've already got the supports and brackets, it makes sense to spend the extra money.
Click to expand...

yeah i found that out when i bought my sport bumper for my reg cab project, couldnt believe how much used ones go for, especially compared to how cheap it is to get one for the later 3rd gens :crazy:

OLEred03 said:
Well the problem with that is, the guy that did the work on my truck claimed he couldn't get the correct parts for a sport/srt10 from bumper so he just took a steel bumper and hacked it up to make it work. So long story short he just butchered things up to get it to go on. It's not even lined up correctly. So I got stuck on that and now I'm looking to try and fix it the easiest way possible without spending a whole lot of extra money, but if it comes down to it i will order all new parts and pieces to make it right for a sport bumper. I was just curious if anyone had painted a steel bumper and now that I have seen that it has been done it is now a viable option in this decision.
Click to expand...

sounds like you are on the right path then, the painted steel bumpers do look good, and in some cases look better than a sport bumper, so as already stated i wouldn't paint a chrome bumper, there are alot of places to get a primered steel bumper and thats the best way to go
 
Demon-HeMi

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How about some pix of your truck as is, im kinda curious about how bad the guy hacked up the steel bumper behind the SRT and the poor fitment, ive known about the cutting of steel bumpers to fit behind the 02-05 sport covers but never really cared for the idea
 
JPT

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Have any of you guys looked into removing the chrome? Wonder what a local machine shop would charge if you brought it to them. Then you could take it to be either powder coated, or to a paint shop to have them paint it in a booth.

I have a steel bumper, just wondering if you guys have looked into it.
 
Demon-HeMi

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JPT said:
Have any of you guys looked into removing the chrome? Wonder what a local machine shop would charge if you brought it to them. Then you could take it to be either powder coated, or to a paint shop to have them paint it in a booth.

I have a steel bumper, just wondering if you guys have looked into it.
Click to expand...

the paintable bumpers are around $100, i have no doubt to try and strip the chrome off a bumper with labor and materials would be over that, ive seen people use a grinder wheels to try and scuff the bumper and it still peel
 
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OLEred03

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Here are some pictures of it I took the day of getting it back from the shop. I am partly at fault for buying a cheaply made Srt10 front cover, I was told it was a good cover and then upon arrival found out that it was going to need a decent amount of work to be in good condition. This I also took into consideration when I purchased it because I have worked with fiberglass parts in the past and they don't have a very good reputation for being spot on. I am currently at work at the moment and I will take some more pictures tomorrow of some of the cut up work that was did. Also as you can see the fog lights don't line up either. In the last picture you can see where some nuts and washers were also left off and see that there are 2 randomly drilled holes in the steel bumper. Overall I'm just not happy with the way it turned out and I am looking into changing it. I let it go for a while to see if my mind would change on it but it hasn't, it might would if I were to slot the holes on things and re-line it but I don't want to go throw th all that trouble.


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OLEred03

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Bullitt5339

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JPT said:
Have any of you guys looked into removing the chrome? Wonder what a local machine shop would charge if you brought it to them. Then you could take it to be either powder coated, or to a paint shop to have them paint it in a booth.

I have a steel bumper, just wondering if you guys have looked into it.
Click to expand...

The black steel bumpers are too cheap to worry about all the labor involved in stripping chrome.

The other benefit to the steel bumper is being able to weld the holes shut if you're not required to have a front license plate.
 
Demon-HeMi

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i feel like there is plenty of room for adjustment, even though you say you dont want to go that route, the two holes drilled in the bumper mount pictured, not sure what they are for, nothing he did really justifies those holes, also your bumper mount in the same picture is missing the lower bolt and frankly all but one of the bolts in that picture are the wrong bolts for your bumper, so something else is fishy on that install, the missing nuts and incorrect nuts throw up a red flag for me and would have me looking all over that bumper for things out of wack, the cover actually looks nice in the pix, just needs a good adjusting to be correct.


Edit: looking at those pictures it appears the truck has been wrecked, are you the orig owner? that would explain alot about the wrong/ missing bolts and poor fitment
 
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Bullitt5339

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I see one immediate problem that could be fixed in 10 minutes. They have the front of the bumper shoved too far up in the front. There should be some space under the grill and headlights. Up too high in the front will cause alignment problems on the sides. I figured that out the hard way with my truck. I wanted to close those factory gaps down, but it looked even worse.
 
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Demon-HeMi

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Bullitt5339 said:
I see one immediate problem the could be fixed in 10 minutes. They have the front bumper shoved too far up in the front. There should be some space under the grill and headlights. Up too high in the front will cause alignment problems on the sides. I figured that out the hard way with my truck. I wanted to close those factory gaps down, but it looked even worse.
Click to expand...

shop did that to my dads truck aftger they fixed his front bumper, made it damn near impossible to remove the headlights, the gap sucks but has to be there
 
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