smooth bumpers

[IndyNova]

can anyone tell me the proper way to smooth bumpers for a 70 chevelle. I'm going to be powdercoating in black and want to fill all the holes in the bumper. thanks

[LateNight72]

Cut the heads off the bumper bolts and weld the remaining shank/threads to the bumper. Weld and smooth as necessary.

[IndyNova]

since i'll be painting or powdercoating, what's the best way to get everything smooth? if i paint it, then obviously filler/skim coat would be best, but what about powdercoating it?

[442_Mustang]

If you powdercoat it more than likely you won't be able to use filler on it. The baking process will destroy the body filler.There is a filler that will take the heat by Cass Polymers. It works to almost 500 degrees BUT the part needs to be conductive my powder coat guy says. They may be able to heat the part and spray the powder while it is hot and the product will stay. Just depends how cooperative your guy is I guess. Here's a link for the filler.

http://www.adtechplastics.com/pc-15-34-p-17-high-heat-resistant-filler.aspx

[LateNight72]

but what about powdercoating it?
If need be, add some metal (welding) and grind it smooth. Just work it out very very slowly.

I'd also talk with your Powdercoater and see what he says and recommends.

[JRouche]

If you are set on powder coating them you need to prep them almost as well as if you were gonna plate them. I kinda went through this and gave up, the cost was gonna kill it. The plating cost.

I did some research on a bunch of smoothed bumpers, plated bumpers. So I went to town, removed all the chrome from the weld area. Welded in some supports to the back of the bumper, just some metal plates to distribute the load. Welded in some studs to the plates and the bumper face. Smoothed it all down flush. But, then I started looking at the bumpers, they were not great. I got ahead of myself. The bumpers needed more metal filling ( couple of deep scratches) and some small dents that needed to be worked. My bumpers were not a good candidate for reworking. And they werent bad, just too many lil areas that needed attention. I lost interest. 40 plus year old bumpers have seen a lil contact over the years.

But, if you were up for a decent paint job on them it would save you alot of prep work, metal work. Prep work for powder coating is gonna be close to the work needed for plating, it should be metal all around, no plastic filler. But prep work for a nice paint job is alot easier. The diff between filling and smoothing with all metal VS using body filler and smoothing that. JR

[IndyNova]

yeah i was watching muscle car tv and they painted a set of foose rims, basically used hok apo1 adhesion promoter, followed by a coat of ppg dp90f epoxy primer and then a basecoat followed by 2 coats of clear. looked sick. I may go this route and save money. Thanks guys

[IndyNova]

Also, what do you guys think of cutting in driving lights in the bumpers, similar to the 69 camaro bumpers? I figured if they would look good, i'd do that before final finishing of the bumper.

[LateNight72]

yeah i was watching muscle car tv and they painted a set of foose rims, basically used hok apo1 adhesion promoter, followed by a coat of ppg dp90f epoxy primer and then a basecoat followed by 2 coats of clear. looked sick. I may go this route and save money. Thanks guys
I'd be more inclined to give the bumper and good scuffing/sanding and use a quality Etching primer prior to Epoxy. Then do all of your filler work over the Epoxy.

As for the driving lights -- that's up to you. I do not think it would look right...