Quote:
Originally Posted by Elliot949
Ok... I thought you were using a place there in KC...
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At the rate I'm going, Dan, I won't be using anyone for chrome. I haven't been posting much because this has turned into more of a bucket of worms than I'd planned. Chip asked about how much the bumper bolt welding had sucked in, and I said none. Should've said "none so far". After taking the day off on Wednesday, I jumped back on the welding Thursday and flat went too fast. By the time I finished, there were peaks and valleys all over. Before I started this, I researched the cost and availability of silicon bronze wire for the MIG. I probably should have gone that route since I had a lot of weld to lay down. The TIG is just too hot unless you do little bitty stretches and let the material cool thoroughly. I have no one to blame since I know better.
Upshot of all this is that I've spent a bunch of time with the press and hammer and dolly. It's fairly straight but will never be good enough for chrome. I'm now deciding whether to use chrome wrap, hydro-graphics or a high end spray chrome like Spectra Chrome. All of these approaches will allow me to use filler and primer to repair the ugliness.
Meanwhile, the hits just kept coming. After a crap ton of dolly work, grinding and filing, the bumper no longer fit the valance correctly. The first problem was that the ends had moved forward to the point where it was worse than when I started. So I pie cut the center of the top and pulled the ends together to give it more peak. This worked great, but the next issue was that the ends had also lifted up, so the center of the bumper was flat against the valance and the ends were about 5/8" up on each side. You can see in the last photo in this sequence that the center of the bumper is drooping and doesn't follow the grille line above it.