Trying to locate someone that can restore bumpers to original chrome finish. Any suggestions, comments etc etc.

Al,
If you bumpers are steel that is chromed, look in your yellow pages under "plating". You should find a company that does this specifically. Re-chroming is common as many people restore cars etc. Your biggest problem will be finding a shop that has a large enough plating tank to accommodate your bumper, which is at least eight feet long. You should not find this to be a big problem however.

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Bill & Georgene Goodwin
92 Regency 36ft
300hp Cummins
Gillig Chassis

Have you put a magnet to your bumpers?
What do you mean restore?. Dale

Dale, I am wanting to have them rechromed so they will shine like yours. On top of mine they seem to be turning a milkey color. What will a magnet do? Al

Bill, I will look in yellow pages and maybe I can get lucky and locate someone that has a tank large enough...thanks

Al

[This message has been edited by Al Benton (edited November 01, 2003).]

It sounds like you have aluminum bumpers like mine which have a anodized coating instead of chrome. Mine are getting milky looking too. I use silicone tire prep to give them a shine.

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Eddie Chevalier
'85 Barth Regal 28' P-30 454
'91 Honda Accord/'87 Yamaha YSR 50 Toads

Eddie; I think your correct about the bumper being aluminum... Although its late you aroused my curiosity and I had to go out and take another look... If they are I think I know what Dale was speaking of with the magnet... I have seen them charge autos and change the silver looking chrome to gold plating.. Thanks, Al

If you can change this:



To this:



then you can shine a Barth bumper. I spend a bunch of time with the buffer and some medium cut paste, but I think the secret is some steel wool and a good buffer. Here is some websites discussing the shinning of Airstream trailers.

http://www.perfectpolish.com/AirstreamProject.htm

http://www.perfectpolish.com/PolishingTips.htm

http://www.inlandrv.com/polishing/

http://www.airmarktools.net/detailing/airstream/tulsa/bone.html

http://globetrotter64.home.att.net/other_links.htm



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"Ships are safe in the harbor.....But that's not what ships are for"

1985 28 foot Regal
Dave and Deb Bowers

Al, I'm sorry I should have been more detailed in my question. I think they are aluminum, and they just need a good polish. Maybe with a couple different grits of compound. Magnets will not grab onto Aluminum so you will know fore sure that yours are not steel that has been chromed. Dale

Well ! I just won the "HERE'S YOUR SIGN" for the day. I looked in my tool box and grabbed the magnet(extender) that retrieves small bolts etc in hard to get to places..touched it to the bumper and it wouldn't stick. Thanks Dave/Dale for the info and websites.. A good job ahead of me.

Dave, I would have serious reservations on using steel wool on aluminum. I have used aluminum wool with success, however.

The anodized coating on your bumper may seem milky, but it also protects the aluminum from corrosion. Also, since EPA regulations have gotten worse, anodizing has become very expensive. If I were you, I wouldn't try and remove it with any abrasives as Bill H was saying. I'd check on re-anodizing.

I doubt very much if your bumper is anodized. Anodizing is almost always used on forged or die cast parts to enhance the corrosion resistance of the more porous surface of a cast part. Your bumper is extruded which gives it a shinny burnished surface which is not as porous as a forged part. Plus, I have seen tons of anodized parts and I have never seen a shinny one or even one that kinda looks shinny. This is normally what an anodized surface looks like.



However, you may have seen gold anodizing, and now they are doing colored anodizing. Andozing was invented by Germany during WWII because they were running out of high quality steel.

The different levels of brilliance on the bumpers I feel is just the different levels of surface finish.

Here is a picture of a Barth 21 footer in the paint shop. This is virgin aluminum.




When I first started this website one of the first guys on was Dan Besco from Des Moines and I haven't heard from him for over a year. He bought a Barth bookmobile. And then he spent some 40 hours with a buffer striping it and polishing. Here is a before and some after shots.









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"Ships are safe in the harbor.....But that's not what ships are for"

1985 28 foot Regal
Dave and Deb Bowers

Al, Dave is right, it was not anodized. I do not know what process Barth applied to their bumpers, but I feel it was some sort of CLEAR coat to hold the shine. If you read up on the polishing sites that Dave gave to you, you will be able to polish to a mirror finish if you so desire. Experiment on the inside of the bumper if you want to know what is needed, or on the bottom side of same. Let the polishing experts Dave provided be your Guide. You can do it.... Dale

For polishing aluminum extrusions, billets and other RIGID surfaces, you may find it faster to first work with a specialized polishing cloth on a sanding block with WD-40 (or equal) as the lubricant. This allows you to apply pressure and "make things happen fast", to be followed-up by the polishing paste of your choice for final finish.....This process can be a little too aggressive for thinner aluminum sheet stock,
but it's a time-saver when you've got something with great mass/thickness..Go to:

https://www.erigate.com/3MFinishingSystems/Index.html

They have an aluminum polish intro kit for about $45....should do bumpers......