The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Chroming my '50 grille

It's been chromed once with rust well developed in areas. I was thinking about having it
rechromed but is $50-$60 per horizontal piece the average price ? Dang ! that's a spicey
meatball........
When people re-assemble the grille, do you normally rivet or bolt it back together. I'd think that
riveting would be the cleanest but what type of riveting tool does one use?

Lets see 6 x $60 = Does anyone have a few extra bucks to donate ???? Do I have to sell of
my golf clubs for this ? Oh yes, let's talk about rechroming a bumper..............$250 ?????
Oh Spank me why don't cha'

cmayna,

Give JT Classic Chrome a call (408) 590 7225 - and polish up your spanish before you do. Juan does good work if you specify "SHOW CHROME" and you won't accept anything less. Send the entire grill to him without the side supports. Tell him what color you want the back rack powder coated and he will do the entire thing for $400 and get it back to you in pieces. Assemble grill bars to rack with pop rivets. I have a good pop rivit gun with a long nose (reach) that works well. I helped put a freshly chromed grill together this last weekend with Rugo, he had a Harbor Freight pop rivit gun . . . it worked, but we switched over to using my gun to prevent any more blood blisters . . . I think the Chinese are laughing every time they ship one of those pieces of crap!

Side supports should be painted body color - correct back rack color is a creamy off white. (depending on year).

Sell the golf clubs and get that grill chromed!

Ken,
Yesterday I did call Juan and yes he did quote $400. I forgot to work on my espanol though.
Can't depart with my clubs, so I'd better start standing on the corner with a tin cup. I'll ask
him about chroming my rear bumber. It's nice that Juan is only 20 miles or less away from me.

I know about those import tools. Most suck big time. What brand do you have ?

Craig

I second the motion for J.T. Chrome. They do excellent work, for reasonable $. Also I'm pretty sure its done in Mexico. No E.P.A. = much better chrome. Doesn't start pitting in a year like American E.P.A. chrome does. A friend of mine had a 1955 Cadillac front rechromed by a so called reputable shop in Seattle. Cost around $1500. It sits in a heated garage, and only comes out in nice weather. After about a year it started pitting. I hear you can still get good chrome in Canada too. But with J.T. I know I'm getting good quality.
Rich

If you are only a few miles from JT, then by all means use him . . . having the ability to stop by his shop to inspect / accept or reject his work is a huge benefit. Not so easy to do when you are several hundred miles away like me.

man guys the longer this post goes on the more I'm convinced to get that grill with the bullet holes, repair it, and paint the dang thing. would save me a lot of $$$ in the long run!

Yep. I assume the bullet holes will match ur fender repairs.

its a new style of art... just ask J.H. everybody in CA's doing it!

Craig, not sure, but for that kinda money I think I would go painted and hope my next truck has chrome. $400 plus the bumpers is a bit steep. your grill is nice and would look good painted. Then when you win the lottery you could just strip it and still do it.

Golf clubs? I guess you can cut that silly shaft off and some might make a decent body dolly.

Chrome is just too pretty. If I can get each horizontal for say $50, that $250 plus my time is disassemble, paint where needed and reassemble. I'm going chrome but just gotta find the guy who'll give his services away.

Bouya Baby !

Check with Chevy Duty or LMC they are around 3-400 bucks new chrome and assembeled. If I remember correctly

I would expect a poor, badly fitting, cheap chrome imitation. Not Chevy Duty's fault, but probably poorly made in a foreign country using poor materials and cheap labor.

I have heard about people buying grills and bumpers that are showing rust right away.

A properly rechromed original grill would be worth twice or more.

I agree with Tony M. Others also agreed that a rechromed original grill is far more durable and
valuable than a copy. I will stick with my plans.

Last Portland swap meet I went to a guy had a NOS chrome grill that he set up in a booth across from the "Brothers" booth that was sporting the Tawainese chrome repop grills. They were getting around $400 for the complete grill ready to go while the NOS grill sat there for $750. The NOS grill sold the first day, but the buyer left it there with a Sold sign on it till Sunday. People would be looking at that grill, going over to the repops and looking at them and then coming back and asking the guy if he had any more NOS grills. He didn't, but he took orders for several re-chrome jobs of stock grills. After comparing the two side-by-side so to speak, I decided to get my grills re-chromed . . . can't beat an original grill - much better definition and much better fit.

Craig, was that $400 grill you saw Sunday NOS or used? It sounds like that was a good price. I saw one guy that had two grills, one was in primer the other mostly packaged up but looked chrome, was that the vendor you mentioned?

YUP, He said NOS, never used.

Ken,
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I'm going to get ready to disassemble my grill shortly.

Tony,
The only odd thing about that Chromed Grill was that the backsplash was painted Blue? I didn't think Chevy/GMC had that color. Hmmmmmm.

Craig