Anyone buy reproduction bumpers from this company ?

[Road trip]

I think they are in Vietnam or Thailand

[Simeon]

There are a few retailers selling stainless steel bumpers that may have been hand crafted in India / Lao/ Vietnam / Cambodia. 

 

I don’t have any but have considered them ( and may well get some in comparison with the cost of re chroming now). 

 

Some people have had had to do some finishing work to get them aligned and fitted correctly. I would maybe get some quotes locally to get yours rechromed and compare against that. 

[dlacey]

I cannot speak for this particular brand, but a fellow classic car guy here in Malaysia visited these Vietnam fabricators. They are handcrafting these bumpers using hammers & dollys, no press tooling. The noise in the factory is enormous as more than 20 guys beat bumpers from flat sheet. They use wooden & cardboard formers to check profiles and a lot of eyeballing of the sample piece of original bumper they have for reference. The craftsmanship is good, the fine alignment of mounting points etc has room for improvement, as the don't/didn't have any proper fitting jigs to test their work.

Making brightwork from stainless has been common on rolls royces since the 50s, looks great after years of abuse.

So I would say be prepared to fettle the bolt holes and then relax with no corrosion of your shiny bits.

[Road trip]

6 hours ago, Simeon said:

There are a few retailers selling stainless steel bumpers that may have been hand crafted in India / Lao/ Vietnam / Cambodia. 

 

I don’t have any but have considered them ( and may well get some in comparison with the cost of re chroming now). 

 

Some people have had had to do some finishing work to get them aligned and fitted correctly. I would maybe get some quotes locally to get yours rechromed and compare against that. 

I have none to recrome

[Mike Self]

I just received the center section of my '73's rear bumper (US version NLA from BMW) back from Knox Quality Chrome in Knoxville TN.  They did an immaculate job of straightening (it was significantly bent), smoothing the surface and replating.  Looks better than the new bumper pieces still available from BMW.  And this was their "driver quality" plating; they have two grades above that which would be totally unnecessary unless you had a million + dollar classic. 

 

Cost to straighten and replate was $300, comparable with what BMW would charge for the new piece if it was available (Euro sections only are still in stock).  

 

Only drawback with the stainless steel bumpers is they have a significantly different "color" to 'em--quite different from chrome plate--to the point where you can't mix 'n match pieces.  

mike

Edited July 21, 2018 by mike

[tomphot]

43 minutes ago, mike said:

I just received the center section of my '73's rear bumper (US version NLA from BMW) back from Knox Quality Chrome in Knoxville TN.  They did an immaculate job of straightening (it was significantly bent), smoothing the surface and replating.  Looks better than the new bumper pieces still available from BMW.  And this was their "driver quality" plating; they have two grades above that which would be totally unnecessary unless you had a million + dollar classic. 

 

Cost to straighten and replate was $300, comparable with what BMW would charge for the new piece if it was available (Euro sections only are still in stock).  

 

Only drawback with the stainless steel bumpers is they have a significantly different "color" to 'em--quite different from chrome plate--to the point where you can't mix 'n match pieces.  

mike

 

What was the turn around time for that?  How does the rechrome look next to the ends?

[Simeon]

5 hours ago, Road trip said:

I have none to recrome

 

Well, then that would weigh heavily in the direction of the stainless bumpers then. I think a few people moving away from big bumpers have used them. The ‘fettling’ is probably less of an issue when using custom brackets etc. 

[Mike Self]

3 hours ago, tomphot said:

What was the turn around time for that?  How does the rechrome look next to the ends?

I told the shop that the work was for a daily driver (vs a seldom-used show car) so they turned it around in under three weeks, including shipping both ways (not far from Dayton to Knoxville).  Chrome is compatible with both the new left end section and existing (undamaged) right end section, so will look good when reassembled.  My comment about the quality of the finish was more on the smoothness of the underlying metal on the replated piece than the actual color of the chrome.  All the pieces match nicely.

 

mike

[Sharktrainer]

Those Vietnam bumpers are actually pretty good quality. Very popular with owners of vintage Mercedes-Benz, particularly the old ‘70’s and ‘80’s R107’s roadsters. 

 

[Road trip]

I just want to have new looking bumpers

and Not stainless 

I’m having a hard time finding decent

bumpers

[Simeon]

Post a ‘want to buy’ for an average set and then get them rechromed. That’s what I would do. 

[tomphot]

On 7/21/2018 at 6:48 PM, mike said:

I just received the center section of my '73's rear bumper (US version NLA from BMW) back from Knox Quality Chrome in Knoxville TN.  They did an immaculate job of straightening (it was significantly bent), smoothing the surface and replating.  Looks better than the new bumper pieces still available from BMW.  And this was their "driver quality" plating; they have two grades above that which would be totally unnecessary unless you had a million + dollar classic. 

 

Cost to straighten and replate was $300, comparable with what BMW would charge for the new piece if it was available (Euro sections only are still in stock).  

 

Only drawback with the stainless steel bumpers is they have a significantly different "color" to 'em--quite different from chrome plate--to the point where you can't mix 'n match pieces.  

mike

 

You got your work done in the nick of time.  Knox stopped accepting new work on Friday and are closing.