BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)

Exactly, we tease you but understand completely the b*tch in prepping and painting flexible with with deep crevices, plastic. Frankly, even I wouldn't let you half *ss it at this point😁.
 
I save that for the dbags who think.....

None of that here and that’s why I spend most all of my time on this forum rather than others.

Donovan, better than nice work as always.
 
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Garage day at The Skunkworks today.

Got the front bumper filler panel that I shot grey yesterday unmasked, yep it had to go two tone. Sounds weird, but it’ll make more sense once you see it on the car. Pleased to report that the edges were nice and clean, with no bleed through underneath!

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Once Mike arrived, I quickly got him acquainted with his project for the day, the better condition front bumper I scored back in the summer.

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I had stripped it down and cleaned it up the night before, so all he had to do was get started putting the brushed finish on this one.
While he was doing that, I completely dismantled the original bumper, and removed the inner structure for a little “weight reduction surgery”.

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This front bumper weighs an absolute ton when fully assembled, I would guess easily around 100 lbs or so. So anything I could remove from it without sacrificing functionality or the filler panel mounting points, the better.

Goodbye excess baggage!!

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Once I had the inner structure pared down and the edges cleaned up, I jumped on the bumper too to help Mike out. I was really hoping to get the majority of the bumper done with the brushed finish, but unfortunately that wasn’t in the cards for today. We made decent progress on it tho, figure it’s probably around half done at this point:

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All in all it felt like a really successful day, even though it doesn’t look like we got much done. I’m starting to really look forward to seeing this done and all the parts come together for the final time. Once the brushed finish is completed, all the newly painted and modified parts will get assembled onto the bumper, then it will go on for the last time.
Should look good!

D.
 
Any plans for the back side to arrest the oxy? I will be tackling this problem at some point.
 
Any plans for the back side to arrest the oxy? I will be tackling this problem at some point.
On the backside of the bumper, inner structure, or both?
I’ll probably just bust the loose crud off the inner structure with the Clean n Strip wheel because it’s the worst, then POR15 it.
 
How does one achieve that brushed finish?

Painstakingly by hand unfortunately. 120 grit sandpaper, sand in long straight lines, and get all the chrome off until you’re well into the nickle layer underneath. You end up finding out in very short order that these bumpers aren’t anywhere as flat and straight as they look. There’s a lot of minor wrinkles and such from the stamping process they undergo. These wrinkles and imperfections make it that much harder because you still have to sand the chrome in the “valleys” around these areas. It’s a finger and hand killer.
 
Painstakingly by hand unfortunately. 120 grit sandpaper, sand in long straight lines, and get all the chrome off until you’re well into the nickle layer underneath. You end up finding out in very short order that these bumpers aren’t anywhere as flat and straight as they look. There’s a lot of minor wrinkles and such from the stamping process they undergo. These wrinkles and imperfections make it that much harder because you still have to sand the chrome in the “valleys” around these areas. It’s a finger and hand killer.

Do you clear over it when you're done?
 
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Do you clear over it when you're done?

Nope, no real need to. Nickle doesn’t oxidize very quickly. The car lives indoors now, so there’s that too. Might be more of a concern for a car that sits outside all the time.
 

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