I have opened a can of worms

I think the painted bumpers v. chrome bumpers is an age thing. I grew up with chrome, and my personal opinion is that painted bumpers on anything but a black car look like the guy who owns the car was too cheap to pay for the chrome job. On a black car, they look like something from a Mennonite community. Younger folk are more used to seeing bumpers painted body color, so they probably react differently.

I just got thru getting bumpers from Tri City Plating out of Tennesee. Spectacular job. The bumpers were $325 each, exchange, plus $90 to do the bumper guards. So then, if you want to chrome both bumpers and both sets of bumper guards, you'd better budget for about $830. I used the Bumper Boyz on my '47 Chrysler, and they did a nice job, but they have gotten at least as expensive as everybody else, plus they have gotten rather prickish to deal with, to be perfectly blunt, at the car shows, plus their prep work can be marginal, at times. When I did my 65, I used a local place, they quoted me 2 weeks turnaround, three months later I had to resort to threatening phone calls to get my bumpers returned to me. Mercifully, they're out of business now.

At Carlisle, I witnessed a guy come up to the Tri-City tent, tell the owner that he bought a bumper two years ago, didn't like the way it fit, had lost his receipt, and wanted another bumper. He was told to bring in the bumper and they would exchange it. No questions, no hassles, nothing. I was pretty impressed. Tri-City offers a lifetime warranty, Bumper Boyz is 2 years, as I recall.

If you want it:

Tri-City Plating
218 E Mill Street
Elizabethton, TN 37643
(800) 251-7536
www.tricityplating.com