Camaro rear bumper center bracket rivets

[67since67]

Originally Posted by Motorhead848

I wouldn’t want my fresh chrome any where near a press of any size to compress the rivet...

Didn't realize Camaros had the rivet HEAD exposed, fortunate for you!!

Yes, it is a bit unnerving squeezing rivets, wrap the bumper in layers of foam and extra pairs of hands for the very careful set-up.

[Salvatore]

Originally Posted by Unreal

I haven't seen any repro bumpers of awhile, but unless they have improved, I'd stick with OEM. If the ones D & R has are restored originals, then that might be OK.

Most of the time the OEM's and the NOS bumpers need to be rechromed. Crazy money in my opinion.

[Unreal]

I had my bumper rechromed 20 years ago, so I don't know how the prices are now. But at the time, it was just a little more than the cost of a repro bumper- maybe $40-50 more.

[firstgenaddict]

I can see original OEM needing plating, however unless mixing repro or SHOW CHROME there should not be a need to replate NOS as long as it's not shelf worn, the fine scratching in the original chrome was there when it was new.
Remember "production chrome" was not triple plated NOR were they polished prior to copper , nickel and chrome plating, they were sanded with belt sanders and then nickel plated then chrome plated and thus the fine scratching should be visible in a car restored to how it left the factory.

[bbbentley]

I can only speak on my own experience with 69 Camaro NOS rear bumpers. I ordered one from a dealer BITD. The bumper came in and I get it unwrapped. WTH, all along the bottom outer exposed surface you could feel these weld bb’s. No sure why they would be on a bumper? So, I take it back and another was ordered. Same thing. More bb’s. I had them order a 3 rd. Same. Looking back, they probably just kept giving me the same bumper? I don’t recall if they were all wrapped in brown paper. By the 3rd one, I finally just had to relent and settle for this bumper. Parts manager told me they were all like that? Still have it, haven’t decided if I’ll used it. If I can find a Chrome plater that can do factory quality chroming, I’d like to go that route.