Nice man, its going to look good.

 

It should. Sandblasting chrome way easier and it makes it nice and rough so the primer and paint will bite well and not peel.

 

Looks like we decided to tackle this project at the same time!! I'm going pick up my bumpers from the blaster in 30 mins. I ended up buying a new front bumper since my wife had hit a fire hydrant near the fog light and bent the old one. I bought the new style with the cutout. Since I haven't taken off the old front bumper yet is there anything I should know in advance to make the job a little easier???

Also for the back bumpers why did you take the hole bumper off? I just drilled the rivets out that are under the plastic cap and took out one 10mm bolt. I'll post a pic this weekend before I reinstall them.

Lastly, did you blast all of the chrome off to bare steel? I was talking to my blaster and they said they tried but couldn't. They were worried that they would have to use too much pressure and that it would warp the steel. So they put a good profile on it and shot it with some of their primer. Hope the primers don't matter too much. I didn't specify a particular brand or type but they are an industrial painter not a automotive paint and body shop.

 

i didn't feel like fighting the rivets to drill them out on the rear. As far as primer I used a dupont etching primer so it would have good bite.

I have a blaster so i just blasted them until I had it good and rough. I used the etching primer then sprayed several coats of their high build epoxy primer over that wet sanded that and smooth as glass now.

 

Front is a major PITA especially trying to figure out how to get the top bumper fascia off. The gm books suck it's two steps according to them. Then pull the grill, then remove two vertical 21mm bolts that secure the front bumper assembly to the frame. Then disassemble all the plastic crap from the bumper. I left all of the oem brackets in place on the bumper so I dont have to re-align everything.

 

The grill got it's guts hacked out today. It is now sanded primed and ready to rock.

I had to get the chrome piece above the that mounts to the hood new cause I broke it taking it off. WELLLLL I fu bared it sanding it trying to get it preped to prime.

FYI be very very very careful what you use to scuff it enough to paint.

I have been using roloc pads on a little sander to get it and had no problem on the grill. But I got a little too eager and overheated the chrome while sanding on the hood trim panel and lifted the friggin chrom in several different place so yet screwed again. I'll have to order a new one tomorrrow and start over.

Try and get a few pics up tonight.

 

What a PITA, but the end result is gonna look nice!

 

01WS6/tamu I finished the colormatching last week. Getting the bumper off wasn't bad but getting all the pieces off the bumper was another story!! I'll put the link to my thread. https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...d.php?t=477325