[T3] Pictures of the Eggcrate with the Body done

[Jim Adney]

On 10 Jul 2012 at 11:46, Gary Forsmo wrote:

> How were the backside of bumpers finished by VW in Germany?

In plating parlance, chrome has poor "throw." That is, it doesn't 
plate well into holes, cavities, or inside corners. Think of places 
where the electric field (while plating) would be small.   

Decorative chrome is always a 3 layer operation: copper, nickel, 
chrome. Copper and nickel have good throw, so they would get 
deposited everywhere, but the chrome would be light or non-existant 
inside the backside of a bumper, unless you made specially shaped 
anodes to fit in that space.

Since there's no reason to force the plating in there, I don't think 
VW did. Like Dave, all the ones I remember looking at were painted 
silver inside. Under that was probably the copper and nickel, with a 
bit of chrome in places. You can see this peeling up on old bumpers, 
but it's hard to tell what it was.

When I "restore" an old bumper, I just wire brush it inside and paint 
it there with something equivalent to Rustoleum silver paint.

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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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