Aluminium Vitesse Bumpers

[PatK]

Hi Everyone, does anyone know if the aluminium bumpers fitted to the Vitesse can be restored to like new condition. Is there a company that could do this, I guess that they would have to be stripped, any dings sorted and re anodised.  Or can they be sorted and polished by oneself?  Many Thanks. Pat

[Pete Lewis]

There are places that re anodise have no idea how that looks and dont know who does it.

 

Out of interest a few years ago club had the section extruded but it proved impossible to form the

corners bends without destroying the section.. so the project stalled.

 

Pete

[juppy]

The type of finish is called Bright Anodising, it is the sort of finish you get on shower cubicles.

[PatK]

The type of finish is called Bright Anodising, it is the sort of finish you get on shower cubicles.

 

Thanks Pete and Juppy. I know that Frosts do kits to remove anodising and to plate with it, so I thought there would be some company that does restoration of aluminium, not necessarily for cars but for industry in general. After all, chrome plating is probably much more expensive and complex than refurbishing aluminium would be. There must be hundreds of classic car owners who would use this service, aluminium windscreen surrounds for one.

[Steve C]

Hi Pat

 

Aluminium can be re-polished, and there are metal finishers around who can do this, and remove shallow scratches by polishing them out. The process involves a sisal machine mop wheel and some polishing compound. If you fancy trying it yourself, Machine Mart do a kit here:

 

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/categories/?search=polishing+kit

 

What you cannot do is polish out deeper scratches, gouges or dents.

 

Alternatively, Bob Rowland at Triumph Valuations is currently trialling having Vitesse aluminium bumpers recast, and you can contact him either by a PM to his Facebook page, or via his website:

 

http://triumphvaluations.weebly.com/product.html

 

Don't be put off by the odd typo on his website, Bob is a straight bloke who has put a lot of time and effort into getting obsolete castings re-made for us, and deserves all our support. My Herald is pictured on his website with the headlamp rings he commissioned. At present I think he is looking for expressions of interest for the Vitesse bumpers. They will not be quick, or cheap, but as Henry Royce said, the quality remains long after the price is forgotten.

 

Good luck

 

Steve C

[PatK]

Hi Pat

 

Aluminium can be re-polished, and there are metal finishers around who can do this, and remove shallow scratches by polishing them out. The process involves a sisal machine mop wheel and some polishing compound. If you fancy trying it yourself, Machine Mart do a kit here:

 

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/categories/?search=polishing+kit

 

What you cannot do is polish out deeper scratches, gouges or dents.

 

Alternatively, Bob Rowland at Triumph Valuations is currently trialling having Vitesse aluminium bumpers recast, and you can contact him either by a PM to his Facebook page, or via his website:

 

http://triumphvaluations.weebly.com/product.html

 

Don't be put off by the odd typo on his website, Bob is a straight bloke who has put a lot of time and effort into getting obsolete castings re-made for us, and deserves all our support. My Herald is pictured on his website with the headlamp rings he commissioned. At present I think he is looking for expressions of interest for the Vitesse bumpers. They will not be quick, or cheap, but as Henry Royce said, the quality remains long after the price is forgotten.

 

Good luck

 

Steve C

 

Many thanks Steve, I will check him out and I'm sure that there will be many more members of the club who would probably be interested.

[steveweblin]

Period advert from when the bumpers were new.

[trigolf]

I had my bumpers refurbed many years ago by a local aluminum anodising company. They stripped the original anodising off for me, first, and then told me to go to a metal polisher to polish out all the scratches and then bring them back. Having had them polished, to what I thought was an acceptable finish, I returned them to the anodisers who chucked them in the tank at the end of long production anodising job. That made the cost cheap. Unfortunately the metal polisher had not done a thorough enough job, so the final finish was not brilliant. If you only polish them, and don't anodise too, they will eventually oxidize and you will have to polish them regularly.Thorough preparation is the key to a nice job.

 

[shanngi]

Hi I had a set stripped, polished and re anodised last year by Badger Anodising in Birmingham. Did a good job, although very deep scratches are hard to get out. Contact Andrew Law, Managing Director on 01216221850, decent guy. Around £200 cash!

[PatK]

Hi I had a set stripped, polished and re anodised last year by Badger Anodising in Birmingham. Did a good job, although very deep scratches are hard to get out. Contact Andrew Law, Managing Director on 01216221850, decent guy. Around £200 cash!

 

Thanks Shanngi, I will make a note of this, as I don't immediately need them doing, but will do so later in the rebuild. Just welding rust patches at the moment!