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OEM Chrome bumpers to OEM Painted bumpers

jb772

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Hey guys,

I currently own a granite crystal metallic limited RAM that unfortunately came with chrome front and rear bumpers. I've made a phone call to my nearest Dodge inquiring about purchasing primered front/rear bumpers and they quoted me about $850 for both in total. My question is, do I need any other parts such as bumper supports or will everything just transfer right over?

Thanks for any help.
 

Neurobit

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Hey guys,

I currently own a granite crystal metallic limited RAM that unfortunately came with chrome front and rear bumpers. I've made a phone call to my nearest Dodge inquiring about purchasing primered front/rear bumpers and they quoted me about $850 for both in total. My question is, do I need any other parts such as bumper supports or will everything just transfer right over?

Thanks for any help.
I would imagine the only diff is the finish, so you should be able to re-use all your brackets and parts from the chrome bumper. I don't have first hand knowledge but I would be willing to bet this is the case.
 

Billet1500 4x4

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Hey guys,

I currently own a granite crystal metallic limited RAM that unfortunately came with chrome front and rear bumpers. I've made a phone call to my nearest Dodge inquiring about purchasing primered front/rear bumpers and they quoted me about $850 for both in total. My question is, do I need any other parts such as bumper supports or will everything just transfer right over?

Thanks for any help.
Correct, Same bumper just chrome versus paint. However if you live within driving distance of a shop that does chrome plating, you can take them your chrome bumpers and have them strip the chrome for less than half the cost of buying the primered bumpers from Ram. In either case you have to remove the bumpers as well as all the plastic trim pieces so you might as well just have your chrome ones stripped, take them to the paint shop and have them painted, at this point you can have the license plate holes filled before paint on the front bumper if you don't plan on running a front plate
 

jb772

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Correct, Same bumper just chrome versus paint. However if you live within driving distance of a shop that does chrome plating, you can take them your chrome bumpers and have them strip the chrome for less than half the cost of buying the primered bumpers from Ram. In either case you have to remove the bumpers as well as all the plastic trim pieces so you might as well just have your chrome ones stripped, take them to the paint shop and have them painted, at this point you can have the license plate holes filled before paint on the front bumper if you don't plan on running a front plate

A good friend of mine from High School owns a paint shop near me and I've been in contact with him about this whole bumper issue I'm having and ran the idea of sanding and painting my current bumpers but he stated no matter how much or how good the prep work is on sanding and primering the bumpers they're still prone to peeling due to rock chips and the constant beating the front bumper takes from debris. He said he would do it but he would not recommend it and would not warranty the work. I appreciate his honesty though because two other paint shops that I went to also advised the same exact thing. I'd rather just do it right the first time. I went to Dodge earlier and got the part numbers I need and the black bumpers are around $270 each so I'm thinking if I can get those and paint them, I can sell my chrome ones online for a fair price.
 

Billet1500 4x4

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A good friend of mine from High School owns a paint shop near me and I've been in contact with him about this whole bumper issue I'm having and ran the idea of sanding and painting my current bumpers but he stated no matter how much or how good the prep work is on sanding and primering the bumpers they're still prone to peeling due to rock chips and the constant beating the front bumper takes from debris. He said he would do it but he would not recommend it and would not warranty the work. I appreciate his honesty though because two other paint shops that I went to also advised the same exact thing. I'd rather just do it right the first time. I went to Dodge earlier and got the part numbers I need and the black bumpers are around $270 each so I'm thinking if I can get those and paint them, I can sell my chrome ones online for a fair price.
That's why I mentioned taking it too a plating shop, not a paint shop. Chrome is an electroplating process usually with base metals like copper and nickle under the chrome, that's why no matter how well you sand it paint does not adhere very well, there will always be the base plating left in the pores of the steel. A plating company will not sand the bumpers, they reverse the plating process and take the bumper back to bare steel but only a company that does plating has the means to perform the operation. You are correct in being able to resell the bumpers, hopefully you can sell them locally because shipping is several hundred dollars and would eat most of your profit. You can get a chrome front for about 400 brand new from the dealer without having to pay shipping and it will not have any dents from the shipping process, these new bumpers are paper thin and can dent pretty easy during shipping. I had to replace my front bumper and looked into the exact same thing you're looking to do, in the end I couldn't justify the cost difference and just replaced it with another chrome bumper. Good luck with whatever option you go with.
 

RamSco

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Hey guys,

I currently own a granite crystal metallic limited RAM that unfortunately came with chrome front and rear bumpers. I've made a phone call to my nearest Dodge inquiring about purchasing primered front/rear bumpers and they quoted me about $850 for both in total. My question is, do I need any other parts such as bumper supports or will everything just transfer right over?

Thanks for any help.
Have you considered having the bumpers wrapped? I’ve seen some amazing wrap jobs.
 

jb772

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That's why I mentioned taking it too a plating shop, not a paint shop. Chrome is an electroplating process usually with base metals like copper and nickle under the chrome, that's why no matter how well you sand it paint does not adhere very well, there will always be the base plating left in the pores of the steel. A plating company will not sand the bumpers, they reverse the plating process and take the bumper back to bare steel but only a company that does plating has the means to perform the operation. You are correct in being able to resell the bumpers, hopefully you can sell them locally because shipping is several hundred dollars and would eat most of your profit. You can get a chrome front for about 400 brand new from the dealer without having to pay shipping and it will not have any dents from the shipping process, these new bumpers are paper thin and can dent pretty easy during shipping. I had to replace my front bumper and looked into the exact same thing you're looking to do, in the end I couldn't justify the cost difference and just replaced it with another chrome bumper. Good luck with whatever option you go with.

Thank you for all the advice I truly appreciate it - when I went to the Dodge dealership they gave me the part numbers I needed and were going to charge $400 per bumper but I ended up going online and searching the exact part numbers and found them for half the price the dealership quoted me so I'm going to try one bumper first and see how it comes out.
 

jb772

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Have you considered having the bumpers wrapped? I’ve seen some amazing wrap jobs.

I was considering it but the one company I went to quoted me almost $700 for ONE bumper.
 

Billet1500 4x4

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Thank you for all the advice I truly appreciate it - when I went to the Dodge dealership they gave me the part numbers I needed and were going to charge $400 per bumper but I ended up going online and searching the exact part numbers and found them for half the price the dealership quoted me so I'm going to try one bumper first and see how it comes out.
How much are they charging for shipping? I found them much cheaper online as well, but by the time they added shipping I wasn't saving much money and didn't want to deal with a shipping claim if it showed up at my door dented, which is very likely since they probably be shipped freight LTL and those types of carrier absolutely destroy $h!t in transit.
 

jb772

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How much are they charging for shipping? I found them much cheaper online as well, but by the time they added shipping I wasn't saving much money and didn't want to deal with a shipping claim if it showed up at my door dented, which is very likely since they probably be shipped freight LTL and those types of carrier absolutely destroy $h!t in transit.

I didn't get a quote on shipping yet but that was one of my fears is that it would jack the price up so much that it wouldn't even be worth it to order on my own.


Ah damn I got my hopes up! He is pick up only and will not shop - thanks for looking out though!
 

Talon Nelson

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Hey guys,

I currently own a granite crystal metallic limited RAM that unfortunately came with chrome front and rear bumpers. I've made a phone call to my nearest Dodge inquiring about purchasing primered front/rear bumpers and they quoted me about $850 for both in total. My question is, do I need any other parts such as bumper supports or will everything just transfer right over?

Thanks for any help.
Have you decided what you are going to do with the bumpers?
 

jb772

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Why don’t you try wrapping the bumpers, it’s probably a 250-300 for both

I looked into getting the bumpers wrapped and because theres not a readily available granite crystal metallic wrap it gets EXTREMELY costly for even small lengths of it.
 

Talon Nelson

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I looked into getting the bumpers wrapped and because theres not a readily available granite crystal metallic wrap it gets EXTREMELY costly for even small lengths of it.
Y’all just break a kids heart right now lol thanks for the help fellas
 

smkt404

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Hey guys,

I currently own a granite crystal metallic limited RAM that unfortunately came with chrome front and rear bumpers. I've made a phone call to my nearest Dodge inquiring about purchasing primered front/rear bumpers and they quoted me about $850 for both in total. My question is, do I need any other parts such as bumper supports or will everything just transfer right over?

Thanks for any help.
Did you end up getting replacements?
 

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