[Overkillphil]

Wow, you're already way better off than me and my horrible experience with Ames! I got treated like Charles Manson at a Tate family reunion when I tried to return something.

Sent item back and ended up loosing the money for the item, shipping both ways AND THE ITEM TOO! That's right, Ames kept it all and told me they didn't care about loosing a customer!

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by Overkillphil

Wow, you're already way better off than me and my horrible experience with Ames! I got treated like Charles Manson at a Tate family reunion when I tried to return something.

Sent item back and ended up loosing the money for the item, shipping both ways AND THE ITEM TOO! That's right, Ames kept it all and told me they didn't care about loosing a customer!

Similar or worse experience with the Parts Place.

I understand your point however, if there is surface rust, the plating is not complete. The part is either worth what you paid, or $0, there really is no in between.

[Ccass]

Lee, I have no problem with you posting this thread. I just moved it here because it seemed more about your disatisfaction with the way we handled your return. And we did in fact have the erroneous description of 'plated in USA'. Originallly we looked up the GTO version description which was accurately described. Therefore we will credit you back the shipping for the return. Below are pictures of the bumper. Was the bumper sitting out uncovered for any length of time? Because it is common in a 'working' garage area for dust particles (with metal in them) to start to surface rust almost immediately. That would explain why it was so easy for us to remove what looked rather ugly in the pictures. Again, I think the problem stems from the expectation of a triple chromed high quality USA bumper. When in fact these bumpers are 'good' quality but not for the descriminating show car. A true 'show chromed' bumper would cost at least $750. The expense is in the hand polishing of the entire bumper in between plating steps.

btw; Some information about Plating:

1. Triple plating has little or no value on a brand new bumper.

2. Triple plating doesn't mean 3 layers of chrome. It means there is a two step process applying copper and nickel before the chrome. The purpose of multiple layers of copper is to fill scratches and marks made by the cleaning, grinding and polishing operations a USED bumper goes through. A new bumper already has a smooth clean surface so therefore doesn't need both copper and nickel before the chrome. In theory, the double plating process being performed on these NEW bumpers should last just as long as the triple plating being done on used bumpers. Just something for everyone to be aware of.

That being said, the new bumpers coming in from overseas are still a very good value and are of acceptable quality to a vast majority of owners. Lee wants better for his car and that is certainly not unreasonable. We just can't be giving expensive shipping credits to everyone that gets items that dont' meet their expectations. In this case, I think he was unintentionally misled and we bear some responsibility for that.

[JLHarper]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Similar or worse experience with the Parts Place.

Same for me....core was twisted / bent and by the time it was installed and discovered they wouldnt take it back.

[Greg Reid]

That bumper looks very, very nice right now.

[triathlonx13]

Originally Posted by Overkillphil

Wow, you're already way better off than me and my horrible experience with Ames! I got treated like Charles Manson at a Tate family reunion when I tried to return something.

Sent item back and ended up loosing the money for the item, shipping both ways AND THE ITEM TOO! That's right, Ames kept it all and told me they didn't care about loosing a customer!

Same thing happenned to me but it wasn't AMES and it involved a rear bumper for a 68 GTO. The bumpers where made a little to "narrow" and hit the quarters. I bought the bumper and had it for 2 years before I could install it. (you know how long restorations can take). Even though company "X" found out they had bumpers that were incorrect and went to a new bumper... they stuck me with the bumper and I had to eat it.

...I'm sure there are stories like this with all the reproduction companies out there.

[Ccass]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

That bumper looks very, very nice right now.

Yes, but for the same reason Lee's pictures looked worse than the bumper was, our pictures look better than the bumper is. Upon very close inspection, you can see tiny imperfections in the bumper. However, I've seen NOS bumper chrome that looked no better than that. It's all about personal preferences and the level of perfection you want. One of our responsibilities is to explain the bumper as best as possible. We didn't do a good job of that.

[NeighborsComplaint]

I just picked up a '71 bumper from an ebay seller CPU Parts. He normally drop ships direct from the distributor but since I was local, he had it delivered to his shop (borrowed space in a body shop) to eliminate the delivery cost ($45) and give me a chance to see it first. I picked it up and put it right back down too! Ha! It was made by Golden Star Parts in China and was a pretty nice bumper but it had about a half dozen pits in the metal under the chrome, all on one side of the bumper. I politely refused it and suggested we not order another as they are all probably about that quality. The seller was an absolute gentleman and agreed he wouldn't put it on his car either. I am going to try Tamraz Parts in Naperville, IL and see if I can get a better quality. They have stock to choose from.

[steve v]

Originally Posted by NeighborsComplaint

I just picked up a '71 bumper from an ebay seller CPU Parts. He normally drop ships direct from the distributor but since I was local, he had it delivered to his shop (borrowed space in a body shop) to eliminate the delivery cost ($45) and give me a chance to see it first. I picked it up and put it right back down too! Ha! It was made by Golden Star Parts in China and was a pretty nice bumper but it had about a half dozen pits in the metal under the chrome, all on one side of the bumper. I politely refused it and suggested we not order another as they are all probably about that quality. The seller was an absolute gentleman and agreed he wouldn't put it on his car either. I am going to try Tamraz Parts in Naperville, IL and see if I can get a better quality. They have stock to choose from.

I picked one of these new 70-72 bumpers up from PY at the Spring Charlotte show & for the money I think it's fantastic! I have an NOS GM bumper on my 70 Judge & put the repo on my 71 & it looks just as good as the GM bumper.

As was mentioned above it comes down to personal preferences, if you want something that's perfect you probably won't get it from a repro part. A quality rechrome job on your straight ~ non-rusted core will run you $475 and up. I feel $320 for a repop that has just as good if not better quality than NOS GM part is ok with me.

[leecorrell]

The bumper came out of the box looking like my pictures show, just minutes after the shipping guy dropped the package off. If you guys had cleaned it up before shipping it to me I probably never would have noticed it. But, if it came out of the protection of the box that way I'm sure it isn't going to stand up to the outside elements well and will look like crap in a few months. Having seen what it looked like, I have no confidence that it will look good for very long.

For the record, I have an aftermarket front bumper I purchased from PY about 4 years ago on my car right now. It looked good when I got it and it still looks good today. Nothing at all like that rear bumper.

[Ccass]

Originally Posted by leecorrell

The bumper came out of the box looking like my pictures show, just minutes after the shipping guy dropped the package off. If you guys had cleaned it up before shipping it to me I probably never would have noticed it. But, if it came out of the protection of the box that way I'm sure it isn't going to stand up to the outside elements well and will look like crap in a few months. Having seen what it looked like, I have no confidence that it will look good for very long.

For the record, I have an aftermarket front bumper I purchased from PY about 4 years ago on my car right now. It looked good when I got it and it still looks good today. Nothing at all like that rear bumper.

Lee, thanks for confirming this. I just wanted to make sure. It must have been a bumper that we had on display at a show at one point. There's just no way we would normally send one out that dirty. I don't blame you for thinking it won't hold up with it being that dirty. Unfortunately there is just no way to tell on bumpers except for time.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Just picked-up our 70 GTO Rear Bumper today from PY for our Judge. I unboxed it in front of the Shipping fellas(s) (kind of a tradition at this rate) and it looked super.

Prior experience with PY has been:
1968 GTO rear Bumper (bought between 2003-2006): still looks super. NO maintenance thus far.

1969 Firebird rear Bumper (bought ~1993): surface rust appeared after a couple years, yet 0000 steel wool took it off completely, making that a yearly maintenance.
Had the original rear Bumper re-chromed ~2002.

[MarkJ]

I read here before that the reproduction 70-72 rear bumpers are excellent!

It seems to me that it would be difficult to justify the cost of re-chroming an original bumper unless it’s perfect.

Is it possible there will be a reproduction of the 68, 69, or 70 chrome front bumpers for the Lemans and Tempest? I’m thinking the answer will be “no” because of the one-year only application for each bumper.

How do the reproduction 68 rear bumpers fit? I had one on my convertible back in 95 or 96 when the first run of bumpers was released. Fit was ok, but they were not perfect.

[Hammertime Mike]

I bought a rear bumper for my 70 GTO conv. from PY two years ago at Pontiacs in the Park.I finally put it on my car this spring and was very pleased with it.The fit and finish were very acceptable.Years back when you could still buy these bumpers from your local GM dealer, I did buy one.The finish was no better than good and definately not show.After about a week I could see spots developing on the bumper.You have to protect them with wax to maintain them.At first I was upset with the quality of the bumper until I put it in perspective.They weren't selling show quality chrome,they were selling assembly line bumpers. I'm also familiar with the issues in the past with the 68 GTO re-pops.They didn't fit as triathalon has stated.Numerous places carried these bumpers and sold them.For me, Ames acknowledged such and made it right.You can't ask for more than that from these companies.If you aren't treated fairly all you can really do find and stick with those that have FAIR customer service!

[cuz68]

I have posted this many times. Try state re cromeing it is very near me and hey do great woork life time warenty on what they do, If you need there adress let me know.

[leecorrell]

Thanks for the recomendation cuz68, someone here at work had recomended Tri City Plating in Elizebethton TN to me in the past and I had already been in contact with them. They told me my original was too far gone to re-chrome, but they had a good core in stock to re-plate, total cost $625 +shipping and aprox 4 weeks lead time.

As an update to this thread, a $40 credit from PY showed up on my bank statement, so Ccass made good on his promise to refund some shipping charges. I noticed the catalog discription for this bumper has been changed as well. By my estimation that means PY lost $40 on this transaction by trying to make it right. I lost some money as well, but that's close to an even split and only fair.

[77 Canamman]

Originally Posted by steve v

I picked one of these new 70-72 bumpers up from PY at the Spring Charlotte show & for the money I think it's fantastic! I have an NOS GM bumper on my 70 Judge & put the repo on my 71 & it looks just as good as the GM bumper.

I agree. My reproduction '72 bumper actually fit the car better than the original GM bumper I took off. I was happy.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by leecorrell

Thanks for the recomendation cuz68, someone here at work had recomended Tri City Plating in Elizebethton TN to me in the past and I had already been in contact with them. They told me my original was too far gone to re-chrome, but they had a good core in stock to re-plate, total cost $625 +shipping and aprox 4 weeks lead time.

As an update to this thread, a $40 credit from PY showed up on my bank statement, so Ccass made good on his promise to refund some shipping charges. I noticed the catalog discription for this bumper has been changed as well. By my estimation that means PY lost $40 on this transaction by trying to make it right. I lost some money as well, but that's close to an even split and only fair.

That's good to know and proper of you to let us know of the relatively positive outcome.
Being in business myself, it's inevitable that occasionally, a customer will fall through the cracks and be disappointed with something. It's only fitting that the business do the best they can to make it at least somewhat palatable after the fact and it looks like Ccass did that in the end.

[ERIC AULL]

I'm going to need a real nice rear bumper for my 67 GTO, I am now pretty confused. What should I do? The rear bumper is shot, the front bumper is straight, but needs rechrome.....Eric

[Overkillphil]

If one wants a "Concours Restoration grade" bumper, then don't buy one of the nice "driver/casual restoration quality" pieces. Like wine, the best way to distinguish the two is by the price.