Drilling Chrome Bumper

I see your a Ham. Surely you know someone with a set of Greenlee punches. That way you can drill a much smaller hole and use the conduit punch to get a smooth clean hole.

Thanks for the replies. I may have to rethink things. I've not had good luck with undr bumper mounting. They always seem to get moisture kicked up into the connections and corrodes. I was thinking being mounted higher it would be protected from road spray a little better.

The chips will clean just fine. You must run hole saws at a very slow speed to keep the teeth from getting hot or even worse heating the bumper to the point where it gets heat treated and then impossible to cut. I use WD-40 as a coolant/lube. There are better choices but this stuff works fine.

That being said, I would not do this either. Once you open that plating it will rust very quickly even if you try to seal it up.

Bob/Olallawa wrote:

12th Man Fan wrote:
I would mount it below the bumper beside the hitch receiver. They make brackets for those plugs that will mount under the bumper.

Drilling through a chrome bumper is not something I would do.

I agree with this statement completely, when the chrome starts coming off it gets ugly quickly.

X2

Bumpers do not come cheap and even getting a bumper with good quality chrome is really hard to find not to mention even more expensive.

Make a mistake and you will be deciding on buying another bumper or finding a cheap place to get it re-chromed..

Its you call but if you must do it, use a bi-metal hole saw but replace the drill bit with a steel rod. Pre-drill a pilot hole in the bumper with a bit that matches the diameter of the steel rod. If you leave the drill bit in the hole saw it will enlarge the pilot hole and your cut will get wobbly.

Use some cutting oil to keep the cutting temps low other wise you will discolor the surrounding chrome.

If you are lucky the surrounding chrome will stay put, if you are not the chrome might lift off..

Once hole is done you MUST seal the exposed steel with some paint, failure to do that will result in ugly rust creeping out from the hole..

I personally wouldn't do it, just buy the bracket and mount it under the bumper like everyone else does.

If you're going to use a hole saw, make sure you also put some blue tape covering the rest of the bumper. It helps prevent chips from spreading and leaves a cleaner finish when you the cut. I did this on my F-150 when I was installing Rigid backup lights (they were flush mount units). I used a sabre saw when cutting my bumper and blue taped them so I could keep any paint chips from spreading. Here's a sample below:

The saw has to turn fast enough to blow the chips out of the kerf.

12th Man Fan wrote:
I would mount it below the bumper beside the hitch receiver. They make brackets for those plugs that will mount under the bumper.

Drilling through a chrome bumper is not something I would do.

I agree with this statement completely, when the chrome starts coming off it gets ugly quickly.

camperpaul wrote:

dodge guy wrote:
They make hole saws for steel. No issues doing this. Yes definitely put some type of primer and paint on the bare steel.

X2

I have cut a lot of holes for mounting "8 Ball" antenna bases.

Use WD-40 for the lube and run the drill at its highest speed.

Let the speed of the tool do the work.

X3

They are call bi metal hole saws get some cutting oil, and keep the speed of the drill slow! Slow dill speed will work far better than fast. I have drilled stainless steel with one and it worked fine.

dodge guy wrote:
They make hole saws for steel. No issues doing this. Yes definitely put some type of primer and paint on the bare steel.

X2

I have cut a lot of holes for mounting "8 Ball" antenna bases.

Use WD-40 for the lube and run the drill at its highest speed.

Let the speed of the tool do the work.

They make hole saws for steel. No issues doing this. Yes definitely put some type of primer and paint on the bare steel.