<VV> bumper brackets - silly me

[mhicks130 at cox.net]

OK, first of all, you have to understand my car is NOT a show car.  It's basically stock but not completely and I'm not a slave to stockiness.  Now having said that:

Today I finally got around to repainting the front bumper brackets.  My car is red and they were blue and rusty.  So I took the bumper off no sweat, but some of the SS carriage bolts had nuts so rusty they snapped.  Ah poo, now I gotta wait for an order from the vendors.  But wait, I'll check the local True Value and see what they've got.  It took 2 trips but I ended up with some stainless carriage bolts that polished up nice and fit.  I also replaced the nuts and washers with SS stuff.  I wire brushed the bejeebers out of the brackets to get the rust and blue paint off and repainted them with some Rustoleum red primer and some Semi Glooss Black.  They look nice now.  I thought about POR15 but then I'd have to hastle with top-coating.  But here's the thing, you only see them if you're lying on the ground looking up at the bottom of the bumper.  So why did I waste most of day doing this?  The rust was kinda bad but what motivated me the most was that they were blue.  I think my brain is just a bit goofy.  

For stockiness sake, are the bumper brackets supposed to be body color or semi-gloss black?  I like the black but I'm curious.  Also, is the front license plate supposed to be body color or blac?  Mine is currently body color but as long as I'm down there.....

I told my wife that before I'm done every fastener on that car will be stainless steel (except for the ones that HAVE to be grade 8 - take it easy you guys).

mikeH (losing his mind in southeast VA)