Exterior Door Handle - Chrome

[DavidS]

I have seen a lot of JohnZ's posts where bumpers were not "Show Chromed".  Is the same true for exterior door handles?  Were the door handles "Factory Chromed"?

I want to send my 69Z handles out to be rechromed.  Paul's Chrome www.paulschrome.com said they only do "Show Chrome" for door handles.

note: This is probably already well known, but the shaft that goes into the button is press fit on.  I held the flat part of the shaft with a vise, put a pair of pliers near the knob and gently tapped on the pliers to take the button off the shaft.  I measured the entire length from the top the button to the end of the shaft first.
The total length is approx 3 1/8" long (79 mm).


When I send them out to be rechromed I am going to ask them to mask off the hole that the shaft goes into.

[68camaroz28]

I'm not aware of any GM chrome parts that were show chrome back in the day including door handles.
With that info at hand I still had our handles and all other chrome work done top notch.

[DavidS]

I'm not aware of any GM chrome parts that were show chrome back in the day including door handles.
With that info at hand I still had our handles and all other chrome work done top notch.

Thanks Chick! 

Did you have your bumpers Show Chromed as well?

Who did you use, and were you happy with the work they did?

[ggtsvnv]

I'm not aware of any GM chrome parts that were show chrome back in the day including door handles.

  I agree, the sad thing in this day and age is if you don't have the show chrome when you go to a show your original car looks not a nice as the one next to it with the show chrome.

[68camaroz28]

I'm not aware of any GM chrome parts that were show chrome back in the day including door handles.
With that info at hand I still had our handles and all other chrome work done top notch.

Thanks Chick! 

Did you have your bumpers Show Chromed as well?

Who did you use, and were you happy with the work they did?

Oops, sorry Dave as for not following up with your question! To tell the truth the rear bumper was re-chromed but not the front as its s a NOS one from the mid 80's. The NOS one looks fine but not sure yet how it will look on the car so we will see. I changed platers so some pcs. were done by one and many others (parts off two cars) by another. Quality of work is superb for both but my current go to chrome team produces outstanding work, has a two week turn around, and is less expensive. I'm just delighted with Jon Wright's "Custom Chrome Plating" (440)926-3116  P.O. Box 125  963 Mechanic St.  Gafton, OH 44044. Lonny (owner of East Coast Muscle Cars) uses them and put me on to them. Class act! Example, you send them a part or parts, they send you back a picture of what you sent and a cost to plate, you give the OK, and they plate and have completed in normally two weeks. Well managed business.....

[tmodel66]

Jon Wright      http://customchromeplating.com/          Did my chrome work as well. My painter/body man is a Yankee and has been using him since he worked out of his garage at his house.  Best in the Chrome business as far as I'm concerned. But you get what you pay for in the plating business. I found out the hard way.  Best to do it right the first time if it does cost a little more.

[DavidS]

Thanks guys!!!!  I will try out Custom Chrome Plating and post some before and after pictures of the handles.

[KurtS]

About how much to plate a bumper?

[tmodel66]

About how much to plate a bumper?

Kurt  Custom Chrome charged me $385 including shipping to do my rear bumper. It was in decent shape but it had pits around the bolt holes from rust and a minor twist.

[z28z11]

Tell you a good one - show versus "factory" chrome -

A friend of mine bought a 4400 mile '68 SS coupe a few years ago - car was featured in one of the Camaro books (Hooper's?) for the frame markings, original paint and date codes - this car smelled new on the inside, and we even conjectured the original air was in the tires. Beautiful car, fanatical owner, decided he didn't like the original factory "flash" chrome on the bumpers, so he removed them and the guards and had a local (national reputation) chrome shop rechrome them (about $500.00 worth many years ago) in show chrome - when he got to the point of installation, when he hung the front guards on the bumper to bolt them up, the weight of the guards dimpled the chrome (copper layer on show chrome is very thick, very soft). Being extremely upset, the owner sent them back three times, and only accepted them after all the copper was buffed off, and the chrome was plated over the nickel coat without copper layers to emulate the "factory" flash coat. True story - I transported the bumpers back and forth to the shop myself.
The down side to "factory" chrome when you are plating used parts - you can't use copper (or very much copper), otherwise you'll see the difference right off, plus you'll usually have pits that you can't buff out (no copper to fill/level them). BTW, when we dropped the rear bumper on this car, the rear bumper was stamped inside the bumper with a date code, roughly 3/4" stamped letters - I had never seen that on any bumper before, maybe because of mileage or age. Just my opinion -

[68camaroz28]

About how much to plate a bumper?

Kurt  Custom Chrome charged me $385 including shipping to do my rear bumper. It was in decent shape but it had pits around the bolt holes from rust and a minor twist.

Kurt, we had Librandi's do our rear bumper as this was before I changed platers. The work is outstanding but the biggest issue is a 3 month lead time which is one of the reasons for changing but neverless the cost to do our rear was $450 and repair two holes that had been drilled for what I suspect was a bolt on trailer hitch.

[KurtS]

Thanks!
I need to redo one bumper.

Wonder how commonly the rear bumper guards dimple the repro show chrome bumpers - seeing that all Z's have them.

[z28z11]

Kurt,

Likely depends on who is doing the chrome. This situation developed on the front bumper, where the guards really hang on the back edge - the weight of the guard and the leverage it generated just hanging there (before the lower bolts were installed) was all it took to dimple the chrome. The chrome itself was really perfect, too - too perfect. I will not repeat the name of the shop, but it was a nationally advertised business, and I really don't attach a problem to them for doing what they perceived as a proper (and good) job. My point was the difference between show chrome and OEM chrome processes - what you could see if a shop goes overboard on the copper plate -
Fortunately, or unfortunately, my '68 Z bumper is not re-plated. My '69 Pace wears an original, and '69 Z has a NOS waiting for it. The poor barn car SS has mud dauber nests. So it goes -

Regards,
Steve 

[tmodel66]

Thanks!
I need to redo one bumper.

Wonder how commonly the rear bumper guards dimple the repro show chrome bumpers - seeing that all Z's have them.

Kurt I put my original in storage to use later if I ever make it to "big time" car shows. I used one of the el-cheap-o's to run on the street. It looks better than I thought and it didn't dimple at all. Now mind you I did put dumb-dumb between the bolt and bumper plus I didn't go Gorilla on the wrenches either.  The dumb dumb acts like a cushion plus it helps seal the bolt so water don't get under the bolt head next to the bumper.

[joesauer]

One of the best chromer's in the US is Sherm's out of Sacramento, Ca.  Does lots of show cars.  Has three levels of plating available, so you can get good quality without going all the way to show chrome.  Got my front bumper redone where it looks like factory chrome vs show.  Cost me $450, with a 5 week wait time.  Assume price depends on how much prep is needed.