<VV> Re: re chroming

[Dennis Dorogi]

I had some very rusty  and pitted backing plates (dishes) on my rampside.  I
spent over a week grinding, sanding, and polishing out the rust and pits in
the recessed areas of the backing plates.  What can I say - I have more time
than money.
      I took four of them to a local industrial plater that refused to
chrome car parts.  However, the backing plates don't look much like car
parts, but  just another industrial part.    I only paid $35. (3 years ago)
to have all four replated.  They turned out very nice and the upshot is that
during classification in concours at Buffalo, (I was trying for street
stock) Larry Claypool said I would be put in modified instead.  Why? Well,
the one thing I had to accept - I had carpets instead of the original rubber
mat.  But the other thing he mentioned was that the original latches (and
backing plates) never looked that good from GM and were overdone.  I'm sure
he was joking ( I think!).   I had to laugh knowing that with some elbow
grease and only $35. I had what he thought was an overdone  chrome job on
the latches.
The metal in the plates is quite thick and will take alot of grinding and
polishing.  It worked for me and could for you.   The tailgate latches are
different  (shafts) but the backing plates are more or less interchangeable.
Dennis Dorogi    Original message
From: <rchivers at tampabay.rr.com>
To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2007 10:51 AM
Subject: <VV> Re: re chroming


> Thanks to all that have replied, still trying to sort out all of the
> options.  Somewhat limitied as this is not going to be a show vehicle,
> but still want it to look nice.  The budget is pretty well strained at
> this time so have to be careful ...
> Hopefully the rampie will be going to the painter today, anybody have
> any experience with powder coating the handles if the price for
> chroming gets out of my budget ?
>
> Also I noticed that the shafts are different lengths on the tailgate
> and the ramp. (the tailgates are about 1/2 to 5/8 on an inch longer)
> so I am assuming that the sets are not interchangable between the ramp
> and the tail gate is this correct ?
>
> I have removed the handles and drilled and tapped them so that I can
> reassemble them.  It appears that the 'dish' and handles are all the
> same only difference seems to be the length of the 'bolt'...
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