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Replacement outer door handles
- Thread starter fast400
- Start date
I used reproduction handles on mine but that was back in 2004 or so ...
The reproductions I got looked slightly better than the GM ones specially where they wear out and some crack/break (so slightly more material).
Got a spare set dead cheap last year (I thought about getting them painted white actually but doubt I'll do that) ... however these seem to have clear coat on them that is actually pealing off slightly so not happy with that.
With the big price difference for reproduction I would suspect there's a number of manufactures of these as they do fit a number of 80's GM vehicles.
So I say they are good however you might want to make sure they are properly painted ...
The reproductions I got looked slightly better than the GM ones specially where they wear out and some crack/break (so slightly more material).
Got a spare set dead cheap last year (I thought about getting them painted white actually but doubt I'll do that) ... however these seem to have clear coat on them that is actually pealing off slightly so not happy with that.
With the big price difference for reproduction I would suspect there's a number of manufactures of these as they do fit a number of 80's GM vehicles.
So I say they are good however you might want to make sure they are properly painted ...
8289ta
Silver Member
Jan - what issues do the originals ones have besides the crappy paint? I was thinking about having mine powdercoated for my 82, but if they are going to crack or break later on, maybe I should go with a set of repros. I checked them out thoroughly, and I didn't see anything structurally wrong with them.
Hinged part either wear out and get sloppy or it cracks ad breaks in that same area ... or the part where the linkage attach (on the inside) breaks off ...
Not saying the GM's are bad just seen this on several cars but depends on how they been used / abused over the years.
If your's are nice and tight and no obvious cracks/stress points then powder coating them should be fine; if they break at some point they are easy and fairly quick to replace anyway.
