Were they originally all polished and just become matte over time, or were they always just a matte or brushed finish, not shiny?
Someone will correct me here if I'm wrong, but I don't think any of the stainless (or aluminum sill plates) were polished. The rocker moldings were flash chromed. Most of not all of the polishing done to "restore" these cars is "over-restoring."
The sill plates were as said earlier stamped out of aluminum, but were pretty shiny. If you want to know how they looked when new, turn them over and look at the back side. Duane
The Repoped sill plate are pure junk....... Thin as a beer can. The body by fisher badge will fall off. If your think your originals are bad wait till you see the repops...... BTW I got a set in my junk pile.... if you want them free99. minus the lost badges...
We're talking about sill plates at the base of the door jamb when you open the door, not rocker panel moldings. But those look very nice!
I bought a set from OPGI about 10 yrs ago and they still look great. Don't know if the quality has diminished since then or maybe manufacturer differences are to blame.
To each his own…in a good way. But what I did when restoring the Reynolds car, is bought the repos didn’t like how the body by fisher looked nor the way it was glued on as the originals are riveted on by very small rivets. Had pretty nice originals but were bent by me or someone over tightening the screws. Very carefully took the tags off both and reglued the originals on the new sill with rivets in place. Turned out perfect. As far as the repos being to thin? Didn’t notice that or they are the older ones. But dabbed a small amount of Loctite on the screw’s and lightly snug them up not indenting the sill plate.
My existing ones look like somebody took a hammer to them and dented up the little raised ridges. No matter what you do to that, it is going to show thru. I see some of the repo's state the body by fisher is riveted on, not just glued, but who knows.
