I did some more research on this and here's what I found: After studying photos of 4-door '63 Impala interiors I can see that both the front and rear door armrests & handles are exactly the same as on a '63 Buick fullsize. So Classic Industries K7949 should work fine on the front doors. They have lots of colors of pads as well if you need those. Problem is, I don't see the corresponding armrests w/ ashtrays for the back doors. PA260 from Ames will NOT work here--they are too short and do not incorporate the door handle. So is it possible they don't make a repro of the rear armrests? Seems unlikely... I'd love to hear from someone who has experience with these repros. Phil
Point of interest: I faced the same issue when restoring the dash bezel on my '68 GTO. The process of "chroming" over plastic is referred to as vacuum metalizing; was able to find a small manufacturer locally who used the process in the manufacture of beer signs. Was able to persuade him to hang my dash bezel in the chamber where he was doing his next batch of beer-sign parts. Came out great, and he treated me very right, as it was found money to him. Maybe you could find some concern locally who does this to non-automotive parts and make a deal? Just a thought, Steve in Mpls.
Rick, You will need to get that waterpump rblt. DO NOT buy a rebuilt one from NAPA. and you cannot buy a new one. I'll get the name and number of the guy that does them for my friend. It may have to wait til tuesday when he's back at the shop.
Alex, The water pump situation appears to be a gasket, but I have not pulled it off yet to verify. Have you had bad luck with the NAPA rebuilds? The brakes are more of a "concern" at the moment as I'll need to drive the Electra to Seattle for fall/winter storage soon, after the fuel tank is finished and installed. Thanks for the heads up.
Well, better late than never... I'm resurrecting this thread since, after nearly 12 years, I finally replaced the front armrests on my '63 Wildcat 4-dr hardtop. Since I was already ordering a few other things from CARS I ended up getting part #ARB634 (bases) and AP634S (pads in saddle) from them, even though on their site they are NOT listed for a '63 Wildcat, only Riviera. CARS also does not give dimensions, but I have seen these arm rests and pads on other websites (Classic Industries, Original Parts Group, Summit Racing, etc....) listed as 15" and I figured the CARS ones must be exactly the same. I was not surprised to find these were an exact match for mine. See pics: I'm very happy with the arm rest bases--they are virtually indistinguishable from the originals. The pads I'm not as thrilled about--they are just a single solid piece of rubber and not vinyl over a foam base like the originals, and they ain't cheap at $89.50 a pair. Color is a pretty decent match though it depends on the lighting. Sometimes it doesn't look quite right, but that's probably because the original vinyl on the door panels has some sun-fading. In any case it's certainly an upgrade from the dingy looking old ones. Wish I had revisited this thread BEFORE I had ordered...Classic Industries has the same pads (listed for 63-64 Impala) for $71.99. Problem is, as I said back in 2009, it appears the rear armrests for this car (and other GM 4-doors from the same era) have never been reproduced. Here's a visual: They are about 15.5" at their widest. Is anyone aware of a reproduction of these being made anywhere that I might have missed? Or has anyone had success with re-chroming these?
There are some nice chrome spray bombs that have been released in the last 12 years too. That may help the appearance. The paint should hold up since they are not in the weather.
There is also a water based”paint system” that basically plates parts with a chrome finish. They paint the parts black then “chrome” over that. It should hold up fine for an interior part. There are shops out there that do this. You should look up the system on the internet, you will be amazed at what they can do. Duane
Check out this video. It shows one of the water based plating systems being applied. In one video I watched they show a seriously pitted exterior pot metal part being "plated" after it was sanded down, had all the pits filled with bondo, and was painted black. As long as the exterior of the part ended up looking perfect, the chrome ended up looking like glass. I don't know how durable it is, but it would be another way to save very hard to find parts. Especially now that many "chrome" shops are going out of business. I was going to use this type of system to re-chrome my 69 dash bezel, because I did not have the time to wait for the re-plating shops backlogs. What I found at the time, was there are some systems that will not allow you to paint over them, so you could not apply the black paint for a dash bezel, but other systems would allow this. If you wanted to use something like this, you will need to do your homework to see what is best. Duane
Here is a video of a paintable spray system that is also out there. I am sure there are other systems available as well. You will need to do your homework to see what works best for your applications. Duane
