thrashingcows

Yup I have had the same thing with "new" mirrors. My 25+ year old mirror hold up better.

"Why do we need nickel beneath the chrome process that costs more money....the chrome looks fine to me!".....most companies producing this stuff.

oliver foster

Yeah the new aftermarket parts are JUNK. If you are having problems with rust through in TX in a year you could only guess what they would look like in the rust belt in a year!
The aftermarket parts don't last at all.
Let me know if you want some OEM original mirrors in good shape. That is all I put on my rigs, the brand new shiny out of the box stuff, well it can stay in the box.

maybe368

Nothing rusts in Phoenix unless you want it to...Mark

Fordzilla

It does until that thin layer of chrome starts to bubble from the oxidation that had already begun on the steel under it...Not everybody understands that even chrome will oxidize...The shine from the reflected light on chrome comes through a very thin layer of oxidation which started the moment it was exposed to the air...The best plating begins with the acid-cleaned ferrous metal being dipped in a plating vat to receive a layer of non-ferrous copper...Then it is washed, polished and plated again in nickel which adheres well to the copper, but not as well to raw steel...Following more polishing and cleaning, it then gets its final bath in the chrome tank, and afterwards more polishing when it is ready for many years of bright reflection and protection against rust...

Triple chrome plating is almost a lost process in the "get it to the consumer while he's still willing to buy it" market......Ben

maybe368

One of my first jobs was at Arizona Plating and I got pretty good at finding car and light truck bumper cores out of the collection for rechroming. They had bought a lot of the factory stamps and could restore a mangled bumper to new. What a noxious nightmare that was.I also ran a chrome, copper and gold evaporator at Motorola, where the raw chip wafers got their coating of those 3 metals. Motorola, another chemical nightmare in my life, especially the hydrofluoric acid wafer dip station, nice. And you guys wonder how I ended up with dain bramage...Mark

Fordzilla

Mark, I sometimes ran the tin-plating room for General Electric's central A/C plant in the early 70's after I was a civilian again...I can vouch for the noxious fumes also......Ben

edwinsmith

I had a replacement bumper that was chrome on steel. After about a year the chrome had all flaked off and was nothing but rust underneath.

Gunch

Man U guys aren’t sounding very promising.I’m definitely going to need bumpers if I can afford them when the time comes

KRB

You have the old style tow mirrors too? The ones with like four legs?

oliver foster

Yeah I have those too.
I have every 1st gen part you can think of. I even have a clean extra cab cab, and 4x4 frame. I haven't decided if I need another frame up build...yet.

How did those trim pieces look when they showed up? I padded the heck out of those headliner trim pieces.
Hopefully that spiffs up the old girl for you to be proud of it in the show and shine at the TDR rally next week!

oliver foster

The past two nights I have been wrenching on the black crew cab after dinner.
The clutch hydros are replaced now with a good spare I had on the shelf. The 4 inch exhaust was bolted to a custom down pipe hanger and re attached all the way back to the 5 inch tip. It needed to be dialed in after the new[er] 12V motor swap and the crossmember being moved back one bolt hole for the NV-4500 transmission.
The air bag system at all four corners is working well and holding air perfectly for days at a time.
I finished up last night greasing all the zerks in the front end and the driveshafts.

I freshened up several grounds in the engine bay and under the dash, as my pyro gauge was bouncing at times, which is likely a iffy ground.
I will be test driving it later today followed by a good bath. The 4 years of shop dust didn't all come off with a simple garden hosing session.

FrustratedFirst

Don't get them from LMC! Those are rusting already too!

KRB

Hmmm, been looking for some decent west coast type tow mirrors for my 1977 W200...

Parts arrived perfectly. I appreciate your creative use and recycling of padding products! Reduce, reuse, recycle.

nothingbutdarts

Did he use the dog food bags for packing as well???? Oliver is a great packer, I received a fan shroud from him that was perfectly packaged!

maybe368

Yup, Oliver is THE Man ...Mark