I talked with Bob about these door pulls on Monday this week and it took some time for him to find a process that would work to reproduce them. In the end, each one is hand stitched in order to get them to come out as original. Based on the vendors he discussed the project with, the consensus after careful evaluation of some original samples of the part was that the factory must have done them the same way - without an automated process.

That must have been costly and is probably one of the reasons they were phased out during the 1971 model year in favor of the thinner version that appeared in the late 71s and 72-73 models as well. The stitching in those thinner version pulls is embossed using a mold.

Even the Chrysler 300 Club International, Inc tried to reproduce these with their fairly large resources (for the Hurst models) and failed completely and gave up as far as I can tell. I saw a sample of one of their efforts and it was pretty pathetic - way too thin and didn't look even close to the original ones.

So Bob deserves our gratitude for coming through with yet another item we need at prices that usually beat any competitors making the same parts on occasion like arm rest pads or the chrome bases that go along with them. Other sellers of those items charge twice as much.

I encouraged Bob to take on this project well over a year ago, so I hope you guys appreciate his efforts and step up to the plate and buy some. I do not yet know what he needs to charge to sell these and recover his investment costs.

Thank you Bob!!!

 

What was the price?

 

Wow, ABC did it! Fantastic. I'm a big fan of that company.

Thank you, Steve, for bird-dogging this effort with ABC, and it's great to see it finally happen. I also talked with Bob a few times, by phone and at Carlisle, and he was always upbeat that it would get done, starting with the saddle color first, and "maybe" doing others. I suggested white to make it easy to "SEM" them to any color, so we'll see.

When I got my car, it had NO pulls or hardware. Fortunately for me, Manny (70SportSuburban) was gracious enough to sell me two decent pulls (in black) and the necessary hardware, all at a very modest price. With several thin coats of SEM saddle and some rattlecan chrome, the refurbishment came out great.

 

@CanCritter

 

I checked further with Bob this morning and he said that it appears he will indeed be able to do white as well and the price Marko quoted is correct. I will gladly pay $195 for a nice set. Without them my cars will just not look finished.

 

That's great news about white, on top of already great news about the saddle items. He still requires pull "cores" to work with, correct?

As for not looking finished, I'm with ya on that. Here's before and after with my doors. Note: The panels were reupholstered in 1998 by the second owner to appear reasonably nice, with no intention of OEM correctness. Also note that the armrests are ABC items, and boy-o-boy did I ever need 'em, as the originals were totally trashed, because they had been acting as the "door pulls" for a long, long time.

 

Yes, he still needs the cores to follow through.

 

I need a pair in white as well. Who do I need to contact? I've got new door panels with original white (no longer very white) door pulls. It really looks bad. I am most interested in a pair of door pulls in white.

 

ABC Moparts

 

I wanted to also mention that if you haven't bought any door armrest bezels from Bob @ ABC Moparts and your's are worn at all (most are because the cheap "chrome" finish from the factory was thin and easily wore off over time - junky actually), you really owe it to yourself to order a set from Bob as well. I ordered some for the first time and was really impressed with how deep, lustrous and gleaming they look and feel - real quality pieces that are nothing cheap like the original ones. They look and feel like genuine chrome - just excellent! I was actually blown away with how nice they are..........................and that is not hyperbole either!

 

The higher quality plating is because they actually plate the plastic now by a process that involves coating with copper and then plating the copper just like a metal piece would be done. Of course, that's simplifying the process, but the old way was "vacuum metalizing" where the part is placed in a vacuum chamber and aluminum is turned into a vapor that condenses on the surface of the part. (again, simplified description of the process). So now you have actual chrome where before you had an aluminum coating that looked like chrome for the first year or two.

Not to disparage Bob at all, I've talked to him at Carlisle and he is dedicated to selling quality parts, but I'll be willing to bet that he sources the armrest bases from the same places that everyone else that sells them do.

I bought some for my 300 from Vans and yes, the plating quality is much better than the original. It should last much longer too.

 

Great to hear that they reproduce the handles!

My '71 Sport Fury needs also a little help at this point;)
If I understand that correctly, ABC needs the old handles to form new leather around it?
And that would be my problem. My left handle is toast but with the hardwear still in place. The right one is sadly missing completely.

Any idears how I can get a set of two good looking white and useble door pulls to Germany?

 

I can provide a set of used door pulls and accompanying hardware for Bob to restore for you. Just provide me a personal mail note with your name and address and I can relay all of that to Bob.

Also, the handles are reproduced using properly grained vinyl just as the originals were.

Steve

 

Thanks Steve
PM sent

 

Unfortunately, this is the only photo I have at the moment.
It is an early 9/70 production, so the Sport Fury got the '70 handles. Yes completly different to yours.