Chrome Tailgate Letters

[72shorbox]

Has anyone replaced the grey painted “CHEVROLET”letters on the tailgate band with the Chrome letters available from vendors? If so how was it to do and did they hold up? Couldn’t find a topic on changing out the letters. Thanks!

[notsolo]

Not the answer your looking for, I also looked at those letters, but decided to do this....painted to match....maybe someone will chime in with the answer.

[DeadheadNM]

I seem to recall a thread where this was done while the wood grain was also replaced. The band was essentially restored. It's worth mentioning that the NOS wood grain band I just placed on my K20 has chrome letters not gray paint but these are plastic. The band packaging had a GM label dated 1977.

One mention on a quick search fwiw: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...41&postcount=9

[FirstOwner69]

My original letters were chrome plated pot metal and pitted. I replaced them with some unused letters I bought on eBay (I think from a pawn shop in Vegas!) which were also chromed metal. I attached them using push nuts on the mounting pins.

[72shorbox]

Thanks everyone for your replies. After looking at my options I will just keep the one I have. It has the silver letters, I always liked the chrome letters better. My truck has all genuine GM moldings /trim and it all still looks brand new. The woodgrain on the aftermarket trim I have seen is not correct in the grain or the shade of brown. It is close and would be acceptable if you were doing the entire truck but I it will stand out if you replaced 1 or 2 pieces against the original GM molding.

[davischevy]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

I seem to recall a thread where this was done while the wood grain was also replaced. The band was essentially restored. It's worth mentioning that the NOS wood grain band I just placed on my K20 has chrome letters not gray paint but these are plastic. The band packaging had a GM label dated 1977.

One mention on a quick search fwiw: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...41&postcount=9

I still have an NOS tailgate band that has plastic letters. I bought it sometime in the mid eighties. It must have been a short run, because I bought several NOS ones in the eighties and that is the only one that had painted plastic letters. I'm not sure when they started using chrome plastic letters.

I have replaced missing letters with used letters years ago. It's not difficult.

In 1972 I let a mortar mixer tip over and put a scuff in the tailgate band on my new Cheyenne. Man I was sick.

As I remember it the band was called an "applique" in the parts book.

[DeadheadNM]

Were the other bands chrome metal or chrome plastic?

[davischevy]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

Were the other bands chrome metal or chrome plastic?

Man I can't remember. Back then we were just building trucks. We just did what ever made us feel good and didn't pay too much attention to that sort of thing.

I called that band in the rafters NOS, actually I had it on a truck for a while. In 1990 that truck won Best of Show out of three hundred plus trucks with that fake looking band on it.

Back then I didn't even take extreme bend hooks seriously.

[DeadheadNM]

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