I painted the plastic plate that my armrest mounts on with chrome paint. I masked the aluminum section that is behind the door handle. It looks pretty much like the original to me. I also cleaned the aluminum section with baking soda.

 

That came out nice! Saved some serious bucks by simply repainting!

 

That looks great! I sweated the aluminum pieces off of mine and sent the plastic pieces out for "plastic chroming", however that's done. I cleaned the aluminum pieces and, when I got the plastic pieces back, I used contact cement to re-apply the aluminum pieces. Mine look pretty good, too, but at considerable more cost (for not so much of a better look, if any) than you had.

By the way, I was trying to figure out a way to put my armrest backing pieces on the door panels without using those original fasteners that are nearly impossible to get off without breaking the plastic tabs. Here's what I did, if anyone is interested. I just slightly "notched" the plastic tabs that stick through the door panel. Then I used a large paper clip, put it over the tab horizontally, and then turned the paperclip so it is vertical. The paper clip fit into the notches and they hold the backing pieces onto the door panels nicely.

Randy C.

 

Great Pic... I have been thinking of doing the same thing to mine

 

I cleaned up the edges - removed any plastic that stuck out from the original molding - with a razor scraper. Cleaned with denatured alcohol before painting. And repaired a crack in one with some JB weld.

Cutting the blue masking tape to fit the curved aluminum piece was the only tedious part.

Not sure how well the chrome paint will hold up - but I don't think this gets a lot of wear and tear. We shall see.