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Looking for unobtanium door edge guards


Seafoam65

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Although I suspect that the last nice pair of mint 65 door edge guards in existence were unceremoniously crushed

about 6 years ago.......don't laugh........I am desperately seeking a pair of them. It is the only trim on my car that isn't perfect, and I can't

just remove them because the paint is scratched underneath them from when they were put on. I know they are unobtanium but I:p have this fantasy

that one of you Riv nuts has a package of nos door edge guards in your attic collecting dust.....OK call me crazy, but if anyone knows where a nice pair

of these is or just a left or right single.....please let me know. Thanks, Winston

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Winston,

Those door edge guards are stainless and can be worked, just like any other metal, using some fine body tools back to their original condition. It might take a while to get the dings out, sand them down, and then polish them, but it can be done.

Ed

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Hello, I have a set from a 65,I will take some pics of them,

Email me at Dozer963@comcast.net

Regards

Bob

Somebody else on the forum bought these because I didn't respond fast enough, so I still need some door edge guards. If anybody

has any nice ones they can sell or a nice single I still need some......thanks, Winston

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those have been for sale for months with no takers.....they have some pretty bad dents in them here and there....they are in about the same shape

as the ones I have on the car now......not horrible but not very nice. thanks for the tip though! I will continue to beat the bushes for a pair or

a single that is very nice. NOS is my fantasy!

Edited by Seafoam65 (see edit history)
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  • 2 weeks later...
another picture, have 1 small ding.

If you want high resolution photos, send me your email addy.

Those are not 65 Riviera door edge guards......they might be 1966-67 door edge guards. Thanks for trying though....keep those

cards and letters coming folks!

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I know someone must hate it when I do this, but.......If you can't find that perfect set of door guards, and you probably can't, go to Pep Boys and for $5 get a set of vinyl "chrome" door guards for pickups, tap them on with a rubber mallet, and carefully trim off the excess. They will not damage the paint. If they're carefully installed I guarantee no one will notice the difference. You won't worry yourself to death about denting your hard-found real ones. And you can rip them off anytime and clean everything up with a little Goo-Gone. And they don't ding when you hit something! And if you do find that elusive pair you can keep them safe on a shelf til the next show.

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I know someone must hate it when I do this, but.......If you can't find that perfect set of door guards, and you probably can't, go to Pep Boys and for $5 get a set of vinyl "chrome" door guards for pickups, tap them on with a rubber mallet, and carefully trim off the excess. They will not damage the paint. If they're carefully installed I guarantee no one will notice the difference. You won't worry yourself to death about denting your hard-found real ones. And you can rip them off anytime and clean everything up with a little Goo-Gone. And they don't ding when you hit something! And if you do find that elusive pair you can keep them safe on a shelf til the next show.

Ditto X2

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Ditto X2

As correct and stock as my car is, vinyl door edge guards would stick out like a sore thumb. As for worrying about dinging a

nice door edge guard I would absolutely never throw a car door open against another car or anything else, so once I find some I'll be good to go.

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Guest dwhiteside64
I know someone must hate it when I do this, but.......If you can't find that perfect set of door guards, and you probably can't, go to Pep Boys and for $5 get a set of vinyl "chrome" door guards for pickups, tap them on with a rubber mallet, and carefully trim off the excess. They will not damage the paint. If they're carefully installed I guarantee no one will notice the difference. You won't worry yourself to death about denting your hard-found real ones. And you can rip them off anytime and clean everything up with a little Goo-Gone. And they don't ding when you hit something! And if you do find that elusive pair you can keep them safe on a shelf til the next show.

I can understand why Seafoam65 wants the originals due to the quality of his car. I too had a very hard time finding NOS or a nice condition used pair. My car's cowl tag had them listed as an option so I really wanted a set. I finally gave in and did what RIVNIK and Ed suggested. They look A LOT better than you would think they would but then again my car is in nice driver quality condition while from what I can tell Seafoam65's ride in more along the lines of a concourse level restoration.

Edited by dwhiteside64 (see edit history)
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I can understand why Seafoam65 wants the originals due to the quality of his car. I too had a very hard time finding NOS or a nice condition used pair. My car's cowl tag had them listed as an option so I really wanted a set. I finally gave in and did what RIVNIK and Ed suggested. They look A LOT better than you would think they would but then again my car is in nice driver quality condition while from what I can tell Seafoam65's ride in more along the lines of a concourse level restoration.

My car is not concours as it has never been restored, but it is a totally original unmolested car with all it's original parts so I would rather have dented originals on it than something that isn't factory, and I can't just remove them because the paint is damaged underneath them. I would describe my car as the way a well cared for Riv would have looked in 1970. Extremely clean with a little patina and of course an undercarriage like a five year old car

and an engine compartment like a five year old car. The lacquer exterior repaint that was done 40 years ago looks a lot like the original paint would have looked in 1969....not too shiny and a little grainy, with a few small touched up chips here and there. Some people when they see the car ask if it is the original paint. It's not that my door edge guards look horrible, it's just that all the other metal trim pieces on the car are perfect, so the door edge guards kind of slap you upside the head when you see them because

they are the worst thing about the car exterior wise. Being the perfectionist that I am, I'm sure that someday I will put a show paint job on it in the same

original color but honestly it really looks too nice to restore and I don't want to be paranoid about getting a rock chip on the highway like I am about my other

cars which are 100 point restos. I don't want to trailer this car to out of town car events like I do with my other old cars....I bought this one to drive, but I do want to fix the obvious simple flaws that it has eventually. Actually if I wanted to trailer it, I'd have to buy a new enclosed trailer as the Riv

is too wide to fit in my enclosed trailer without worrying about clearing the door closing cables on the rear door. One other point, I really don't want to leave off the door edge guards because they are on my original window sticker. My car is missing the 4 note horns that appear on my

window sticker and I asked the guy who owned the car for 45 years why they were not on the car. The reason why they are missing was kind of

interesting. The car was special ordered with the horns, and when the car came in, the transport driver backed it off the truck and into a light pole in the parking lot, ruining the rear bumper and dinging the right rear quarter panel. The guy who ordered the car refused to take it because

it wasn't going to have all original paint after it was repaired, so he bought a

Riv off their lot and had them take the horns off the car to put on his new car which didn't have that option. My car's first owner who owned it till

1967 was the front end guy at the dealership, who bought it at a big discount due to the body repair that was done. The guy who owned the car

from 1967 till 2012 was a make -ready guy at the selling dealer. I hope that someday I can find a set of four note horns for the car as they are on the window sticker. The only thing I have now of that option is the holes in the hood for the mounting brackets.

Edited by Seafoam65 (see edit history)
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Guest dwhiteside64

Hi Winston thanks for clarifying the condition of your Riviera. I agree to keep it as original as possible as they say "it's only original once". It's also nice that you want to drive it as I believe that we owners have a duty to keep these classic cars on the road if at all possible. It's not a painting or piece of jewelry but more like "moving art" as I once heard them called. I hope you find the horns you are looking for as I have seen them from time to time on Ebay, you just need to keep an eye out for them. People here on the forum can also assist you in location the horns too. Good luck.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Odd. The title say NOS, but in the header the description says 'used.'

These are what I'm looking for. Thanks for the heads up. I've been using Google search to

look for these every day on ebay for a year and when I type in nos 1963-65 Riviera door edge guards

nothing comes up on Google search regarding this auction. When I add the word "metal" then the

for sale ad comes up. What search engine did you use to find these?

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These are what I'm looking for. Thanks for the heads up. I've been using Google search to

look for these every day on ebay for a year and when I type in nos 1963-65 Riviera door edge guards

nothing comes up on Google search regarding this auction. When I add the word "metal" then the

for sale ad comes up. What search engine did you use to find these?

Wow do I feel like an idiot. One of my employees is a whiz on ebay and he pointed out I should be using the ebay search engine to look for things on ebay......DUH!

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I found them on Google. The one thing that I've learned is "too much information is a bad thing" on Google. If Google is trying to find every word you type in, you're limiting the search. I just typed 'Riviera door edge' into Google and the current eBay auction was the first item following some images. The same thing applies to the eBay search engine. You might have to look through quite a few items, but better too many than not enough. The way to control the number of inappropriate items that show up on eBay is to click on the 'Advanced' link in the upper right of the window. When the Advanced window opens, type the word 'fits' into the Exclude words from your search line then do a search. All of those vendors who think that everything they sell will fit a 1964 Riviera will be eliminated. For example. When I'm searching '1964 Riviera,' I'll go to the Advanced link and type "hot" into the Exclude line. That eliminates all of the hot wheels ads. If I type "hot" and "fits" into the window, then I get rid of seat covers, steering wheel covers, and all sorts of things that are universal and really have no specific application to my search.

When I typed '1964 Riviera' into the eBay search window, 12,050 hits came back. I then typed 'fits' into the exclude line; that brought the number of hits down to 831. I then added 'hot' to 'fits' and the number of hits came down to 588. Still a lot but much more manageable. As you learn what shows up that's inappropriate, you can start adding those items to your Exclude list.

Ed

Edited by RivNut (see edit history)
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I found them on Google. The one thing that I've learned is "too much information is a bad thing" on Google. If Google is trying to find every word you type in, you're limiting the search. I just typed 'Riviera door edge' into Google and the current eBay auction was the first item following some images. The same thing applies to the eBay search engine. You might have to look through quite a few items, but better too many than not enough. The way to control the number of inappropriate items that show up on eBay is to click on the 'Advanced' link in the upper right of the window. When the Advanced window opens, type the word 'fits' into the Exclude words from your search line then do a search. All of those vendors who think that everything they sell will fit a 1964 Riviera will be eliminated. For example. When I'm searching '1964 Riviera,' I'll go to the Advanced link and type "hot" into the Exclude line. That eliminates all of the hot wheels ads. If I type "hot" and "fits" into the window, then I get rid of seat covers, steering wheel covers, and all sorts of things that are universal and really have no specific application to my search.

When I typed '1964 Riviera' into the eBay search window, 12,050 hits came back. I then typed 'fits' into the exclude line; that brought the number of hits down to 831. I then added 'hot' to 'fits' and the number of hits came down to 588. Still a lot but much more manageable. As you learn what shows up that's inappropriate, you can start adding those items to your Exclude list.

Ed

Ed, thanks for the great advice....now I won't have to browse through 500 ads for pole

stripper antenna girls to look at the Riviera parts for sale .

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The above quote was made when the price was 185.00. I was able to win the auction and I now have a perfect set of nos door edge guards and they cost me dearly. With five minutes left the price was at

305.00 where it had been for the last ten hours. I waited till 30 seconds to jump in and I knew someone else

was going to be slamming in with a huge bid with a few seconds left, so I entered a max bid of 975.00. Sure

enough, another bidder waited till 30 seconds left and put up 655.65! I wound up getting them for 665.65............OUCH! Thanks to everyone who let me know about this auction as I had missed seeing it due

to an improper search.

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Winston,

The math teacher in me just had to do some calculating. Based on what the door edge guards would have cost new and what you paid for them ($4.09 vs. $665.65) by the time you get your car restored, based on an original purchase price in 1965 of $5,500, you're going to spend $895,125.00 to get your Riviera back to an NOS condition. :)

Ed

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The above quote was made when the price was 185.00. I was able to win the auction and I now have a perfect set of nos door edge guards and they cost me dearly. With five minutes left the price was at

305.00 where it had been for the last ten hours. I waited till 30 seconds to jump in and I knew someone else

was going to be slamming in with a huge bid with a few seconds left, so I entered a max bid of 975.00. Sure

enough, another bidder waited till 30 seconds left and put up 655.65! I wound up getting them for 665.65............OUCH! Thanks to everyone who let me know about this auction as I had missed seeing it due

to an improper search.

Wow...Winston, you`re a SERIOUS Riviera Dude! Enjoy!

Tom Mooney

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Man, I worked at a Chevy dealer in 1988 and bought a brand new set for my 70 Chevelle from GM for like $30. I was repainting the car at the time and they were still available. My friends tried to talk me out of putting them on but, like you, my car came with them and i wanted them back on. I'm glad you finally found a set!

Tim

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Winston,

The math teacher in me just had to do some calculating. Based on what the door edge guards would have cost new and what you paid for them ($4.09 vs. $665.65) by the time you get your car restored, based on an original purchase price in 1965 of $5,500, you're going to spend $895,125.00 to get your Riviera back to an NOS condition. :)

Ed

Ed, thank goodness every other piece of trim on my car inside and out is perfect except for

my beat up door edge guards, so now I'm good to go. Now my big worry is that UPS will twist them into a pretzel during shipping!

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Ed, thank goodness every other piece of trim on my car inside and out is perfect except for

my beat up door edge guards, so now I'm good to go. Now my big worry is that UPS will twist them into a pretzel during shipping!

Hopefully you insured them for the full amount.

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Guest dwhiteside64

...and to think if I just waited a little longer I would have only spent $660.00 more than I did and got originals lol. Congrats Winston on finally finding the holy grail of door edge guards!

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  • 2 weeks later...
...and to think if I just waited a little longer I would have only spent $660.00 more than I did and got originals lol. Congrats Winston on finally finding the holy grail of door edge guards!

Here is the final update.......They arrived properly bubblewrapped and in perfect condition, but for

some reason the gap on them was closed up extremely narrow. I carefully ran a wedge down them to open them up where I thought they should be. I discovered in removing the old ones that it is necessary to back off

all the outer door skin nuts as the door edge guards slide in between the outer and inner door skins and they are pinched and can't be removed till you back off the nuts. I was able to get them on without chipping the

paint and they look fantastic....what an improvement! Thanks again to those who let me know about the

auction on ebay!:o

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