Dennis Carpenter - Poor Quality Chrome - Thumbs Down

[Senorpablo]

I installed some new Dennis Carpenter door handles and a Ranger emblem on the grille of my truck about six weeks ago. The door handles started showing sings of rusting and pitting after three weeks! The ranger emblem, which isn't quite as exposed, lasted about 5 weeks before showing signs of rust.

To be fair, I live at the beach. Even in the summer, which is when I installed these parts, we often get condensation and moisture in the evenings. In these conditions, poor quality coatings get revealed quickly. However, there are thousands of cars in the area with chrome parts that survive just fine for years or decades. I just happen to live in an area where poor quality parts will show themselves much quicker than most.

The chrome on these Dennis Carpenter parts is very poor quality. You can see by the photos that there must have been tons of pours and scratches in the plating perhaps due to contamination of some kind. These photos were taken about six weeks after installation. The parts were wiped down and were clean before photographing.

Denis Carpenter poor quality chrome door handle.JPG

Denis Carpenter poor quality chrome Emblem.JPG

Customer service. The good news is I contacted them about the issue and they sent replacements. The bad news is the replacements are the same poor quality. I purchased the door handles a year ago so they have had plenty of time to get this issue worked out and they haven't. I examined the replacement parts more closely and the surface flaws in the chrome are visible. With the Ranger emblem, they now include a sticker which reads: "TO EXTEND THE LIFE OF CHROME PLATING, WAX THE PART BEFORE INSTALLING AND ONCE A MONTH AFTER INSTALLING." Clearly this is a known issue and instead of fixing the issue, they are passing it onto the customers. Most folks, who don't live at the beach or in similar conditions, won't notice their poor quality Dennis Carpenter parts until after their 1 year warranty has elapsed.

I get a kick out of their bold marketing claims. On the top of the third page of their catalog it says:
"What does it mean? In short, it means Ford parts made EXACTLY like originals"
I think if Dennis Carpenter made their door handles like Ford made the originals they would have lasted more than three weeks. The chrome on my 45 year old original handles was in pretty bad shape, but of course they were on the truck for 2,790 weeks, not 3.

Dennis Carpenter Catalog.JPG

Anyway, buyer beware. Unfortunately, there aren't very many choices for reproduction parts. If Dennis Carpenter chooses to skimp on chrome plating there's not much we can do about it. I know that Dennis Carpenter has a good reputation, and their marketing department works very hard to have you believe their parts are the best, but in this case the reality is their products aren't as high quality as they'd like you to believe. The bummer is, I have many other chrome parts from them on my truck and so time will tell if it's a widespread issue or limited to these two parts.

[FORD-F250-4x4-1972]

Dennis Carpenters Chrome is a big joke i bought too tailgate sportcustom panels for $200.00 each and both rear panels all the flat black paint fell off of them and the hood side F250 name plates pit marks after 1 year and outside door handles too Thumbs Down and the best thing to do with it send it out to a Chrome Plating Shop and have it Triple Chrome Plated