The handles on bathroom cabinets are peeling. Whatever shit they are finished with is making a run for it.

I can’t get replacements so any ideas for cleaning them down to the bare metal? Dremel tool perhaps? If so, which one?

Don’t want to go down the chemical route if I can avoid it.

Any ideas appreciated and also recommendations on how to refinish them durably.

TiA.

What is the distance between the screw centres? In mm. 128, 192? I might be able to find replacements.

^^^ Yeah I would bet there will be alternatives – I needed to find some and it took some digging (to get exactly what I was looking for) but it worked out.

If you used a Dremel on them, you would end up with loads of surface scratches and imperfections that would undoubtedly show up after repaining.

Screw centres are 97 mm (two handles) and 117 mm for the other two.

Thanks for looking!

Hi Derek,
i’m not sure if these handles would do the job. They come close in looks but probably not close enough, i’m afraid.

Find a rechroming place to do the job for you – they’ll strip off the old finish and make em all shiny again.

The alloy looks pretty badly pitted* I can’t see much making them shiny shiny again.

* But sometimes it does looks much worse than it is.

I don’t think they are chromed-chromed. I think they are wrapped if that makes sense? It’s almost like a foil that is beginning to lift. Or is that how chrome presents when it has aged?

If they’re metal underneath you can probably still rechrome them properly regardless of what was on there before. There are a few places that will do free quotes based on a couple of photos – might be worth checking with them?

Panic over. I phoned the manufacturer and explained the situation: 4 replacement handles on the way, gratis.

RRP for non-gratis spares: £84. Result.

Great customer service from R2 Bathrooms and Roper Rhodes.

That’s ok then, although I think they were taking the piss with the replacement cost!

As for re-chroming…. Very expensive.