I recently purchased a 1983 Camaro I’ve been working on. I’ve never seen one with this chrome band behind the doors and over the roof. The door handles read “designer series.” Any idea if this is original to the vehicle? It’s got “Camaro” badging on both sides, and has color matched pin-striping along the edges.

 

Looks like one of those stick-on kits you could get at AutoZone and such.

 

Cool to see a nice Sport Coupe. That's just some add-on stuff a previous owner added. Do what you want, since it's your car. BUT.....if it were my car, those doo-dads would have a very short life expectancy.

 

Plan is to restore it as original as possible. Already have some new OEM parts and rims on order. Luckily it’s been kept fairly clean, but I’ve never seen them before and wanted to make sure it wasn’t something original before considering removal. After researching I had found another barn find somewhere in Pennsylvania with similar trim so wasn’t 100% sure. Oldest Camaro we’ve ever had prior to this was a ‘92.

 

Those are after market. Could have been added any time.

 

It might be aftermarket chrome trim a local dealer added to the car back when it was new. Things like pin striping, body side moldings and chrome trim were typically added to cars back in the day to increase dealer profits. It could also be a special regional GM promotional item that was added to select cars at certain dealers in a particular area. However, the quick search I did on “Designer Series” targa band trim turned up nothing. So, I’m thinking it was just a dealer add on or the prior owner/s put it on.

 

In my public announcement voice........"Is YOUR new Camaro too plain?.........JC Whitney to the rescue!!"