Ok, Here I will describe how I went about painting my door handles. I didnt
like the look of the gray plastic handles, so I decided to paint em... here
we go
First thing i will talk about is removing the door handles, you MUST have
the windows rolled DOWN to take them off!!
First thing to do is removing the handles.. this was a minor PITA, so I'll
try to describe it as simply as possible. First thing to do is remove the
interior door panel... to do this, there is a phillips screw in the handle
on the inside (not the handle to open the door, but the lil dish type one in
the middle of the door.. There is a second bolt inside behind the interior
door handle that'll require a star bit, dont recall the size.. but after
thoes 2 screws are off, the panel will pop off with thoes annoying plastic
holder things.. some force should pop it off tho.. Once that is off, remove
the harnesses for anything you have (power windows, power mirrors on drivers
side, door handle bar, and power locks) if you have manual windows, you will
prolly break the clip holding the window crank on, you can pick these up at
any hardware store.. but try not to let it fly away on ya. Ok, now that your
door panel is off, remove both weather strips on the top of the door on
both sides of the window. Ttime to remove the outside door handles. There
are 2 bolts and a metal clip holding the handle on, they are both just a
bolt that you can ratchet off...you may have to peel back that vinylish
cover on the inside of the door.. or yers is just peeling off ayways like
mine kinda was =)
Getting to the bolts is the hardest part because the inside door panel
doesnt make it easy to reach them, so I removed the bar that connects to the
door lock so I can reach behind the panel and reach the bolts when I reach
up...
Once you have a fun time getting the bolts off, you will if your clumsly
like mne, drop a bolt or the metal piece holding the handles on.. well get
them out and put them to the side.. Once you have the clip off the back of
the door handle, you are not out of the clear yet, there are 2 bars
connected to the back of the door handle just like the bar on the inside
door handle, one is for the lock, one is for the handle, these are fairly
easy to unclip from the handle, just pop of the plastic piece off the bar,
and slide out the bar. leave them in there and now you can remove the
handle itself.. just work it out, pull out the bottom and slide it down and
out.. here's the back of the handle when removed..
Before you sand it down, remove the lock clip and the lock itself (you dont
want to paint that =) now, sanding down the handles.. all I did was use 600
grit sandpaper, and it created a nice smooth surface to work with... here's
the sanded handle
Now when you paint it, I used Dupli-color Universal Black (I have a black
car) For the love of god, use as light of coat as possible of paint...
multiple light layers creates a excellent look, it takes longer, but its
well worth it.. i used about 10 extremely fine coats, and let each dry in
between, once you have a flat black painted handle, I went to the can of
clear coat and repeated the painting steps... so it creates a durable smooth
top coat and adds the shine just like a door panel... when using either
paint or clearcoat, if you see ANY problem such as dots where paint isnt
sticking, or its not coming out smooth, stop, let it COMPLETELY dry, and
sand back down and repeat... this happened to my passenger side handle
after i was done, just put it on and next day re-did it, and it came out
great. let them dry for as long as you can let them, so you dont get any
prints on em. once they are dry, you are ready to replace the lock, and then
go back through the steps of replacing the handle.. GOOD LUCK =) here's the
finished product..
