anyone painted the stock black door handles

I've seen some with matching doorhandles, so it should be possible. Don't know how to do it, though. Maybe you should ask your local paintshop.

Good luck, Peter

Yes, I had mine done several years ago when the car was in the body shop for some other work. It's very easy to remove the outer part of the handle, if you open the door and look at the side, there is a plastic cap that can be removed. Behind it is a metal bar that can be pushed, freeing the outer part of the handle. It's a lot more work to remove the inner part, so I left it attached, as it's easy to mask off with the outer removed.

It's just a case of masking off and sanding the surface smooth using progressively finer wet & dry paper. It's imperative to use the correct plastic primer, otherwise the paint will flake after some time. It's a small enough area that you could probably do it with an aerosol if you've done some paint work before, but I left it to the paint shop as it's quite hard to get a good finish with the lacquer on metallic paints.

And yes, the car looks much better afterwards!

This is a rather old and low quality photo, but you get the idea. The paint quality is still as good today, no deterioration at all. Something I'm not confident would be the case if I'd painted them myself

I'll try to get some this weekend if the weather holds up. Not looking too promising at the moment though

Door Handles

Brad C,

I painted my door handles, to which the finish matches very nicely. The photo is somewhat closer. I hope it helps.

Door Handles

BradC

-Thanx!

Looks real nice.

For black cars, you can use Forever Black Trim paint. Makes the black handles look like new permanently. That's what I used.

Zitat von Paul_M;44225

It's very easy to remove the outer part of the handle, if you open the door and look at the side, there is a plastic cap that can be removed. Behind it is a metal bar that can be pushed, freeing the outer part of the handle. It's a lot more work to remove the inner part, so I left it attached, as it's easy to mask off with the outer removed.

It's just a case of masking off and sanding the surface smooth using progressively finer wet & dry paper. It's imperative to use the correct plastic primer, otherwise the paint will flake after some time. It's a small enough area that you could probably do it with an aerosol if you've done some paint work before, but I left it to the paint shop as it's quite hard to get a good finish with the lacquer on metallic paints.

I can see the metal bar behind the plastic cap, but haven't had much luck freeing the outer part. In which direction should I push the metal bar, and should I be pulling on the outer part at the same time?

I can't remember which way it goes, it's been a while now. I think you push the bar to release it, it might need a sharp shock to free it. You don't have to pull the handle at the same time, once the bar has been moved it will stay in that position and the handle can be freely removed by gently lifting it out from the bottom.

Many thanks; I started my door handle repaint a couple of days ago, and worked out that the bar does indeed need a sharp hit from a hammer & screwdriver, and then it releases fine, as you say.

The Great British weather has delayed proceedings today, but I hope to get it finished soon; I might even post a pic if it all goes as planned.

I've recently picked up a spare pair of handles as I've been thinking about this for a while now, I look forward to seeing & reading your results

I finally managed to get round to doing this, and I am quite happy with the result. I got the paint in an aerosol from http://www.paints4u.com/, and whilst I don't think it was a *perfect* colour match, it'll do for me. I certainly think it's an improvement over the black. Their U-Pon high build gloss lacquer was easy enough to apply, too. The plastic primer was from Halfords.

Good job, looks very nice , I have everything ready for the job apart from time, hopefully get round to this on this coming weekend

Must be something in the air as I'm doing mine as well at the moment but I'm redoing mine black from the grey charcoal colour they had become and because both my door handles stopped working. Upon dismantling I expected to find the notorious 'pot metal' break but everything was intact. The pot metal bars were semi siezed and some WD40 got them moving freely again, I can only think that the handles stopped working because the 's' shaped hooks that hang off the handles were both slightly bent, although it did look like a manufatured bend I have straightened them. Just waiting for the new gaskets to turn up now.

Finally got around to do mine

Looks great! Did you paint it yourself? If so, where did you get the paint and are you happy with the result?