painted door handles

is there any way to get painted door handles on my 92 dx. it has these stupid plastic ones, and also, how hard is it to put in power locks and windows?

As for the plastic colored door handles, I have no idea and was wondering that myself. About the power door locks, do you have an alarm system or anything? My boyfriend put power locks in and it takes some time but it's not too hard. You just had to put in the lock actuators. You have to find a place inside the door, not obstructing the window. (that means that you have to remove all of the door panels) drill holes and screw them inside the door. they usually give clamps with that clamp together the actuator bar and the peice that goes to your lock. then you have to hook it up to like the cpu or something like that (my b/f did it for me) The kit costs around 40 or 50 bucks and it comes with instructions. just trying to help if i did at all. lol
Nicole

It's reletively easy to paint the door handles. I've done mine and they came out great. IMO, as long as the parts that need to be painted aren't to big, you can do it yourself.

Steps to follow, once posted on the good old PH.com


1. tape and newspaper the side of the car.
2.was the moldings with dish soap to get rid of oils.
3. dry and wipe moldings off with alcohol
4. sand with 800 then 1200 grit sand paper.
5. wipe off and clean with more alcohol let dry.
6. srayed Bulldog adhesive promotor to make paint stick.
( you can get it at Pepboys works better then primer cause primer make paint fade.)
7. two light coats of Bulldog then let dry fo 15 min.
8. then I used Krylon high gloss Banner red(color of my car Roma Red) and spayed 5 light coats of that in about a hour time span drys in 12 minutes.
9. then spayed 3 light coats a Krylon high gloss cherry red to
have perfect match.
10. Then used Krylon high gloss clear coat and sprayed about 4 light coats



And the result of my DIY painting

http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/661116zijkantafgeplakt.jpg

http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/392899klink1.jpg

damn that looks good. is it shiny like the rest of the paint? on my 98 ex the handles are already painted and they look good, but i dunno if itll look the same cause it seems like its a different material. does it come out shiny like the rest of the paint? as for the locks i was thinking abut getting door panels from a car that has power hit, and using those buttons... prob get the motors and stuff too.. would that work?

weren't you going to paint your whole car, if so, just don't mask them off while painting.

Originally posted by FREED0MFiST
damn that looks good. is it shiny like the rest of the paint? on my 98 ex the handles are already painted and they look good, but i dunno if itll look the same cause it seems like its a different material. does it come out shiny like the rest of the paint?

It depends on the last layer of clear coat. If you make the last layer really thick (just make sure it doesn't start to drip) you'll get a nice and shiny result. If you spray the last layer as thick as the rest, you'll get a more flat look. You'll see it's a DIY job if you get really close to the door handles, then you see that's done with a spray can... but this is only from real close.

yeah now that i know i can paint them, im going to do it when i paint my car. and oh yeah, is $100 to have a guy shave my moldings a good price? id do it myself but i cant weld.

Yeah, $100 is a very decent price. :)

Shave em!! :)

yeah, ill prob go for it if i get that old civic... hopefully my body doesnt turn out all wavy and funky with this dude shaving it.

Originally posted by FREED0MFiST
yeah now that i know i can paint them, im going to do it when i paint my car. and oh yeah, is $100 to have a guy shave my moldings a good price? id do it myself but i cant weld.

Is this guy someone that you know or does he have a body shop? I was just wondering how much it would cost to go a body shop and have them do it? I was going to do it myself but I don't want to mess it up. :cry: Do you just cover the holes with metal and weld it? Then do you cover up with puddy until it blends with the rest of the car with just layers of puddy or do you have to actually weld metal over the entire are where the side peice was? :confused:

this is just some guy i know, who runs sime litle import thing with his friend. i dont think he actually has a shop, just does odd jobs for people. i saw his car and its all shaved but its not painted yet, so i couldnt tell how good the end result is.

how come you have to sand the door handles???
did you do your side view mirrors and spoiler too?? would that be an easy job??

ok i just painted mine and they look like crap. i think it's because i used a gloss black and that's not the color of my car but i was just trying to make them look better. because they looked all faded. i have the black plastic molding handles too. tomorrow i'm going to try using flat black which is the way i think i should have gone before but oh well. i'm just gonna have to sand them down, which is a pain in the ass, tomorrow.

hey where do you get this bulldog adhesive promoter from cause there are no pepboys stores here where i live

dude wtf?!?!?! why would you mask off half your fuckin car just to paint your damn door handles..thats the most ghetto way i've ever seen.. seriously, open your door, take off the door skin, and take off the freakin handle!!!!! don't paint it while its on the car, thats ghey... you'll end up having chipped edges, edges not painted, paint soaking through newspaper..why go through all that hassle?!

if you paint them, please take them OFF the car and do it the right way.

just my opinion

Agreed. Sigh, I ripped my entire car apart to paint the interior... if I wanted to make it look terrible I could have just left everything in place and taped it off.... But honestly, I don't like spray painting in my interior.... (just because you tape/newspaper something off doesn't mean that the paint that is airborne isn't landing and drying on your shiny clearcoat ;-) ) Just a thought.