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Hello, I recently sanded and painted my door handles with 3 coats. It has only been 2 months and it is already chipping.
I plan to sand it and redo them could someone please recommend me a primer or clear coat since that's what I missed. I want to do it properly this time.
Any paint should work really, thing is it is all about how well you prep everything. These are the steps in order that I did mine.
1. Take them off your car
2. clean & degrease them really good before sanding to remove oils & crap
3. Sand it with a 320 grit sandpaper
4. Clean & Degrease the handle
5. put a couple of coats of primer
6. Sand it with 600 grit sand paper
7. Clean it again really good acouple of times
8. use laytex gloves to paint so the oils from you hands don't get on it
9. 2-3 coats of paint & read the can for the required painting temps
10. 3-4 coats of clear & let it dry over night
11. Put them back on your car
Great DIY! I also want to do mine, but the metallic wrapping around the handle is bubbling/peeling on my Z. Did you guys paint over those or should it be okay to rip them off and paint the plastic underneath.
When you guys painted your handles did you leave the handle in its normally closed position or did you prop it open for painting? I'm looking into painting mine and i want to make sure that I do it right. I have an 08 350z Nismo and Im painting the handles the same as the gunmetal trim. I will post up some pictures when it is completed.
When you guys painted your handles did you leave the handle in its normally closed position or did you prop it open for painting? I'm looking into painting mine and i want to make sure that I do it right. I have an 08 350z Nismo and Im painting the handles the same as the gunmetal trim. I will post up some pictures when it is completed.
I would also like what this gentleman above me meant by do the door handles need to be closed ? Or open (if so how while on the car). Too bad nobody has or would make a quick vid. lol
When you guys painted your handles did you leave the handle in its normally closed position or did you prop it open for painting? I'm looking into painting mine and i want to make sure that I do it right. I have an 08 350z Nismo and Im painting the handles the same as the gunmetal trim. I will post up some pictures when it is completed.
i did mine a while back. i had mine in the open position, i just wedged some paper inside to hold it open while i painted it and let it dry fully before removing it. cause if not i would look weird, its like doing a full body repaint and not painting the door jams. as definitely recommend taking to handles off to paint.
I know I'm late to the game but I finally did mine. I experimented by trying my best to tie my wheels into the rest of the car by trying to match my wheel color and decal sticker with a two tone door handle and it came out better than expected.
This was an extremely frustrating experience mainly because I am not experienced with painting, and if I had known a few things before hand it would have made my experience a lot easier. I ended up painting them a total of 3 times because the first two times when using the blue painters tape, the paint peeled right off with the tape. 1st time I didn't sand them, cleaned them nice, painted on red, taped them off, then the paint peeled right off. 2nd time, sanded with 600grit sand paper, painted, taped, peeled off again. 3rd time, sanded with 100grit, PRIMED with an automotive primer, used the same paint as before, and everything went smoothly from there.
To sum up my final thoughts on doing this:
1. make sure you thoroughly sand your handles
2. USE A PRIMER (this was the number one thing that I think made it a success in the end)
3. Use a proper automotive clear coat. I tried two different kinds and I did not like the way the acrylic clear coat felt to the hands.
this was following taking the tape off the first time, you can see a few remnants of the paint still still on the handle
right after removing the painters tape for the 3rd time before clear coating them.
On the car
overall, with the proper knowledge this mod is super simple and straight forward, and can be done in about 6 hours for the two tone effect (since you must wait for one color to dry, then the other before clear coating
I know I'm late to the game but I finally did mine. I experimented by trying my best to tie my wheels into the rest of the car by trying to match my wheel color and decal sticker with a two tone door handle and it came out better than expected.
This was an extremely frustrating experience mainly because I am not experienced with painting, and if I had known a few things before hand it would have made my experience a lot easier. I ended up painting them a total of 3 times because the first two times when using the blue painters tape, the paint peeled right off with the tape. 1st time I didn't sand them, cleaned them nice, painted on red, taped them off, then the paint peeled right off. 2nd time, sanded with 600grit sand paper, painted, taped, peeled off again. 3rd time, sanded with 100grit, PRIMED with an automotive primer, used the same paint as before, and everything went smoothly from there.
To sum up my final thoughts on doing this:
1. make sure you thoroughly sand your handles
2. USE A PRIMER (this was the number one thing that I think made it a success in the end)
3. Use a proper automotive clear coat. I tried two different kinds and I did not like the way the acrylic clear coat felt to the hands.
this was following taking the tape off the first time, you can see a few remnants of the paint still still on the handle
right after removing the painters tape for the 3rd time before clear coating them.
On the car
overall, with the proper knowledge this mod is super simple and straight forward, and can be done in about 6 hours for the two tone effect (since you must wait for one color to dry, then the other before clear coating
What primer, paint, and clear brand did you use ? Also how's the texture feel ?
I just did mind the other day and figured the paint would just wear off after a while so I left the actual handle that gets grabbed all the time and painted the rest. Turned out good and have yet to even grab the back part yet so I don't see it wearing out any time soon ; )
@NOLAGG. Funny. I have the same color 350z and was thinking about painting my handles the exact same way you painted yours after I painted my brake calipers red. I never did but one thing I did paint red was the "Z" that you can see through the hatch on the stabilizer bar back there. Looks awesome red. I also painted the "Nissan" letters on the front and back emblems red as well. Looks good and just enough red to go along with the other small "red" things I've done to it. 👍👍👍
