My 03 has almost 90k miles, and the interior doesn't have a single scratch, no blotches on the insides of my doors or anything too. Hell, my retractable cubby still works like a charm, too haha.

 

My 06 handles are scratched like crazy. I'm gonna need to do something about them soon.

 

I wraped my door handles in matte black vinyl and I don't think it looks fake, if you've done a good job. It looks as good as new and you can hardly tell a difference plus I think it's more resistant to scratches than paint...

Here's mine..
(same on the passenger side)
https://i.imgur.com/XWBPw.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zW9Er.jpg

 

Looks great, but how did you get the vinyl into the recess for the window switches, and the curved are where you grab the handle?

 

Wow, that looks really good. I was just gonna paint mine but might have to consider wrapping them.

 

3M trim paint has an almost perfect match to the OEM color, I did my door handle with it and it came out great, just been lazy to do the other side so it's still a little scratched. It's been over a year and it still is 100% perfect. The oem rubbery paint just doesn't work.

As far as the sanded plastic, unless you seal it you will get all kinds of marks and stuff on it, any oil from your hands will start to leave spots, water that drips on it, anything.

If you really want to get a nice brush-finish, do the finer sanding then go back over it with smooth uni-directional strokes with a 320ish paper to give the final texture. That's what i've had the best luck with on metal surfaces anyway.

 

The handle part is not a problem (of course it's always good to have a heat gun for the curves) but the second part is a bit tricky, because the vinyl is not so stretchy. You might want to use a smaller piece first to cover the inside of that part where the switches are and then cut it on the edges (or pre cut it). After you wrap the rest of a door handle with a single piece of vinyl it's then much easier for that part. And unless you know what to look for, you don't notice the line between the two pieces.

 

You guys are missing a important piece of the painting puzzle.




Spray that on and whatever paint you use ain't coming off.