Hate the chrome door handles... | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Hate the chrome door handles...

donbickle707

New Member
Joined
July 10, 2012
Messages
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City, State
Humboldt County, CA
Year, Model & Trim Level
2006 Explorer XLT
I am looking to replace the interior door handles with some that are NOT chrome, I would prefer black or maybe even the carbon fiber look the dash bezel has. A little side note, I would also like to replace the chrome rings around the air vents and the chrome trim around the instrument cluster. Does anyone have any ideas where I might be able to find these or if I should just pull em apart, sand em down, and paint em (LAST resort).
 



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buy the chrome and have a body shop paint them to your desired color. air vents, use expedition vents..
 






How about we trade? Sounds crazy....but I just bought a 2013 base with black handles and I want.chrome. Just a thought. :)
 






you can wrap the chrome in vinyl. I did this with a heat gun and some 3M 1080 carbon print film, oh and a lot of patience!

IMG_4138.jpg


IMG_4128.jpg
 






you can wrap the chrome in vinyl. I did this with a heat gun and some 3M 1080 carbon print film, oh and a lot of patience!

IMG_4138.jpg


IMG_4128.jpg


That looks gorgeous! I bet you could make a good buck doing that service!
 






thanks!
 






How about we trade? Sounds crazy....but I just bought a 2013 base with black handles and I want.chrome. Just a thought. :)

Talking about the interior handles right? I got the funky ones at the end of the armrest that are all rounded... Let me know
 






you can wrap the chrome in vinyl. I did this with a heat gun and some 3M 1080 carbon print film, oh and a lot of patience!

IMG_4138.jpg


IMG_4128.jpg

That looks nice! I might try that on the handles
 






Talking about the interior handles right? I got the funky ones at the end of the armrest that are all rounded... Let me know


Nah, sorry. Was referring to the exterior ones on the newer models.
 






The nice part about the vinyl wrap is that, unlike paint, its totally reversible. The 3M 1080 comes in many colors and textures. Do a google image search for 3m 1080. I bought my material from metrorestyling.com
 






How can the round chrome ring around the air vents be removed?
 






Remove the gauge bezel surround first, by removing the panel below the steering column, then the whole plastic panel that goes up to the windshield. the chrome trim around the gauges does not separate from the black plastic panel so you will want to take this whole piece out to wrap it.

Once the gauge panel is off you will have access to the back side of the drivers vent, and can press off the tabs that hold it in. It's pretty tight back there but if you get one tab off it helps removing the rest. each vent has three tabs.

On the passenger side, drop the glove box and you can access the back side of the vent the same way you got the drivers side vent out, it's tight but getting to the back side of the vents is the best way to not break the tabs that hold them in, because they don't pop out easily.
 






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