Painting or Plastic Dip Door handles

[Harley#356]

6 Pack?

Bro, Iam bringing a case! What flavor you like?
I don't have the patience to do that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Plus my led reverse lights showed up yesterday (hint-hint)

LOL Pretty much anything works for me!

I'll probably redo my drivers side today....one tip for anybody DIY'ing, after you stretch the vinyl over the handle, before you trim the excess off, hit it with a heat gun. It shrinks the vinyl around the perimeter, so you don't get any bunching. I only have it in 2-3 spots on the first side, just really teeny tiny. But on the passenger side I hit it with the heat gun before trimming and it shrank the vinyl around the edge a bit more to eliminate that. This mod turned out much better than I expected!

 

[EcoPowerParts]

That looks great!

 

[blichy]

Another props for the great mod! IMO, that looks better than the plastidip.

 

[Sgt1411]

Nice job, looks OEM..........I agree flat wouldn't look right.

Thats the way they should come from factory on the Sport since blackout is the OEM theme.

The wrap doesnt effect the "one touch" unlock ?

 

[Harley#356]

The wrap doesnt effect the "one touch" unlock ?

Nope. I did trim the vinyl around the front and rear touch pads, but even when they were wrapped in vinyl before I trimmed it, they still worked even covered.

 

[CobraJohn]

3M Gloss Black Wrap

Do you have a 3M part number for the gloss plastic wrap?

 

[Harley#356]

nope, just search on ebay "gloss black 3M vinyl", there's a ton of them that pop up. I looked for the cheapest one in the US. Found a 1' by 5' roll which was plenty to do the handles with some extra leftover for other projects.

 

[ieee_raider]

It's 3m 1080 film
I got mine here: http://autovinylsolutions.com/3M_1080
I just haven't installed yet...

 

[EffYoCouch]

Looks way better! They should have come black from the factory.

 

[Ryan327]

So i just tried one of my rear handles as a test run today and it went okay, not great, not horrible.

How did you avoid bunching at the edges? seems like at the big curve at the front of the handles i'm getting a lot of bunching. how tight did you stretch it? I tried at the end to see if it would be better to stretch it tighter but then the wrap looks streaky. Would like to see if you had any feedback!

This was just a test run anyways so I peeled it off, but going to try again soon. Did find that I'm going to need a sharper razor. How did you do the lock area? And lastly, did you use a heat gun at all?

While I like the look of this, i'm not sure how it's going to work out for me because i'm pretty picky. May end up having to plastidip them!

 

[crazay1]

hey Harley
how much would you charge me to get my door handle like that ?

 

[Harley#356]

So i just tried one of my rear handles as a test run today and it went okay, not great, not horrible.

How did you avoid bunching at the edges? seems like at the big curve at the front of the handles i'm getting a lot of bunching. how tight did you stretch it? I tried at the end to see if it would be better to stretch it tighter but then the wrap looks streaky. Would like to see if you had any feedback!

This was just a test run anyways so I peeled it off, but going to try again soon. Did find that I'm going to need a sharper razor. How did you do the lock area? And lastly, did you use a heat gun at all?

While I like the look of this, i'm not sure how it's going to work out for me because i'm pretty picky. May end up having to plastidip them!

I layed the vinyl across the face, flat across, then slowly worked the curves around the handle. Don't stretch it over one entire corner first. Go a little at a time conforming/stretching a little bit at a time around the entire handle. If you stretch one corner around all at once, you have all that slack to make up right next to it. If you go a little bit at a time around the whole perimeter, the excess is spread out more evenly and lessens bunching. I did use a heat gun a little bit. Not for the face/contours, but for wrapping around the edges to the back side. Heat shrinks the vinyl, so heat it a little at a time, it stretches easier, and it shrinks so excess bunches disappear.

I did redo my back ones taking the rear handles off. Works a lot better for the edges than doing it on the door. Still gotta redo the fronts.

hey Harley
how much would you charge me to get my door handle like that ?

If your local, I could entertain the idea if you wanted to swing by and I could do them, but it'd tedious and not sure if it's worth it lol. Heck I've only redone my rear ones because I had enough and still need to find the time to do the front ones again haha

 

[JETZ]

Very nice, I hate the chrome handles!

 

[MarlonF]

Just wanted to add that removal of the back part of the handle is really simple. There is a screw hole on the side of each door. The hole in the rear is covered by a sticker under the weather stripping. In the front there is a little plastic cover over the hole.

Note. In the rear You don't have to remove the weather stripping, just remove the sticker.

The screw is a T-20 and you don't have to remove it, just turn the screw a few times. The screw just puts pressure on a tab to keep it in place. After that you will need to push that part of the handle a little towards the rear of the car then pull out.

I still haven't tried the fronts yet but it should be the same.

I tried using some vinyl but I'm having trouble with wrinkles around the edges. Has anyone tried plastidip with the glossifier?

 

[adamantium]

If the handles are vacuum metalized chrome you can put them in a bucket of muriatic acid and the thin layer of chrome flakes right off. Did some headlight reflectors like that. The acid eats the chrome right off without harm to the plastic ( comes in plastic jug ). Make sure to use a plastic bucket and rubber gloves. It is highly corrosive to metal and use in well ventilated area. You can buy at pool supply or home improvement stores pool section. This may help those who want to paint the handles by going down to the bare plastic or may even look good as is since the underlying plastic is black already. Just a thought haven't done it myself yet.

 

[Bstollmaier]

If the handles are vacuum metalized chrome you can put them in a bucket of muriatic acid and the thin layer of chrome flakes right off. Did some headlight reflectors like that. The acid eats the chrome right off without harm to the plastic ( comes in plastic jug ). Make sure to use a plastic bucket and rubber gloves. It is highly corrosive to metal and use in well ventilated area. You can buy at pool supply or home improvement stores pool section. This may help those who want to paint the handles by going down to the bare plastic or may even look good as is since the underlying plastic is black already. Just a thought haven't done it myself yet.

Damn, where were you a month ago haha.

 

[adamantium]

Lol. Sorry was hoping to have mine done already so I could do a walk through.

 

[republica]

Nice Mod! Am in NJ and will have a 2014 Sport in White that you can compare to in a few weeks. How do you like the White? Am going from a Black XLT to a White Sport and am wondering how others feel or like White, i.e. pros and cons. My black XLT looks great when its clean but gets dirty so fast.

Thanks for the pics.

 

[Ken Bjonnes]

Harley, can you say a little more on how to do this, very interested and trying to decide on this or plasti dip, just unsure how to get it fit so tight in all the little bends/nooks and how you avoided any creases.

Did you have to remove the handles at all? How did you trim on the back side of the hand to avoid wrapping the sensor?

I would try this, I'm going to. I currently have mind plasti dipped just to make sure I liked the way it looked. But it's not holding up.

 

[Harley#356]

Nice Mod! Am in NJ and will have a 2014 Sport in White that you can compare to in a few weeks. How do you like the White? Am going from a Black XLT to a White Sport and am wondering how others feel or like White, i.e. pros and cons. My black XLT looks great when its clean but gets dirty so fast.

Thanks for the pics.

I like the white the best out of the 4 colors available. Black always looks the best but it stays clean the shortest lol. Since it's my wife's DD I refused to upkeep a black daily driver so we went with white. It's still pretty bad, but you don't have to battle swirls nearly as bad as black. For the most part it stays pretty clean looking except the lift gate. With the vortex draw behind it when you drive that gets filthy in no time, but other than that it's not horrible. Easier than black, but harder than silver or red lol.