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Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:24 am
by kimokalihi
Would it be a better idea to paint my chrome door handles or find a set that are OEM painted and paint those to match my car? I'm not a painter so I don't know if the chrome will hold paint as well as the painted ones or which would be easier.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:26 am
by originalcyn
Why don't you try getting them vinyl wrapped? They'd look pretty good matte black right? There's a guy around here who vinyl wrapped pretty much everything on his wagon, including things like the wiper arms and the pillars, so it might be relatively easy to do.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:37 am
by kimokalihi
I want them pearl white. Don't like the random different colored body parts look. I'm after the cleanest legacy I can make. There's no way I could find pearl white vinyl either but paintscratch.com sells the tricoat cans to match my factory paint so I might try that.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:52 am
by originalcyn
Every "chrome" thing i've dealt with on the legacy was the worst thing ever. Even the stupid chrome finish around the post face lift grille was a piece of plastic with a chrome foil over the top. ugh. I expect the handles to be better though i guess. Sanding them down will be horrific though i imagine. I'll keep an eye out for handles for you if i got to pull a part or pick and pull or whatever. Though I don't think i've seen anything in your color code.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:59 am
by kimokalihi
I would buy them from you in a heart beat. I don't even know if they ever existed. I can probably find a pre painted set and respray them.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:01 am
by Apex3
If you're gonna paint it then get some that are already painted. Even if you plan to paint it yourself you don't want to paint over that fake chrome stuff, unless you wanna do it again in a year.

I'll keep an eye out as well, but I don't think I've ever seen white painted door handles in a yard. I found some in my cars color but one was broken :( So I didn't bother, since I already have a painted black set

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:10 am
by kimokalihi
It's not just white, that's quite common. It's pearl white which was rare as a body color and I don't know if any of them ever came with painted handles. It would have to be probably from a 90-91 LS.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:23 am
by originalcyn
i feel your pain on that. i cannot find anything in my color. i need a front fender badly, but it's been no go.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:25 am
by kimokalihi
I've actually never seen a pearl white legacy that wasn't a 91 SS. But apparently they exist because Beatersubi found one and snagged the hood off of it and sold it to me so when I go FMIC I already have a factory paint matched NA hood to clean things up even more! I can't wait.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:29 am
by originalcyn
are the handles on all the ss models chrome? It appears that all the mirrors are black instead of the body color.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:33 am
by kimokalihi
No just the 91 and maybe 92 SS have ugly chrome handles. Facelift got painted handles which were previously probably only on LS trims but the problem is they ditched the pearl white with the facelift so as far as I know, pearl white door handles don't exist.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:36 am
by originalcyn
Maybe on a LSi, i don't know what models came with which colors. I don't even know how many colors the ss came in.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:50 am
by Danny-G
I painted my chrome "L" handles before the Big NW meet. they are still holding up just fine with only one chip on the drivers handle. I used the cheap Wal Mart paint too. All I did was scuff them up really good, spray the paint, and clear. Then, after they were on the car I gave them a good cut and buff and they turned out amazing. If you do paint them, the prep is what will make or break the paint job.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:35 am
by kimokalihi
I know it's all about the prep and one coat of clear is not going to cut it. With an item that sees as much wear as the door handle, probably more wear than any other part of the exterior of the car. This won't be walmart paint because I want it to match as good as possible.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 8:52 pm
by Danny-G
Totally understandable on wanting a really good match. I wasa on a bit of a budget when I did mine and the paint on my car is littered with scratches so I just used a basic black. I would have color matched but thats seven bucks for an eight ounce can.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 2:05 am
by Apex3
I'm likely gonna use paintscratch to paint my replacement hood, should be in the next week or so hopefully, I can post up results if you're interested. But it's not gonna happen until I get some decent weather to paint it.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:15 am
by kimokalihi
I already used them to paint a custom grill on my gf's ek civic and it matched perfectly and has pasted like 4 years.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:50 am
by Deride
I think I might still have a full set of chrome handles laying around if you want to experiment with them. Like $free plus shipping.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 4:23 am
by kimokalihi
Let me check out the junkyard first. I'd rather try a set of painted ones, I think I'll have better luck with those.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:40 am
by fngearhead
I'm almost certain I saw a set on a wagon in a junkyard in Denver. I pulled the hood for my pearl white 91. If I can get back down there in the next week or so I'll definitely pull them for ya.

Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:55 am
by kimokalihi
That would blow my mind. You'd be my hero.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 5:03 am
by beatersubi
Apex3 wrote:I'm likely gonna use paintscratch to paint my replacement hood...
Can you elaborate on this please?

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:16 am
by soobrdad02
Those pearl-white Peggy's are few and far between. I found one in a junkyard one day last summer and snatched those door-handles with the quickness, because as rare as they might be in that color, it's the only pained-handles Leggy I've come across in my numerous junkyard escapades.

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 1:14 am
by kimokalihi
Are you using them?

Re: Paint chrome door handles or find painted ones to paint?

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 4:07 am
by IronMonkeyL255
I just sanded all the chrome off, hit it with self etching primer, and hit them with truck bed liner.

Sent from my mind using telepathy.