DIY: Door handles (disassemble, paint, reassemble & swap out)
 

This is going to be a work in progress thread. I purchased a pair of door handles. I'm going to take them apart. A thanks go out to Anthony (Egualme) for the idea of taking them apart to paint the whole thing. Then paint them ( I will be using spray cans ), put them back together & swap them out with the originals. I'm planning many photos, especially for the removal & install of the handles. I've seen in the past that there were members that would like photos of the procedure so I will try & get some that might help.

Photo #1 - The highlighted areas will need to drilled out to remove those two pieces.
Photo #2 - Just a picture of what it looks like disassembled.
Photo #3 _ The two pieces need to be drilled & tapped with threads to accept screws when put back together.
Photo #4 - The two pieces drilled & tapped. ( I used a #43 bit & #4-40 taps, a starter tap & an end tap) Note - make sure you use cutting fluid when drilling & tapping or you will be burning up drill bits.

That's all I did today. I plan on spraying primer tomorrow.

Is the disassembly really necessary? The only parts I disassembled for paint were the door request button and lock cylinder. All else should be easily paintable while assembled.

It probably isn't really necessary, but the area under the movable part of the handle would be hard to paint if not taken apart. When you open the door there would be some silver visible I believe. This way it will be all uniform.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of this thread. :tup:

the paint will get in there just fine keeping it together

my old 350 handles the body shop painted jus fine

and my new 370 handles i rattle cand jus fine

no silver showing

Well that's good, but I've got lots of time to mess around. I can't chase momma around the bedroom all the time.

I started the painting today. I will be using a 4 step procedure. Adhesion promoter, primer, basecoat, & clearcoat. I got most of the paint at this site.
Automotive Touch Up Paint from PaintScratch - Order Pro Grade Paint - PaintScratch.com ( photo 1 )

! - Scuffed up the pieces with 400 wet or dry.
2 - wiped everything down with wax & grease remover.
3- Wiped it all down again with a tack rag.
4 - Sprayed the Adhesion promoter - 1 light coat flash time 5 min., 1 wet coat flash time 10 to 15 min. no longer than 30 min.
5_ Sprayed the primer - 1 light coat & 2 wet coats, flash time between coats 5 min. ( photo 3 )

Going to let the primer dry & I don't know if I will get to spraying the basecoat & clearcoat this weekend but Monday for sure.

Very thorough. I'm sure it's going to look great.

Sprayed the basecoat & clearcoat yesterday.
WEAR A RESPIRATOR FOR THE SPRAYING. I wore a respirator for all of the spraying. For sure wear one for the 2K clear. It is a very toxic clear. Your lungs won't work too good clearcoated.

1 - I lightly sanded the primer with 600 wet or dry.
2 - Wiped down the pieces with a tack rag.
3 - Sprayed 3 coats of base. Flash time between coats 5 min. Let dry for 2 hrs.( photos 1 & 2 )
4 - Sprayed 3 coats of clear. Flash time between coats 10 min. (photos 3, 4, & 5 )
This clear is 2 component clear & after activated has a pot life of about 12 to 18 hrs. So make sure you have everything wanted to spray ready to go all at once. A description of the 2K clear is here 2K clear coat: Spraymax

Please don't beat me up too bad for the orange peal in photo 4, it really doesn't look too bad in real life.

Going to let it dry today & start to reassemble tomorrow.

Looking great!

While it may not be necessary to disassemble to paint, ain't nuthin wrong with being a little OCD. ;)

Looks really great!!! Orange peel hardly noticed.

Got them back together this morning. Not much to say about it.
I used #4-40 SS Button head screws (photo 1 )

I'm going to wait until tomorrow morning to start swapping them out.

I'm done swapping out the handles & I didn't have too many problems. (photos 13,14,15). If you have the windows in the up position there will be a little more room to work with. Small hands are a plus for this task! I started with the passenger side.

1 - Remove the black plastic plugs (photo #16).
2 - You have to remove 2 bolts, a 10mm socket, (photo #1). There have been many ideas on how to keep from dropping the bolts down in the door while removing. Well I have yet another. I cut small squares of painters tape just larger that the head of the bolt. (photo #2) I used a pair of hemostats to position the tape over the head of the bolt (photo #2) & used the eraser end of a wooden pencil to secure it to the head. Take a 10mm. deep socket & force it on to the head (photo #3). Now the bolt won't drop out of the socket when removed (photo #4). REMOVE THE 2 BOLTS
3 - The handle is resting on 2 guides (photo #10 yellow circles). The handle has to be raised up enough to clear the guides & pulled outward. After the handle is out of the door it will look like (photo #5).
4 - There are 2 cables connected to the handle. The first cable is a braided one much like the brake cable on a bike. It is connected in 2 places (photo # 10 orange circles). Remove this one first. That will give more flexibility to work . The second cable is a 2 wire cable connected to the button & a blue connector (photos #5&6) This cable is secured to the door in 2 places (photo #5) The green circles in (photos #5&6) is just an anchor position to keep the cable where Nissan wants it. I couldn't think of a good way to remove this, so I just grabbed it with a small pair of plyers & yanked. If anyone knows of a good way to remove this anchor please chime in. The blue connector is mounted to a black plastic base that is mounted to the door (photos #5&6 blue circle) To remove the connector from the base use a small screwdriver (photo #8) In (photo #7) the screwdriver must be inserted into the slot & pushed in as far as it will go. At that point raise up on the butt end of the handle & attempt to push the blue connector away from you (toward the front of the door). You might have to play with this a little to get it to release. Don't get discouraged, I had to do it a few times for it to release. JUST A NOTE HERE, I dropped the screwdriver into the door & had to remove the door panel to retrieve. Not all bad, now I know how to remove a door panel. After that I tied a string to the handle of the screwdriver & hung it over the outside of the door so I could pull it out if I dropped it again. Now that the connector is free from the base it has to be unplugged . A smaller screwdriver will be used. I used a jewelers screwdriver (photo #9). The screwdriver will be inserted into the slot & keep pushing until the connector can be pulled apart. THE DOORHANDLE IS REMOVED
5 - The only difference in the driver's side handle is the key mechanism. The lower hole in the door has 2 bolts that can be seen. The one is off center & a number of members have voiced their concerns about getting it out. The truth is it doesn't have to be removed. All that bolt does is hold the key mechanism to the handle (photo #12 green circle) Start by removing the same 2 bolts that were removed for the passenger side. Then remove the torx (t-30 bit) head bolt on the inside rear of the door (photo #11). This handle is only resting on 1 guide (photo #12) Lift up & out to remove. First disconnect the metal rod connected to the key mechanism (photo #12 yellow circle) Just let the rod fall down into the door, it doesn't go very far. Now repeat what was done for the passenger door.
6 - Reinstalling was very easy. Just do everything in reverse. ONE NOTE - As I was connecting the cables on the driver's side, the window rolled down by itself & had to reset the windows. (photo #17) is the procedure.

Well I think this thing is long enough. I hope that some part of this might be of help to someone.

Dan

EDIT - Just a quick update. Originally I didn't have a good way to remove the anchor point on the one cable (green circles on photos 5 & 6) Found that a small pair of right angle needle nose pliers will get behind it & remove it easily.

Best DIY on this subject learned allot very complete!

How is the paint holding up?

:iagree: Very interested in how this paint holds up... that is my only real fear in going with the DIY spray can stuff... I worry that it will be softer and less durable compared to a pro job.

Thanks for the input. The handles look great. By using the 2K clear it is basically the same clear that a body shop would be using. The shine is matching the body really good.
If you would like some current photos just let me know.

Dan

I know what you mean about using the cans. It took me a while to decide on doing it that way, but I am really happy with the way it came out. As for the hardness of the clear coat. I sprayed a test piece as I went along & I have been testing how it has cured. Currently I can press my fingernail into the test piece with a good amount of pressure & barely see an imprint.

Dan

First I would like to say that this was an excellent DIY write up. I followed it almost to a T.

I had enough foresight before I began this endeavor to buy a set of handles for me to work on as time permitted so that I could leave the handles on the car. That paid off big time for me as what I had hoped would be a straight forward operation took twice as long and cost twice as much as I was expecting.

The disassembly of the extra set of handles was straight forward. The only problem I ran into was that only one of the screws had a liberal amount of thread lock on it and the knurled nut insert ended up splitting the the plastic of the handle before the screw came loose. It was an easy repair for that and I disassembled the handles the same way as the OP. I also used 4-40 screws to replace the rivets on both handles.

I ordered the non-metal spray paint kit from PaintScratch in my car's body color (Deep Blue Pearl). The website even gives the option to put in your car's VIN which would give the correct paint formula for the paint (they say). I sanded the handles, cleaned them, used the supplied degreaser, applied the adhesion promoter and put primer on all as instructed. I put down four coats of the base color and had very good coverage on the handles. But the color just didn't seem to match the car. The spray color was almost like a crayola crayon kind of blue. It was a blue blue that didn't have much of the metallic fleck effect that the paint on the car has. I am a paint newbie and thought the clear would give it deepen the color and give it that sparkle. So I went to spray the clear. The spray kit from PaintScratch comes with a spray gun that you can attach to the top of the spray cans. I had successfully attached the gun to the primer can and the base color can. When I went to attach the spray gun to the clear can and I ended up slipping off of the top of the can and I busted the spray can stem off. I busted it down in the can and there was no way to have to the clear flow from the can. After MFing the can, I ordered the 2K clear that OP used off of Amazon.

After letting the base coated handles sit for a couple days, I took the handles out to the car again and finally convinced myself that the color on the handles and the color on the car were definitely not the same and were definitely not going to be the same no matter what I put on top. I didn't want to take any more chances and just took the handles to a body shop and had them sprayed with the right color for $150.

The most difficult part of reassembling the handle assemblies is getting the main spring installed correctly while also sliding the hinge through the handle components and the spring. If you use a little grease on the hinge and take your time, your fingers might not hurt TOO much when you are done.

Removing the handles from the car was pretty easy. I used OPs trick with the painters tape to keep the bolts from falling into the door. (Genius!) I didn't feel like monkeying around with disconnecting the smart key button connections inside the door which made removing and installing the handles a little bit more "tight" but still pretty easy. The hardest part of installing the new handles was reattaching the lock/unlock lever to the locking mechanism. Smaller hands would definitely ease the frustration. I did end up destroying the plastic around one of the knurled nuts when I was taking off the original set of handles from the car for the same reason that happened on the extra set of handles (too much thread lock on the screw).

Even though I had to wait a week longer than I wanted for the finished product and had to pay twice to get them finished, I think the handles ended up looking very nice!

Looks damn good! Sucks it was such a pain in the ***, but it’s all good now! I just painted mine black, just got the 2k clear to finish them. I’ll post some pics as soon as I get a chance to finish them.


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Hi fork

I'm sorry that I didn't respond to your post before now.

Glad you found the DIY useful, Sorry to read that the paint match was off. Did you talk to paintscratch about the problem?

The handles look really good, hope it gave you some satisfaction in all that you did. :tup:

Dan

Hi markv

I'm A little late, but where are those pics? Hope everything went O.K. with the project.


Dan