Paint jobs & door handles

are we talking about that rough black plastic door handle material, i would imagine paint would chip off real easily on that kind. if you took them off and sanded it smooth i imagine you would have no problems, some cars come stock painted, but its smooth.

yea i got the crappy black plastic handles! Even tho I have a 96DX (DX highest trim 96-97).. painted mirrors but no panted handles or side molding..

Paint jobs & door handles

So I just dropped of my car for a fresh coat of paint and the body shop owner suggested that I should just leave the doorhandles unpainted (stock flat black) because there would be a big chance of the paint chipping off.. Did anybody else hear that? Anybody got the handles painted anyways -it woul look a whole lot better colormatched IMO

better leave it the color it is. the paint on there would chip easy with all the abuse it would take

yep...the one door handle i do have painted has never chiped...i painted it myself too

I have heard that is is becuase the surface isn't so a good contact for the paint. door handles are also plastic so they will fade much faster then the rest of the car.

i say sand em down smooth and paint them

I painted my door handles and it never chipped

ACTUALLY only Canada got the LE in '96, and nobody got it in '97. In '96 in the US, there was the standard sedan (Toyota's official name for it), DX sedan, and DX wagon. In '97, it was the standard sedan, CE sedan (nothing more than a lowly standard sedan with electric windows and central locking, standard PAS and a CE badge... oh, and the wheel covers off the '93-'95 standard and DX), and DX sedan. '96-'97 DXs got colour-keyed mirrors, with colour-keyed door handles and side mouldings as an option.

a good body shop will know how to make the paint stick to anything

I had a 91, the mirrors, bumpers, handles and molding weren't painted, I HATED that. Now my 00 LE is perfect, everything painted.

I dont want to know how you know... lol