Painting Plastic Door Handles

Protect the doors from paint.

Painting plastic door handles.

All of the doors in that house were brass when we purchased it. Front door hardware not so much. Prep the exterior door and plastic trim for painting. Then pick up a bottle of degreaser and a scrubbing pad.

Clean the door surface well remove door handles if you desire to or tape around them carefully with painter s tape. Plastic auto parts may include trim pieces door handles mirror housing and other miscellaneous items. Abrade plastic car door handles to promote adhesion. Remove your hardware from the piece and clean it with tsp wash or a degreaser.

Remove the door handle by removing the two screws on the base around the handle. Soap and water works just fine that s what i use or a liquid cleaner degreaser. Buy a can of paint formulated to paint plastic rust oleum specialty paint for plastic is one choice at a home center. Sand the handles until they have a slight grit.

If you don t want to remove the handle you can cover it with a plastic bag using painter s tape or masking tape to secure the bag and to cover any exposed areas of metal. But in the end we decided it just wasn t worth the time in the middle of a top to bottom renovation and we picked up new hardware. Remove the brass door handles with a screwdriver. Rinse the handles using a water hose and.

Sand the brass door handles with 400 grit sanding paper. Spray 2 3 coats and leave them to dry 48 hours before replacing. Unlike wood which is a porous surface plastic is ill suited for paint and will reject new finishes unless it is properly conditioned. Then wash them with degreaser and hot water.

Scrub the car door handles with ordinary dish soap using a sponge. Once the trim is properly conditioned you may apply a painted finish. New handles are pretty pricey so why not just paint them. Wipe down the brass door handles with grime boss wipes.

Remove the handles photo 1. Applying spray paint to these plastic parts is not a good idea as the paint will crack peel and flake within a short time. Buy rust oleum universal paint primer in one we chose satin nickel. Interior door hardware however is pretty inexpensive.

It s easy and cheap. You can use synthetic steel wool i always have ssw on hand and use it for so many things to help get any old flaky finish off if you need and smooth everything out then wipe the hardware down with a cleaner. Painting plastic auto parts requires different preparation and products than painting a car s sheet metal. If you are planning to paint the plastic trim on your door employ the proper prep strategy or it will inevitably reject its new finish.

Paint plastic auto parts properly and your paint job will last for years.