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Home > Maintenance & Mods (L322) > How to.... Refurb your door handles...

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Haylands

Member Since: 04 Mar 2014
Location: East Yorkshire
Posts: 8353

2014 Range Rover Autobiography SDV8 Loire Blue

How to.... Refurb your door handles...

Couldn't find a thread about this so, as I was doing mine, I took some pictures to show how to do them.

It's the kind of job that would be good for people who would like to have a go at something like this but don't know where to start, if you make a pigs ear of it, it only cost about �60 to get the covers that will hide all!!!!

Mine is a 2002 and they were pretty bad...

Now, you can do them without removing anything, find a piece of plastic that is very thin, I cut a piece out of an old plastic 2 1/2 ltr screen wash bottle, you can then use this as a mask to stop you damaging the paintwork on your door whilst sanding down...

It will fit all the way around the handles, if your new to this I suggest you use two layers of masking tape all around the handles as well...

You can make life easier by taking the fixed part of the door handle off, look behind it on the inside of the door and there is a little black rubber bung, it comes off easily, just use you nail and it will come out, behind here you will find a T30 star drive bolt, undo the bolt, it will not fall through into the door as the back of the lock holds it in place when it is undone, the outer part will now be loose but held in place by the movable part of the handle, hold it with one hand and pull the door handle and it will slide out, the drivers one with the lock in it just pulls out as well and the locking rod comes with it..

(Be careful with the bolts, they should stay put but if some ham fisted mechanic has been in there before you may find they fall out into the bottom of the door, this has happened to a site member doing the refurb...)

You can now sand the fixed piece off the car, then you need an 8mm 1/4inch drive socket, pull the door handle open and fit it here, stuff a piece of kitchen towel in the hole as if the socket falls out the handle will throw it in the hole and it can get through to the inside of the door and you'd have to take the door card off to get it!!!

You can see the bolt which holds the fixed piece.

Mask off the keyhole on the drivers handle before you sand it to stop the stainless getting scratched, put a piece of tape over it and use you nail or the edge of the piece of plastic you cut to form the tape over the keyhole,

then press harder and cut through the tape all round the edge...

You can now sand down the parts, use 400grit wet n dry to sand any parts that have chips on them, as soon as you start to sand you will see the hard edge of the chip..

sand it in one direction only until you have feathered out the hard edge and it looks like this

just use the 400 on the parts that need it and then use 600grit on all of it.

When you have done the whole handle, it's time to clean it all up, you should use panel wipe but lots of things will do, electrical contact cleaner is pretty good... if you masked it to sand, then take this off as you will have dust stuck to it, then remask it tucking the tape as far behind the handle as possible. Two inch tape works great, then mask off a good size area around it to catch the overspray, if you haven't got masking paper then use an old magazine, don't use newspaper as the paint can seep through it.

Click image to enlarge

You will have gone through to bare plastic in places and have sanded sound paint in others, you need to use a plastic primer/adhesion promoter, you can spray this on plastic and the paint, it only needs one coat, it's like spraying water so have a little practice first, you want the handle wet looking but not so much that it runs.

Let this dry for 15-20mins then you ready for the colour, you don't need a normal primer as the adhesion promoter will have sealed the surface, you can prime it if you want, wait for it to dry and flat it off again with 800grit but it's not really necessary..

I found this colour is as close to the original 2002-2005 as you can get..

Spray the top coat on in several light coats, again have a bit of a practice, you want it to be light even coats, wait a few minutes between coats and give it maybe three or four until you cant see any of the marks under it, you don't want too much paint on it as the thicker it is the easier it is to chip..

Let this dry for 30mins and then do the same with some matt lacquer, just a few light coats to get even coverage.

Leave it and have a cuppa, you've earned it!!!

When nice and dry, touch the tape around it to see... you can carefully remove the tape.

Then refit the fixed part by slightly pulling the handle and slotting it back in, then tighten up the star drive, pop the bung back in and it's job done...

And yes I know it seems a waste of time on mine looking at the condition of the paintwork but it does get used off road... and the handles were starting to **** me off

Good Luck Pete
I now have permission from the boss to use Y.O.L.O. Enjoy life
__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

Last edited by Haylands on 10th Jun 2022 11:07am. Edited 2 times in total

31st Aug 2014 5:50pm

pld118

Member Since: 25 Mar 2013
Location: Bairns
Posts: 4218

2014 Range Rover Vogue SDV6 Santorini Black

Very skilful. How long did that take you?

Superb job

31st Aug 2014 6:15pm

TugRR

Member Since: 11 Jan 2011
Location: Bakewell
Posts: 1199

Excellent write up !

Where do you go after one of these . . . ?

31st Aug 2014 6:16pm

Haylands

Member Since: 04 Mar 2014
Location: East Yorkshire
Posts: 8353

Cheers

pld118, not as long as you'd think actually, was a nice sunny day here so the paint dried real quick, about 30mins a door all in, I did them one at a time as although I'm a softy larger drinking southerner, since moving to Yorkshire I'm getting tight and used the same pieces of masking paper for both sides!!!!! Pete
I now have permission from the boss to use Y.O.L.O. Enjoy life
__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

Last edited by Haylands on 9th Aug 2022 3:03pm. Edited 1 time in total

31st Aug 2014 6:23pm

JAYBOY

Member Since: 17 Oct 2012
Location: South Wales
Posts: 2204

2017 Range Rover Autobiography 5.0 SC V8 Corris Grey

Nice job Pete 2020 Porsche Panamera Turbo Hybrid (V FAST)
2017 Range Rover Autobiography 5.0 V8
2018 JCW Mini Cooper
2018 Skoda VRS

31st Aug 2014 6:27pm

Welshdragon

Member Since: 20 Jan 2012
Location: here and there...but not where I should be
Posts: 1899

2003 Range Rover Vogue 4.4 V8 Monte Carlo Blue

I had heard that the wax content in the handles where too much for anything to stick well....hope that was a myth as you've done a super job on that one, well done

oh STAANNN, worth a wiki fella? If it dont work.......burn it!

If the IId tool cant fix it.......burn the FF.

If the FF cant be fixed......buy a Land Cruiser!

If the LC cant be fixed..............................................BUY a horse !!

31st Aug 2014 6:27pm

Richard

Member Since: 05 May 2014
Location: Exeter
Posts: 36

2002 Range Rover Vogue 4.4 V8 Adriatic Blue

Do you have to take the door card off to remove the lock bit?

31st Aug 2014 6:55pm

iphs

Member Since: 07 May 2014
Location: Norfolk
Posts: 198

2003 Range Rover Vogue Td6 Buckingham Blue

Top Job as ever Pete. Thanks for the write-up

31st Aug 2014 6:59pm

Haylands

Member Since: 04 Mar 2014
Location: East Yorkshire
Posts: 8353

Cheers chaps

Welshdragon wrote:
I had heard that the wax content in the handles where too much for anything to stick well....hope that was a myth as you've done a super job on that one, well done

oh STAANNN, worth a wiki fella?

They are just painted plastic from the factory so I can't see it would be an issue, I'll update here if it all comes off

Richard wrote:
Do you have to take the door card off to remove the lock bit?

No Richard, open the door and between the edge of the door and the door card is the rubber bung hiding the screw.. Pete
I now have permission from the boss to use Y.O.L.O. Enjoy life
__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

31st Aug 2014 7:04pm

stan
Site Moderator

Member Since: 13 Jul 2010
Location: a moderate moderated moderator moderating moderately in moderation
Posts: 35465

good job, wiki'fied.. ... - .- -.

Y. O. L. O.
.

31st Aug 2014 7:10pm

gregdav

Member Since: 26 May 2014
Location: just north of stafford
Posts: 1077

well done super job. got mine to do and this will help loads.

31st Aug 2014 7:58pm

Robert

Member Since: 25 Oct 2011
Location: Perigueux
Posts: 2289

2007 Range Rover Vogue 4.4 V8 Zambezi Silver

Wow, great job, can I bring mine ....please

31st Aug 2014 8:12pm

dhallworth

Member Since: 10 Oct 2011
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 3142

2012 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Baltic Blue

That looks great!

There's a couple of chips on the door handles on my SC. They've been colour coded and the last owner and his wife both wore rings and you can see where they've chipped the paint.

Might give this a go

Anyone got a guide to doing the mirror caps?

David. 2002 4.6 Vogue SE - Alveston Red with Lightstone Leather
2012 Range Rover 5.0 SC Autobiography in Indus Silver with Jet/Ivory Interior
2012 Range Rover 4.4 TDV8 Autobiography in Baltic Blue with Sand Interior

1st Sep 2014 10:51pm

rar110

Member Since: 09 Aug 2014
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 1119

2008 Range Rover Vogue TDV8 Atacama Sand

great write up thanks.

2nd Sep 2014 2:26am

johnboyairey

Member Since: 11 Jan 2013
Location: surrey
Posts: 2035

2012 Range Rover Westminster TDV8 Orkney Grey

so are we saying that this 'rauchgrau dunkel' colout is the typical original colour with matt laquer? as mine have vitually no paint left. is this the long lost 'brunel' colour we all need? ie, does it look LIKE the bonnet vent Brunel grey? I can then use it to do my step trims at same time. looks good though!

2nd Sep 2014 7:34am

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