I am wanting to take off the interior door handles of of my R53 to paint them body color and wanted to know if anyone has done this and if so do I need to take the entire inside door cover off to do so or do I just remove the three screws?

 

you have to take the whole panel off and drill out the plastic rivets holding all of the plastic on, you will see what im talking about when you get the panel off.

 

Can the plastic pieces be put back together after drilling out rivets? Will I have to epoxy or something?

 

 

Which "handles" are you talking about? The one that you use to actually unlatch the door, or the ones that you use to pull the door closed/where the armrest is?

If it is the second one, then yes, you do have to take the entire door card off, drill out the plastic rivets, paint, and then epoxy/silicone back in place. I used silicone to re-attach my trim rings on my doors when I painted everything matte black.

If you are doing the handle portion, I'm not sure that I'd want to use silicone to re-attach because it stays flexible, meaning the force from your pulling on the door might dislodge the handle. I might suggest something like JB Weld to re-attach everything.

I had also seen where somebody had painted everything in place rather than drilling out the plastic rivets, but then you would have to do an excellent paint job.

Any other questions, let us know!

-Chase

 

That's how I did mine and it definitely leaves something to be desired. I will soon be taking mine completely off and repainting everything. I might try to get new plastic rivets from somewhere to reattach them.