I decided to paint the black door handles, black mirrors, and black rear spoiler on my eg hatch. But, I find it hard to start a project like most of you I'm sure.

This is how it looks stock:


I first took off the door handles.


This is done by opening the door and unscrewing 3 screws with a Philips screwdriver. One is in the door cup (left red arrow), another is a plastic screw (right red arrow), and the last one too me forever to find which is behind the door handle (middle red arrow). Make sure your window is rolled down, it will make it easier to take the panel off. Then take off the window handle by popping off the C-clip behind the handle. It is a little tricky at first but just shove a screwdriver behind the handle and watch for it to pop off.


Then there are some metal clips behind the interior door panel, but just pull on the door panel and they should come undone (might have to pull hard). Then roll the window back up by just putting the handle on temporarily (without the C-clip). You can also take off the black interior piece behind the side mirror now. It is held on by one metal clip behind, just pull on it. Then you will see what is below. You will have to cut the plastic with a razor where the door handle is.


Now you will see the back of the door handle. There are 2 10-mm bolts (red circles). Then there is a loose C-clip (left red arrow) that holds the door lock. After the C-clip is out the lock just pulls straight out. Then you will have to pull the handle pole out. It took me some twisting and pulling to get that out, just play with it.


Then your door handle will be out.


Then you can take off your mirror by 3 screws that are now showing on the inside of the door panel because you already took off the black plastic cover.

Now you can move on to the rear spoiler. Pop the hatch and under the glass there are 4 10-mm bolts - you can't miss them. Take those off and disconnect the 3rd brake light. The spoiler and a metal piece comes off together.


I tried to take the spoiler off of the metal piece but I started breaking plastic clips that held them together so I just taped off the metal part when I painted.

I used good 'ol rattle cans because I didn't want to spend $75 on paint & clear coat. I have a sprayer that I can use but I don't have any money right now, and it was too much of a hassle borrowing it from a friend, so I went with the Dupli-Color spray cans. I would recommend a sprayer for better results though. I went through 3 cans of universal primer, 3 cans of frost white, and one big can of clear coat (could of used more frost white but the Advanced Auto Parts was all out, it was fine though).


I primed after I cleaned the parts.


Then painted and clear-coated.


I let them dry overnight just to be safe. It pretty much took me the whole day to do it all, but I am very slow when I work. I also had to go to the store for more paint.

It turned out not-to shabby for those cheap rattle cans. Paint matches pretty close, my car is dirty though so I couldn't tell too close. I think they will match real well once the car is washed and waxed.

The results:

Door Handles
BEFORE


AFTER


Mirrors
BEFORE


Other side - JDM no mirror Y0!


Painted Spoon style mirrors instead.


AFTER


Rear Spoiler
BEFORE


AFTER


Whole Car
BEFORE


AFTER




That pretty much wraps it up. After paint drys, install everything how you uninstalled but in reverse order.

And while you are painting, you might as well paint those windshield wiper arms. There are 2 14-mm bolts that hold the arms on. Take the wiper blades off the wiper arms and grab a can of black spray paint. I used high temp paint because that is all I had but it turned out great. Now the sun doesn't reflect and blind me when I am driving.

Windshield Wiper Arms
BEFORE


AFTER (Yeah, I know a bird took a dump on my car... I told you it was dirty)


Hopes this DIY at least helps one person out. Thanks guys!

 

Good work everything looks clean

 

amazing what a little paint can do to the look of a car.

 

remove that pin stripe and u would be good to go!

 

we painted my friends bumper with the frost white spray cans. came out great. no orange peel whatsoever. Remember to wetsand and stuff. Also im not a believer in duplicolor clear on white cars b/c it makes the parts look yellowish.

 

good write up

 

nice work...but you should keep the base of the mirror black.

 

damn good job...looks good

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ian &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">nice work...but you should keep the base of the mirror black.</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

looks real nice

 

how about the sideskirts?

 

not bad.. rims and suspension would be nice..

Try washing off the bird sh*t on your hood too..

 

d0pe!

Now just say goodbye to the pinstripe and maybe even the Civic CX sticker

 

damn your hood have 3 windshield washer nozzles

 

can you do this with milano red now

 

imo, the spoon style mirros wouldve looked better if they were left black..besides that good write up

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bruceleeroy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">remove that pin stripe and u would be good to go!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I was thinkin about that too, I probably will someday.

 

 

looks cleaner

 

nice job meng i did my entire front bumper with those dupli color cans. frost white too. very impressive how they match (color) worth the hassle.I had used some clear I bought online U-Pol clear...dunno but my biggest thing was the clear coat, cus i had done my mirrors in the past and used duplicolor clear but it seemed to come out kinda yellowish. Let me know how yours matches.

 

Nice work. That paint seems to match really well.

 

way to go! HIGH FIVE*........everything looks clean

 

Hotness. Take off all the stickers, look into painting the base black on the mirrors

 

pinstripe = the gheyness

 

nothing beats a peoject to kill some time