Painted tailgate handle - silly mod, but I'm kinda proud of it

So I got sick of the faded black handle on the tailgate of my 2nd gen and happened to have a rattle can of primer, some MGM, and the end of a 2k-clear that hadn't gone off yet.

Before I knew what was happening I had the handle disassembled. I think it turned out looking pretty OK, so figured I'd share in case anyone else wanted to try this.


F'ugly before pic:





Teardown:


With primer:



After a few coats of DupliColor Magnetic Grey Metallic:




And a shot of 2k Clear:



And back on the truck:




I took it as a sign of success when absolutely nobody, whatsoever, noticed that anything at all was different.....

 

Looks good

 

Nice! Love doing little stuff like that!

 

Nice work!

 

Looks good . BTW - what backup camera are you using?

 

Thanks folks.
@rblalliance it's the stock camera, just fitted to the PopLock handle. Though I did the typical change of wiring it up to the head-unit (repeating the display on the rearview mirror).

 

Interested to know how this holds up after a year. I’ve painted mine twice already and both times the plastic oxidized through the paint causing adhesion issues. I did proper prep too. Not downplaying your work, just giving you a heads up just in case.

 

For sure, I'll look back here in a few months with an update. I certainly hope it doesn't flake off - one thing I did was to sand back the faded layer before painting, and also added a layer of adhesion promoter under the primer.

I did this in early March (just getting around to posting now), and so far, so good. I'm hopeful that the 2k Clear will help,

 

Looks good, like factory paint, interested to see how it holds up over time. Hopefully you'll update this post at 6 month, 1 year, 3 year, 5 year, and 10 year intervals.

 

Heck yeah, I'd run it!

 

I have a PopLock handle that faded really badly. I finally decided to do something about it as well. I used Stoner's Trim Shine. Just spray on. I wiped it off even though the directions say you don't need to. Was easy peasy. Didn't even have to remove it from the tailgate.

$17 Stoner Car Care 91034 12-Ounce Trim Shine Protectant Aerosol Restores Dull or Faded Interior and Exterior Plastic Renew Bumpers, Running Boards, and More, Pack of 1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002KKITG

 

Interesting @stonylaroux, I'd love to know how it holds up. I had tried Mothers back-to-black at first, but found I was only getting about a month out of the black before it faded again.
This one: https://mothers.com/products/back-to-black-trim-and-plastic-restorer-06112

 

Did you use an adhesion promoter for plastic?

 

@fatfurious2 - yes, actually, mighn't have mentioned but I gave it a few shots of this:
https://www.duplicolor.com/product/adhesion-promoter/
before the primer. I'm not sure how much this matters for non-flexible parts - I had previously only used it on things like fenders etc.

 

Looks Factory

 

Looks great! Makes me want to do mine now.