The photos and information below show how I colour coded the door strips, front strips, door handles and back bumper on my Golf Mk5 SE. As VW charge £120 just for replacement door strips, I decided to paint the ones on the car rather than spend £120 on new ones and spray them off the car.

To start with, here are a couple of before photos (not actually of my car as I forgot to do this!)

First stage is to remove the door handles – it would not be easy to paint them on the car as you cannot  get paint to the back of the handle.

Open the door and remove the black plastic cover trim that covers the door edge – just lever off with a screwdriver. Next, locate to hole in the door that gives access to the handle removal screw. On my car the hole was covered with clear plastic.

The screw inside the door is of the torx type (T20) – you might need a torch to see it. Insert the torx driver into the hole in the door but before you start to loosen the screw, pull the door handle out as shown and keep the handle out while you unscrew.

Keep checking the cover plate as you unscrew, eventually the coverplate will pull out as shown below.

Next disconnect the wire that operates the door latch from the handle – lever out with a screwdriver.

Now remove the handle from the door. Repeat process for remaining handles. To open the door with the handles removed just grab the wire with your fingers and pull.

I removed the 2 front strips from the bumper – these just lever out – it saves masking the front of the car.

The next photo shows the front strips removed (and primed) together with the handle coverplates – these are sitting on nails to stop them from moving whilst being painted.

Now the plastic strips and back bumper have to be keyed for painting – I used a 320 grade sand paper (used dry) but you can experiment here with coarser paper to try and sand the plastic texture smoother but it is quite tough!

The door handles and coverplates were keyed with 800 grade paper.

Now the car has to be masked, I used fine edge tape first

Then normal masking tape, I was using a compressor and spray gun so needed to mask the complete car, if using aerosol, a smaller masked area can be done.

Now clean the plastic thoroughly with thinners to remove all traces of polish etc, allow to dry and use a tack rag for final cleaning.

I used a high build primer, again if using aerosol paint, use a plastic primer first followed by filler primer, the idea being to put on primer, then when its sanded back, this will provide a smooth surface for the top coat. Depending on how smooth you want the finish, you may have to prime and sand quite a few times.

Allow the primer to dry, (1 hour for me in a heated garage) then sand back with 600 grade paper.

I put the handles in the workmate to hold them in place but changed this method to suspending them from the ceiling with string for the top coat.

Clean the surface again – be careful if using aerosol as the thinners may remove your primer. Start applying the top coat. You will see in this photo that I also painted the plastic gasket that’s left around the door lock opening, not strictly necessary as the coverplate hides most of it.

Apply the topcoat until a good even finish is obtained then apply the lacquer final coats according to your paint manufacturers instructions.

Allow the paint to set, I left mine overnight then carefully remove the masking tape, I used a sharp craft knife at the joint between the side strips and door before removing the tape, this is to stop any paint peeling off the newly painted strips.

To install the handles, fit handle into door and press the wire into the handle until a click is heard. Now push the coverplate into the door – you will have to move the handle out slightly to allow the coverplate to fit tight against the door. Tighten the screw within the door, this allows the handle to lock properly into place.

Test door handle operation on completion, I had to click the wire linkage further back into the handle recess to allow the door to open.

The door handle removal and re-fitting sounds complicated but is in fact quite easy.

Here are the finished results.

10 ot of 10, that is brilliant, your a brave guy, how long did it take u roughly?

were the black bits reallly smoothed down before painting?

Well done.. currently painting mine

top notch! and extreme dedication!

So how much money do you think you have saved? How much would it have cost to get the parts painted and fitted by the dealer?

The paint I used was a metallic base coat and a 2 pack laquer. The cost of the paint, thinners. laquer and activator was around £50 but I bought far more paint than needed to do this work as  I want to use it to repaint some alloy wheels on my other car.

You can get the plastic smooth if you work at it, a combination of sanding down to start with then using a filler primer to fill the textured finish. To be honest I didn't go all the way with the rear bumper due to time, but I am very happy with the finish achieved.

I wasn't sure how the painted rear bumper would look but decided to go for it as I am not that keen on the black finish, glad I did though.

Just a point of caution - by al means clean the bare plastic with thiners to remove wax etc but once you have primer on its best to avoid thinners once you have paint on. Two pack paint is more reisistant to it than acrylic aerosol but its best to use a 'pre-paint' or 'panel wipe' solution (purchased from your paint supplier) - this will clean the surface but will not harm any kind of paint.

Very good 'write up' and a good job well done there mate.

Mark V:

Just a point of caution - by al means clean the bare plastic with thiners to remove wax etc but once you have primer on its best to avoid thinners once you have paint on. Two pack paint is more reisistant to it than acrylic aerosol but its best to use a 'pre-paint' or 'panel wipe' solution (purchased from your paint supplier) - this will clean the surface but will not harm any kind of paint.

I mentioned thinners incase someone was using DIY spray paints but as you say, it may react with the primer. When doing the work myself I did use the panel wipe and tac rag.