After ten LONG years of looking at these hideous silver refrigerator door handles, I reached my breaking point!!
Status: Drying...
Process:
Easy to remove - I was able to unscrew 1/2 screws on each side for the door lock button... the other one - as others have posted - was rusted, but I think I can press it back into it's old spot as the screw goes into a washer that's seated into the door housing - basically they pressfit the nut that it goes into... I did not want to deal with getting in there to remove those blue clips!!
Note: The "torq" bolt - don't bother ordering a special set of them - mine was not even hand tight...but now I have a whole set for future use... if you're just doing the handles only - you can get away with a flathead (there's only that one on the drivers side).
Spent a solid 30 minutes per handle sanding with 600...then paper towel wipe, then alcohol swab wipe...
Then:
1) 4 Coats of aluminum primer - it sprays white...
2) 5 Coats of black primer - This is what you want for dark blue base coat apparently... other colors you want either a white primer - or grey primer...please do research as it - somehow - makes a difference in terms of how your paint will behave in different lighting...Paint experts can chime in on that topic
3) 5 Coats of base coat - I used a company called touchupzone.com - $34 for a single can - used prettymuch all of it
4) Era Paints 2K clear - this stuff is pure evil - Buy the 3m respirator and appropriate filters - this is easily the strongest stuff I have ever sprayed myself...I ended up doing around 5 coats... It was orange peel like on coats 1-3... so keep spraying and it levels out nicely!
Currently drying - Will wait 2 days til I attempt to put them back on car:
Oh and: the windows went down like they were possessed - so - that will be "fun" doing the whole reset thing... for now they went back up if I put turned car on like usual... Somehow Nissan knows when you're removing the drivers side handle...