Hi, Guest
10-15-2008, 11:49 AM
but they do fit each other right?
(they look exactly the same in pictures of focus 00-04 and focus 05-07)
...actually i already bought 4 at mazda for the 04 tribute but the guy failed to tell me they had stopped pre-painting them and so when i went to pick up my order, only the 4 triangular bezel were painted and the 4 actual handles were not....
he offered a discount as a result and since i had to decide on the spot i decided to go for it and paint them myself....how hard could it be.
After spending hours and hours and cans of paint...they came out alright but not as nice as the pre-painted bezels. After installing them i ran into trouble with the rubber cushion that goes behind all 4 door handles as those needed to be painted as well (and painting rubber is a lot harder cuz it started to scrap off on the edges when installed the door handles).
Last winter during one of the freezing ice rainstorms the paint on one of the door handles chipped off so i had to use touch up paint to cover it up.
Overall....i wouldn't have taken that discount and gone through all this work to paint them myself. I love the pre-painted quality as those are glossy and perfect but the DIY paint is slightly off colour and obviously the clearcoat isn't as good or as glossy as factory.
So now i am entertaining the idea of buying another 4 door handles only if they are factory painted.
(they look exactly the same in pictures of focus 00-04 and focus 05-07)
...actually i already bought 4 at mazda for the 04 tribute but the guy failed to tell me they had stopped pre-painting them and so when i went to pick up my order, only the 4 triangular bezel were painted and the 4 actual handles were not....
he offered a discount as a result and since i had to decide on the spot i decided to go for it and paint them myself....how hard could it be.
After spending hours and hours and cans of paint...they came out alright but not as nice as the pre-painted bezels. After installing them i ran into trouble with the rubber cushion that goes behind all 4 door handles as those needed to be painted as well (and painting rubber is a lot harder cuz it started to scrap off on the edges when installed the door handles).
Last winter during one of the freezing ice rainstorms the paint on one of the door handles chipped off so i had to use touch up paint to cover it up.
Overall....i wouldn't have taken that discount and gone through all this work to paint them myself. I love the pre-painted quality as those are glossy and perfect but the DIY paint is slightly off colour and obviously the clearcoat isn't as good or as glossy as factory.
So now i am entertaining the idea of buying another 4 door handles only if they are factory painted.
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