HOW TO: Create "TURBO" Door handles

[techboy]

"TURBO" Door handles are tough to find, and they are tougher to find in decent shape.  If you like the look, and want the look, here's a cheap and easy way to create it.

First, start by removing your door handles.  I won't go over how to do that here, but there are posts you can find.  I'll try to link one up later.

Next, you'll need a set of the "TURBO" stickers.  They are available on eBay, or, you can have your own made.  I had a graphic artist friend make these for me.  I think the ones on eBay are about $5.

If you've ever seen a "real" set of turbo handles, they are perfectly smooth.  Conversely, the "standard" handles are textured.  They have what I call a knurling on them.

You need to carefully sand that off smooth.  I used my palm sander and rotated through 150, 220 and some 400 by hand.

When you're done, it should look like this.

Once you are this far the "black" on the handles will be kinda dull and flat looking.  We need to bring that back to a shine to have a look correct.  For this I grabbed some buffing compound and a buffing wheel.

After some polishing you should be able to get the handles to look like this.

Now we can sticker them up.  Do some measuring and get everything centered up.

Peel back the covering ... and ... ta-da!  $5 TURBO door handles.

Last thing I did to these that I didn't show was a took a can of clear spray paint and just gave them a light coating a day later to help prevent the stickers from peeling up.