How to shave door handles and other parts? [Merged 11-7] shaving shaved

[Eclipse97]

I recently remove my stock turbo spoiler and I found out there was three holes left on my car. How can I fix this problem, can I do it myself or I need to take it to the body shop for them to shave the holes out. I would rather do it myself to save money but if there isn't another way then I will settle with the body shop.
Thanks guys!

 

[scirio]

I have it done... and I can't tell you how much HIS SHOP will charge. So yourself. Sorry that you have the ability to quote for ANY shops ANYWHERE.

Pretty sure he is looking for a rough estimate of what a reasonable price would be before he goes through the trouble of driving into a shop that may try to talk him into any old price. You know, like most people do on the intarweb before they really get into something in order to avoid getting ripped off.. called research. So double to you, sir.


just havin fun.

 

[super97gst]

1. take the factory door handles out. ull need the linkage

2. weld in a piece of sheetmetal, or glass the hole up with fiberglass mat. if glassing it u will need to make some type of a filler to go in the hole first to support the glass.

3. ur gonna need to buy 2 door lock actuators, or door popper solenoids. spal actuators work better. also u will need an aftermarket keyless entry.

4. wire the keyless up, instead of wiring to the door locks u are goin to wire to the actuators, same thing. follow keyless directions. most keyless remotes have 4 buttons, i usually put lock to actuator in driver door, unlock to actuator in pass. door. the other 2 buttons are acc. buttons. u could wire one to remote open ur hatch. another actuator would be needed for that also.

5. mount the actuators somewhere on the inner frame of the door. a custom bracket may have to be made. the actuator has to be in a position to connect to the factory linkage that went to the door handle. linkage that opens door will need to be pulled by actuator, not pushed. forget about the door lock linkage since u will no longer need door locks, u can take that out of the door to free up space. ur prolly gonna have to do a little tweaking on the linkage to get it exactly right, just bend the linkage around however u need.

6. u should be done inside the door now so u just need to finish the outside of the doors. some grinding and bondo action will be required on this. if ur not to good at body work take it to a body shop. once the handles are smoothed out and blended it can be painted and cleared.

7. remember that once the handles are shaved there is no other way to get in ur car if the keyless remote goes dead. leaving the key hole for the hatch would be a good idea, just leave a spare key for the car in your wallet all the time. hope this helps somewhat and have fun with it.[/QUOTE]


i posted this reply a couple months ago to someone asking bout shaving the handles. this is what u would need to do to do it yourself. i would say prolly 500 dollars to take it to a shop start to finish.

 

[SpYYder]

i had it done for free pretty much, id guess its $400 or so to get it done at a bodyshop...

 

[Pro3racer]

To solve the problem of the keyless entry going bad, you could just do what my friend did with his firebird. Wire up a manual button to open the door someone under your car. For example, his was under his headlight, so in order to find it, you had to reach up behind the bumper, under the headlight, and it was there, you could never see it, but you could feel it(he moves it frequently, so i know its not there anymore). I know "devlish" has shaved handles on his 1g, looks awesome. I would say do it your self if you can weld at all, thats the common way of doing it, and it would cost much at all, just time.

 

[mazenb9981]

4. wire the keyless up, instead of wiring to the door locks u are goin to wire to the actuators, same thing. follow keyless directions. most keyless remotes have 4 buttons, i usually put lock to actuator in driver door, unlock to actuator in pass. door. the other 2 buttons are acc. buttons. u could wire one to remote open ur hatch. another actuator would be needed for that also.
.

What if you already got akeyless, remote starter and an alarm? Would you still that keyless for the actuators??

 

['96_Talon_TSi]

What if you already got akeyless, remote starter and an alarm? Would you still that keyless for the actuators??

You would simply re-wire your current keyless to power the actuators. Like he said, the lock button for the driver side actuator, and unlock for the passenger side actuator.


What do you guys thinkg it would cost just for the body work portion of the project? I've been thinking about doing it. I can handle all of the mechanical and electrical, however, I don't trust myself blending the paint and such.

 

[9D9 MITSU RS]

Pretty sure he is looking for a rough estimate of what a reasonable price would be before he goes through the trouble of driving into a shop that may try to talk him into any old price. You know, like most people do on the intarweb before they really get into something in order to avoid getting ripped off.. called research. So double to you, sir.


just havin fun.

Quadruple :laugh:

 

[devlish]

yeah, i would guess around $300 - $400 depending on the shop. then probably another $200 or so to have the doors painted.

i had my handles done at the same time i had the entire car repainted, i think just having the handles shaved (including bodywork to finish the door & primed) cost me around $325-ish.

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i chose to have a shop that only does custom work do my handles becuase i didnt want to deal with it sinking... ever! i have seen too many done by regular bodyshops, or by the owners themselves... and YIKES! at the time, it was worth it to me! (these days, i'd consider doing it myself, cuz i've done a lot of bodywork since) however, my ex-doorhandles are as clean as they were the day i picked it up! no sinking, no lines... MINT!

 

[Urban_S]

I think that is the sickest gen one I have ever seen!! I will probly have to drive a cople hours to find a shop that does custom shit. When my car met a f-150 head to ass I learned that the body shops here do a total shit job painting. Thanks for the info.

 

[devlish]

I think that is the sickest gen one I have ever seen!!

me?

 

[Pro3racer]

yea man, hes talking about you, and if he isn't, then i'll tell you you have the sickest 1g ever!!! Check you pms.

 

[Urban_S]

I would hump that gen1 for the looking so cool. Yes you.

 

[devlish]

thank you very much!

hey wait... sometimes i do hump my car. (did i just say that outloud?? oops )

sorry, you can't hump it though, only me. but thanks anyways!

sorry for getting off track. and i already replied to your PM

 

[miteclgst]

Ok so here are somethings that you will need to look out for when you do, or have a shop do, the bodyworking part of this. I have shaved many door handles, tail-gate handles, emblems, antenna holes, wiper holes..etc.
#1 DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT have your shop do it with fiberglass, big mistake, fiberglass will shrink over time and you outline of where the handles were will show up and be an eyesore. What I would normally do is cut out a piece of metal a bit bigger than the size of the patch, roll the metal out a bit on an english wheel, or just by hand if necessary, trim to fit just inside the opening, on the flange and flush with the body panel.
#2 Weld the panel in, do not use 2 part epoxies, do not use panel adhesive do not use fiberglass do not use rivets. The most important part about the welding is YOU MUST TAKE IT SLOW. Any significant buildup of heat will cause warpage, oil canning, a big mess in other words. When the welding is taking place, bounce from spot to spot, use 0.023 wire on a MIG welder set at almost the lowest setting (240V, 120V you will have to play around with it). Do something like 4 welds and stop. Wait until the panel cools then start again. When you weld do a pattern, place the 4 welds about equal distance apart on the first round, then put the next 4 welds splitting the distance b/w the first welds. This is important, if you weld in a inconsistant pattern the metal will rise in different areas causing the panel to lose shape and requre a lot of body work.
#3 now your welding is done, proceed to grind the high spots of the weld down, grinders build up heat just as the welder does so be careful, check the surface frequently to make sure that the heat buildup is minimal. Now if there are any welds that are at all suspicious looking, like they will crack or something, go over them. Once this is done finish grinding. Once everything is flush prep the area for body work. If you would like to put something over the welds to be safe use a product by evercoat called Fibertech, it is a fiberglass and kevlar reinforced filler.
Just remember whenever you are welding on body panels or anyting like that, time is your friend, the less welding you do and the more time you give the panel to cool the better off you will be. If you at anytime think that you may have warped the panel, stop and do the metal work to fix it. This will require shrinking and hammer and dolly work, possibly pulling. Don't do a job like this when you are on a tight schedule or you are rushed in any way, like I said time is your friend.
I know you will probably take this to a shop, just make sure that they realize that you want something done right so that you don't have to fix it before to long. This procedure I have used to do show truck as well as panel repair in restoration work the product, when done correctly will last years and will be undetectable to the trained eye.

 

['96_Talon_TSi]

miteclgst - your knowledge of bodywork and painting never ceases to amaze me.

How hard would you rate this project for someone fairly new to body work?

Would it be worth trying, or do you think I would be better off instaling everything and having my bodyshop do the bodywork?

 

[devlish]

Ok so here are somethings that you will need to look out for when you do, or have a shop do, the bodyworking part of this....... when done correctly will last years and will be undetectable to the trained eye.

that whole entire response.... WOW, nicely put
thanks for that insight. you are absolutely correct.

 

[Urban_S]

Thanks for the info!!!
So for the kit its self i only really need the actuators and some means of remote entry, I am looking into getting an LCD alarm and hooking the unlock up to these. And installing them before I get the hanldes shaved . Is that all I really need?

 

[devlish]

[QUOTE='96_Talon_TSi]How hard would you rate this project for someone fairly new to body work? [/QUOTE]
depends on how confident you are, and how you want your finished product to look

am looking into getting an LCD alarm and hooking the unlock up to these

i would recommend against hooking up your door poppers to the unlock button. if you accidentally push it, it will open your door. rather try hooking it up to the auxilary output, usually where you need to hold the button down for 2 or more seconds. less chance of accidentally opening them, or someone playing with your remote and locking/unlocking your car (and opening doors) with the remote as well.

 

[miteclgst]

Here is an example of how to approach the welding sequence. So if you look at my highly sophistocated computer simulation you can see it's all a matter of keeping the welds evenly spaced.
Can someone do this on their own, yes, so long as you take your time and you are in no rush to get it done. If you can bend a piece of metal to match the contour of the surface and trim it to fit properly then you should be in business. If you don't take your time and you warp the door then it will be time to call the professionals and have them do the rest of it because shrinking and dolly work isn't for the rookie. Make sure you cover your window also, the hot weld spatter will melt into it or the grinding will do the same.
The reason I harp on the welding is because I have done these before and I even warped one. It's just a matter of taking your time. If you can do this then you will be fine. Good Luck

 

[dsmstud04]

Shaving door handles can be really cool, or a pain in the ass. Don't be too cheap or careless, it will become a nightmare. Aside of worrying about getting locked out (don't forget to put a pullcord in!), you have to worry about messing with the window functions at all, i've seen that go south a few times. Good luck!

 

[02WRX1stgenDSM]

i use door lock actuators and keep my bear claws greased real well... i have this done to all 4 doors of my WRX(if you look closely at wehre the handles are on a WRX you will notice a body line... ) it looks amazing and i have no worries about getting locked out as i can pop it open in less than two minutes with a coat hanger...if you have doubts about it dont try... but if you really want to do it have someone help and have them weld in the metal... fillin and smoothing is more or less feel and a good eye... i will post some pics of my WRX's handles soon...

 

[slow99eclipse]

is there any other site that has shaved door handle kits cheaper than $305 (autoloc.com) i already have the remote entry system so i need the selinoid and poppers etc. but i dont want to spend that kind of $$ for shaved doors! let me know where you guys got yours

 

[BLUEBLOTCH]

is there any other site that has shaved door handle kits cheaper than $305 (autoloc.com) i already have the remote entry system so i need the selinoid and poppers etc. but i dont want to spend that kind of $$ for shaved doors! let me know where you guys got yours

if you dont want to spend that on the doors what are you going to when the body work needs to be done.

not trying to be mean just trying to get you to consider the cost of things.

Shaved 2Gs are the SHIT!!!

 

[super97gst]

well just go buy a pair of actuators or solenoids, and a pair of poppers then. forget the kit if uve already got the rest

 

[Boosted90GST]

shaved my handles on my 1g.. i think i spent 75.99 + a little extra for shipping on ebay for the whole kit