Taking the door handles apart
Mark is right, it is not that hard to take them apart. Once apart, you can either paint the black plastic or replace the plastic part. I recently bought two new plastic handle housings from Henk as I wanted to replace mine as they were pretty sun baked. I also bought a matched lock set as mine were mismatched and I had no key for one anyway.
To take the handles apart, or to just change the lock cylinders, you need to first remove the pawls from the cylinders. There is a small pin that can be carefully driven out. I used a flattened nail as a driver.
I labelled them right and left so I wouldn't get confused. I was also careful not to drive the pin out entirely so I could get it back on. Just enough for it to come off the lock cylinder.
You can then remove the spring that is around the end of the lock cylinder and out it comes. The next part is to remove the pivot pins that are visible when you lift the handle or depress the lock button.
I used a pliers like this to push it from the inside out. Mark suggested a punch which could also work.
It doesn't need to go far before it comes loose, then you can just pull it from the outside. Then the two parts of the handle come out and you have just the plastic surround to paint or replace. Just take some pictures and pay attention to how the various springs go when you put it back together.
Here is a picture of the new surround I got from Henk compared to my old one.
I didn't notice that there are two extra "struts" that can be seen in the lock part of the housing. I put the handle back together and found that the handle would not open, rather just the lock button can be pushed with your thumb to open the door. I checked with Henk and he said that the later year ones were like that. I preferred mine to lift open the way I am used to, so I carefully ground out the struts so they were smooth and then put the handle back together and now they are like new.
