GuardsTurbo

What color is it originally supposed to be? This is what mine looks like.

9two8

Early cars had silver bezzles and later cars had satin black finish.

GuardsTurbo

Looks like mine started life as satin black.

Randy V

You can buy a set of vinyl bezel overlays from Jager that really improve the appearance.

9two8

..., the later cars were fitted with a modified lock, that differed slightly from early OB cars, I think this is when they got black satin escutcheons.

LT Texan

Only the '78's had CHROME bezels.

All the rest were....well I can't say for sure.

Rob Edwards

Open the door, pop the rubber plug near the top rear surface of the door, loosen the socket cap screw that holds the lock cylinder in, and pull the lock cylinder out a bit. Tape off the door around the lock, clean the old cylinder surface, tape off the center portion ( a nickel is a good template for a mask...), spray SEM self etching primer, then SEM trim black. Reassemble. Done.

Not a big fan of the vinyl overlays, they're ok from a distance, but you get closer than that every time you use the door lock.

Chalkboss

What Rob said. I tried the overlays and they are no good. Looks like amateur hour. This thread is good reminder for me to paint them and do it right.

traxtar928

I bought an 1'x5' matte black vinyl sheet from amazon for $15 (http://amzn.com/B00598U2EM), and plan on cutting out lock circles on my own. I can do a ton of them on this sheet, and will never run out. Jager's $22 pricetag is WAY to steep for such a small item. I purchased one set already and they started peeling off within 1 year, even when prepping the area with isopropyl. A compass, sharp blade, and steady hand should be able to reproduce these easily.

That being said, does anyone have the exact inner and outer diameter of the Jager kit? I was going to do process of elimination with paper cutouts, but it would be nice to save myself some work.

dr bob

I painted mine, using clear packing tape as the mask. A few sections did the job nicely. The plastic tape trims to a very sharp edge with a new razor knife. Do your clean and basic prep first, tape around it and a spot for the lock face, trim with the new razor knife. Last wipe with prepsol and then paint as Rob recommends. I take the time to cover the WHOLE REST OF THE CAR for projects like this, if for no other reason that rattle-can paints go everywhere, and like to stick to everything.

And of course no project like this would be complete without a few WYAIT suggestions. In this case, it's the rest of the window surround trim, at least the rears. The black color for the lock surround should match the trim on the window moldings.

Wurth and SEM both make pretty good almost-black trim paint. On my black car, they look sorta grey and faded though, so I ended up using an off-the-shelf satin black from the hardware store.

GuardsTurbo

Would it be that difficult to remove the cylinders completely from the door and paint away from the car?

G.P.

On my 87 S4 it was a bit of a PITA because it has antitheft plates in the door.

Apparently these antitheft plates are easy to remove if you take the door trim off. If you leave the plates out it makes it easy to remove the locks without taking the door trim off.
I have not done this yet, but I have been told about it.

dr bob

You do need to get inside the doors, so the door panel comes off. Then use your Radio Announcers' Hands (wee paws, for station identification...) to get around the security plate and such. More chances for damage or finding WYAIT tasks once the door panel is out. Too dangerous!

Meanwhile, the trips of packing tape trick lets you trim with a sharp razor knife, and tuck the tape up behind the bezel but over the rubber gasket/ring for painting. I keep a large plastic sheet rolled up for these emergencies for "masking" the rest of the car while spraying. Total time less than 30 mins for this project.

Bill Ball

Strange. I've had his door lock and window/rear wiper switch vinyl inserts on for at least 5 years (probably a lot longer) and my car is definitely not a garage queen. They have held up fine (maybe weather is a factor) and I think they look fine, not tacky. I'm all for DIY, so I hope the Amazon stuff sticks better for you, but with the included more difficult to emulate window/rear wiper inserts, I didn't think the price of Paul's stickers was exorbitant. The window/wiper graphics are very durable too. Paul includes two sets of those. After all these years I finally wore one of his window switch inserts enough that I recently replaced it with one from the second set.

Randy V

Like anything else, proper installation of the overlays results in a good result. If some didn't look good it was due to a poor installation.

Mine look totally stock, with an additional overlay for the lock face really cleans up the appearance.