Thanks, Jason for a sorely needed mod. I just installed mine today. It took me a good amount of time due to my paranoia about cutting into my A pillar cover. After many measurements and many test fittings I got it done.
I did make a few tweaks to your excellent instructions to satisfy my OCD.
It’s always good to protect your dash surfaces and A pillar cover with masking tape and put down a towel on the dash to avoid scratches while working with tools. I also taped all around the hole drill locations to create a “bucket” with the tape sticky side up in order to catch the metal shavings.
I found that the pointed blade end on the sheet metal screws wasn’t sharp enough to enlarge the initial 1/8 inch pilot hole. So I drilled progressively larger holes, up to 3/16 I believe, to get to the proper size for the sheet metal screws to take hold and tap a few turns for the threads. I then backed out the screw and cut off the blade ends with a dremel cutting disc. On my A pillar the screws seemed too long, there was some kind of plastic backing in there that would have been pierced with the screw blade ends.
I used blue loctite on the threads and snugged up the bracket to the pillar. With the cover installed I found that the white nylon base on the lower attachment point of the handle needed to be shaved down to make it fit flush with the surface of the cover.
It looks great and feels just as sturdy as the passenger-side handle.
Thanks to
@
Jasontamu
and
@
Saker
.