[sp8ball]

TUTORIAL: Taking Off the Door Panels, Cont.

REAR DOORS:

The rear door panels are very, very similar to the front door panels.

Access the three screw locations.






Rear door panel grip area is on the truck side of the door.



Here’s the rear door panel – see all the white clips around the edge? Remember those black o-rings!




And here’s the inside of the rear door.



Reassembling the rear door can be a real hassle, as Harper7 alluded to in a post in a different thread. It takes a lot of patience to seat the top of the rear door panel before pushing it back in to pop-in the white pins. Take your time, and use the guide pin near the top of the door (goes into a square hole) to get things lined up.

[desertred]

Most excellent manicure mod! Can't wait for THAT write up!

[sp8ball]

Originally Posted by desertred

Most excellent manicure mod! Can't wait for THAT write up!

Well since everyone is always picking on us (or just me?) about the condition of our nails...

[azn-sensation]

Great! So how hard was it putting the color matched handles on? I've taken the panels off a couple times already to put new speakers in but didnt really explore further into the handle replacement.

[sp8ball]

Originally Posted by azn-sensation

Great! So how hard was it putting the color matched handles on? I've taken the panels off a couple times already to put new speakers in but didnt really explore further into the handle replacement.

Incredibly easy - especially if you've had the panels off. We were shocked at how easily and smoothly it went. Write-up will get posted later this morning.

[Johnny Utah]

Originally Posted by sp8ball

Incredibly easy - especially if you've had the panels off. We were shocked at how easily and smoothly it went. Write-up will get posted later this morning.

DO IT! hahaha

[philsey]

I'd love to hear your wives' comments when they saw T4R-dot-org on your fingernails!!

a) "you can't be serious"
b) "oh that's soooo gay"
c) "what is wrong with you two"?
d) "Can't I trust you two NOT to do stupid stuff when you're together"?
e) "OK, that's it, go to your room"
f) "I don't care if he does have hairy arms, that's just wrong"

g) Bueller? Class? Anyone?

[sp8ball]

Originally Posted by philsey

I'd love to hear your wives' comments when they saw T4R-dot-org on your fingernails!!

a) "you can't be serious"
b) "oh that's soooo gay"
c) "what is wrong with you two"?
d) "Can't I trust you two NOT to do stupid stuff when you're together"?
e) "OK, that's it, go to your room"
f) "I don't care if he does have hairy arms, that's just wrong"

g) Bueller? Class? Anyone?

Correct answer (from my end, at least): [a], [b], [c], and [d] (with eye roll)

[Antman]

He made me do it.

[sp8ball]

Modification: Door Handle Changeout

Body-color Front Door Handles
Main Handle (both sides): P/N 69211-60070-D1 $55.96 for both
Handle Cover, Right Side: P/N 69250-60030-D1 $17.22 for one
Handle Cover, Left Side: P/N 69217-60150-D1 $9.28 for one
Body-color Rear Door Handles
Main Handle (both sides): P/N 69211-60090-D1 $55.96 for both
Handle Cover (both sides): P/N 69250-60010-D1 $29.68 for both

(Note: these are the part numbers for Salsa Red Pearl door handles - check the Parts Manual for your color, or the TE option. Prices should be similar.)

Difficulty Scale (1 to 10): Four, because of door panel removal…which turned out to be easy.

Sp8ball’s Personal Intimidation Factor (1 to 10): Eight, which is why it was delayed...and then we did it and it was easy.

Install Time: 3+ hours, because Antman and I also did the Interior Door Handle LED mod (write-up coming soon!) at the same time, since we had the door panels off.

Reason for Doing It: Because I just plain don’t like the chrome, and I wasn’t confident enough to paint them.

Benefit: No. More. Chrome. Handles. But I still have them if I ever want/need to change them back.

Cons: Price, effort required.

Other Products Considered: Trail Edition Door Handles, painting them.
_____________________________


I want to start off by saying that I thought this was going to be some grueling, all-day affair that required a bunch of precise tinkering coupled with ripping my truck apart from the inside out. I didn’t know what to expect.

Then we did the front passenger door handle in 3 minutes.

It’s not that hard. Seriously – it’s not. Had it helped that Antman had taken off a door panel before? Of course! But with the previously-posted Tutorial, you should be able to get the door panel off and start into the door handle removal process. I think this is especially good to know, since many people were taping off their door handles with paper and playing cards to paint them on the truck. Once you see how easy it is to get them off, you can remove them and paint them much more easily.

So, let’s go! We’ll start with the front doors, because they are different than the rears. (not drastically so, but different nonetheless)


REMOVING FRONT DOOR HANDLES:

Once you have the door panel off, you need to access the inside of the door. That will involve getting behind this plastic sheeting. Don’t cut it or rip into it! Just take a knife and gently cut the tar-like adhesive. When you’re done, and the time comes to close things back up, you just press the adhesive back together and voila!...you’re re-sealed.



You’ll need to remove this little rubber/plastic doohickey that’s covering an access hole. I didn’t take a picture of us taking it off – so this is Antman pushing it back on. But that’s the piece you need to take off. Just gently pry it off, and it pops out.



There’s a Torq screw inside, behind the doohickey. Remove it (use a magnetic Torq tip, so you don’t drop the screw).



The Door Handle Cover comes right off after that screw is removed. Make sure your black gasket material is still in place.




Inside the door, you need to rotate this yellow clip AWAY from the handle structure. Right now, it’s about halfway open in this picture. It will go all the way to the left, and that releases the main handle. (there are better pictures of this process in the “Rear Door Handle Removal” section of this write-up!)



Pull the handle away from the door (as if you were opening it) and gently pull it in the direction of the now-missing door handle cover (towards the rear of the door). Do this in a CONTROLLED fashion, or it may come out wildly and scrape the truck.



Congratulations, you’ve now removed the front door handles!

[sp8ball]

Modification: Door Handle Changeout (cont.)

DRIVER’S SIDE FRONT DOOR:
One small nuance about the front driver’s side door is the locking mechanism. We thought this might be a tripping point, but it really wasn’t. Following the same instructions as above, the locking mechanism and door handle cover just slide out as a whole unit.



With some slight pressure on the tab, you can release the lock from the door handle cover, and paint it or reinstall your color-matched door handle cover.




REINSTALLING FRONT DOOR HANDLES:

You literally just reverse the above process. Hit the new part with some grease on it’s pivot point (you’ll see the grease on the OEM ones when they come out). Slide the main handle into the door the opposite of the way you pulled it out. It’ll seat and give you a good indication that it’s in. Flip the yellow clip back towards the handle housing to secure it, and close up the plastic shield by pushing the adhesive back together. Put the door handle cover back in place, and secure with the Torq screw. Cover up that hole, and things should look like this:





REMOVING REAR DOOR HANDLES:

Both rear door handles will come off in an identical fashion, as there’s no locking mechanism with which you have to fiddle around. Again, the instructions are very similar to the front doors, but the door handle cover comes off differently.

So, we’re once again going to cut into the adhesive (not the plastic) to reveal the inside of the door.

[sp8ball]

Modification: Door Handle Changeout (cont.)

REMOVING REAR DOOR HANDLES, cont.:

Now, you will see three Torq screws around the door latch. These get removed.



That will allow the latch to flop around inside the door. That’s OK, because you want to push it down enough to see the Torq screw behind it…which is the screw for the door handle cover. Here you can see the latch has been pushed downward, and you can see the silver of the screw in the background.



Back out that screw – but realize that it’s seated and won’t come all the way out (there’s a catch, which is good, because it prevents you from dropping the screw into the door). You’ll feel when it’s all the way out.

Reach in with a flat head screwdriver and GENTLY press the two tabs holding the cover in place in the direction shown. Remember that this is plastic, and too much force will bend or break those tabs.



While pushing on the tabs to release the door handle cover, gently work the door handle cover from the other side to pull it from the vehicle.



Here’s that yellow clip. As pictured here, it’s “closed” and holding the door handle in place. See how Antman has simply grabbed it with his finger?



A pull of the finger, and now the yellow clip is “open”. See the difference?



Once again, we’re simply pulling the handle away from the door and towards the rear of the truck, and the door handle should come right out.



And your rear handles are now removed!

[sp8ball]

Modification: Door Handle Changeout (cont.)

REINSTALLING REAR DOOR HANDLES:

As we discussed in the “Reinstalling Front Door Handles” section, you need to grease the pivot points of the incoming handle.



Slide the handle in, with pressure going forward (towards the front of the vehicle) and into the door. You’ll hear the handle seat itself.



Once installed, flip the yellow clip back to its locked position.

Simply pop the rear door handle cover in place.



Reach in and retighten the Torq screw that holds the door handle cover in place.



Reattach the door latch with the three Torq screws on the outside edge of the door.



Hopefully, you have something that looks like this when you’re done!

[azn-sensation]

Sweet! Thank you so much! Ordering my trail handles today!

[philsey]

I'm not as "no-chrome" as you are, but I gotta say that looks great. It's the way it should have looked.

As usual, nice detailed writeup.