Outside Door Handle Swap DIY

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DisturbedGator

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Well today i undertook the task of swapping all four chrome/body color handles on my quadcab for all body colored ones. Some say its a PIA but in my personal experience its not that bad if you have hands and arms of an 8 year old girl. The worst door was by far the drivers, one because i did it first and second it has more rods to disconnect/connect. Ok here we go:
before:
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Open your door(window up) and the first thing i did was remove the screw behind the inside handle. It has a little cover on it that will pop up with a pocket screwdriver to reveal a phillips head screw.
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Remove that screw than the cover behind the handle just pops out of place
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Next i removed the cover on the upper corner(nearest the mirror) just pop it out with a flathead.
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Then there are these little body panel pins/screws that use a T20 and then pop out the backing of them.
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You are now ready to remove the door panel, lift up gently and it will come off, its alot easier than other cars panels ive removed since there are no pins to pop out. Dont forget to unplug your switches! When its off it will look like this.
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Around this black cover there are several 10mm bolts, that i removed, but you dont have to it just made it easier for me to reach things rather than going through the little window in the panel. The bottom will pop out giving you enough room to get your whole arm in there. Here is said window.
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Now comes the fun part of drilling. Some say you dont have to drill, but my arms and hands arent that small so I used a 1/2 drill bit and I have documented where i put the hole in on the drivers side, same place on the passengers.
Front Drivers
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rear drivers
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Now this hole will allow you to get to two bolts directly behind it. I used a extension and a 8mm swivel socket to get them. But the swivel is not necessary. View into the dark whole (giggity):********:
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Now there is a third 8mm bolt on the forward part of the handle, but i could not get a pic of it so here is the layout of the holes on the handle off the truck.
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Since this is the drivers door, it has two rods attached to it. I could not get a pic of these but they are fairly straight forward. Just pop off the retainer and pop the rod out of its hole. :********:

And what it will look like with no handle. I cleaned this before i put the new handle on.
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Now i dont know the level of knowledge of everyone on here so i added this little tip so people dont keep dropping their bolts. Put a piece of electrical tape on the end of your socket and push the bolt into it. It will hold it in place so you dont drop them in the damn door, which admittedly i did more than a couple times.
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Also another little tidbit for those of you who are gonna be doing this. My handles, did not come threaded so for an hour i was balls deep in the door cursing trying to figure out why the hell the bolts werent going in right. So i took the handle out and saw that the plastic had no threads in it! So my advice is to put in all three bolts BEFORE you put the handle on the door and loose your mind.
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Install is just the opposite of removal, except i put the bolts in before i attached the rods since its easier to have the handle in place while your shoulder deep behind the door trying to pop that damn rod in.

The rear door(quad cab) are exactly the same except for one little step.
You have to remove this piece of trim, that just pops off that is on the rear of the door.
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All other doors besides the drivers have only one rod to attach/detach

Have Fun! This is what it will look like:
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0212353

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nice write up!
 

dodger2107

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awesome write up,i think i can do it thanks to this
 

GhostRam94

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I honestly wanted to do mine but I took a good look at my truck as my mom drive away with it today and I thought it would look funny losing that little bit of chrome on my shiny *****;)

But none the less, excellent write up!!!!
 

WhiteExpress

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Oooo some day I'll get the factory color match handles...

someday...
 

Graygoose

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looks good man, thanks for the write up and pics!!!!!!
 

countryboy92

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i like the write up and have been wanting to do that on mine. Thanks for the pictures.
 

gc_harvey

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Nice write-up. Looks great! I just went the easy way out and made that part of the deal when I bought my truck. Now the dealer has to do that for me, lol
 

Silverbullet

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Thanks for posting this. I just installed a set i bought from allmoparparts.com ($48ea) and your post definitely cut down on the time. Still took about an hour 15 though.
 

09SMOKINHEMI

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Great write up. Hadn't seen this until now

sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3
 

Pic18

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Is it possible to buy prepainted smooth door handles? Like he ones on the Ram sport?
 

300MAG

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Is it possible to buy prepainted smooth door handles? Like he ones on the Ram sport?

Yes, you can get them already color matched. It will cost you about $150-200 from sites on line based on color.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy-S3 using Tapatalk 2
 

Pic18

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Big THANK YOU to Disturbed Gator for this thread. I didn't drill the holes because I didn't want to, but damn my 8th grade girl arms are roughed up from going through the small access panel.

I must requote this from Disturbed Gator:

Also another little tidbit for those of you who are gonna be doing this. My handles, did not come threaded so for an hour i was balls deep in the door cursing trying to figure out why the hell the bolts werent going in right. So i took the handle out and saw that the plastic had no threads in it! So my advice is to put in all three bolts BEFORE you put the handle on the door and loose your mind.


Since I just looked at the pictures, I missed it. Real words of wisdom right there! Save yourself some aggravation, and don't miss that part! I got the drivers side doors done today. I'll tackle the passenger later this week. I'm glad daylight savings kicked in!
 
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300MAG

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but damn my 8th grade girl arms are roughed up from going through the smaoo access panel.

Too funny


Sent from my Samsung Galaxy-S3 using Tapatalk 2
 

that white kid

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I know this was from a long time ago but does anyone know were to order handles from?
 

mopar

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Big THANK YOU to Disturbed Gator for this thread. I didn't drill the holes because I didn't want to, but damn my 8th grade girl arms are roughed up from going through the small access panel.

Maybe I'll see if the kids(8 and 5) arms can do it I'm gonna give it a try today.
 
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