how hard would it be and what would it involve to change my outer door handle, anyone ever done it?

 

www.deadbird.org I think that he has a tech on how to do this. I know that he has a lot of pictures, he changed his out with Dodge Intreped handles

 

I will be changing my driver's side this weekend. I think the hardest part is disassembling the inner door panels to get to it. I have an 80 malibu that I changed. 1 was a GM OEM and the other was a cheap Advanced Auto one. I had to do some grinding to get the right angle on the cheap one. Will let you know how hard it is on Sunday.

 

To just replace the stock outer handle, it's the same for every GM car that had those crappy p.o.s. pot metal handles (which covers pretty much everthing from '70 and up).
You'll have to remove your door panel. With the window rolled up, look up inside the door where the handle is, you should be able to see 2 - 10mm (I think that's the size) nuts. Pop the handle rod off the handle inside the door, remove the nuts and pull the handle from the door. And now for the easy part, installation is reverse of removal

 

Well I did mine.. The top part of the door panel was a pain.. Be careful removing it.. I just gave it a pull and SNAP! that nice straight black piece on top is now 2 pieces... After looking closer there are tabs that you gotta push in... Remote mirror control was a little tricky to.. After I got all of that apart, it was 2 - 10 mm nuts.. I got a new door handle installed, but gotta get that top piece now... Good Luck!