to start look at the picture -go to the TGO picture gallery then
go to page 15 and scroll down to rapid rods -My 87 Monster
see the picture of the door and look at the door handle

or now you can scroll down to Stephen's reply right here on this thread
although you should check out the other pics of this monster

this is what I would like to do and I am wondering what is involved
in doing this modification-so here are the questions

what kind of handle is this? I thought maybe a 4th gen
since he has that interior or maybe it is something else

are these handles available and where?
I have been searching and researching without any luck

is it simply a cutout and install or is it necessary to weld back in
a plate to cover any missing metal?
e.i. as in shaving handles

I really appreciate your expertise! thank you

I'm pretty sure it's a handle from a 88-98 chevy truck. there is a thread on it somewhere, just keep searching handles or shaved handles, it should pop up. sorry i'm not more help.

its either truck handles or 4th gen door handles, but I'm leaning toward 4th gen handles since he has a 4th gen interior. The mechanism is bolt in, but you have to cut out the handle section from the 4th gen and weld it into the 3rd gen door. I think Stephen has done this...

Those handles look nice.
I would love a shiny set of those on the 'Bird!

This thread explains the ringing is my ears...I'm being talked about!

These are the ones I put on my first 3rd gen.....A 92RS, from a 88-97 C/K series truck. Next time, I'll use S10/S15 handles which are the same, just a little smaller.


The ones your asking about, might be the smaller S10/S15 handles.

Stephen
as soon as I received your email I scrolled down and there were yer pics
I thought I was on this thread but I was on the thread -Are you shaved?
what timing!

I was hoping I would not have to shave the doors to install these handles
I guess if you cut out the existing handle and lock section that the opening would be too large for this setup anyway
now I understand the entire section needs to be mounted
I wish I could install them without welding-any ideas? thanks Will

No way to do those, other than cutting, welding & re-painting.

Hot Rod showed how to do the truck door handles in the Fast Forward F-body series in 1994. They just cut that section of door out of a truck, welded it into the Camaro door and tack welded the rods together.

Yep! That is where I got the idea & took copies of the articles to the body shop to have it done, along with a complete color change from red to purple.

WOW! That is HOT! Yet another modification to consider...

hey stephen, about how much would that cost to have done? (without the repaint)

#1. Mine were done 15 years ago, so the costs wouldn't be the same.

#2. Your area is most likely a different price range anyways.

If you know someone who can weld the thin material of a car body, have them to it. If you want to do it the "right way", you can get a tool from Eastwood. Pricey is your just doing 1 job, like the door handles. http://www.eastwood.com/email/defaul...RCCODE=1CJBAN8

thanks for the info stephen, i'm gonna look into doing that.

So I got the lowdown from the man himself at rapid rods
He used 1994 Chevy Full size pickup handles
yeah they look really great
this mod is nicer than shaving everything off completely
thanks again you all

So he did use the same handles I did. Get the S10/S15 handles if you do it though. Miniaturized versions of the exact same design.

looks good , but a ton of work

Not really.

2 square cuts at a junkyard (i went & got mine myself, they loaned me their saw). 2 matching square cuts on your car, then weld & paint.In my 3 pics, the bottom pics shows how it was lined up to scribe the cut line on the original doors. If an Econopaint Body Shop can do it (yes, that is where my car was painted & the door handles done)....How hard can it be????

You DO NOT need the flanging tool. Just simplifies things a bit.

I just replaced my stock ones on my Iroc with 4th gen handles. They're exactly the same other than the 4th gens look much better. They're a direct swap. Doubt anyone would even notice. The difference is subtle but IMO it looks much cleaner. The 4th gens I bought also seem to be higher quality. Paid $20 for em at the GM dealer.

Bringing this back up.....

I'm going to do the 88+ truck handle mod myself but would rather use the s10-s15 handles for them being a little smaller, but im also trying to find a handle that does not have a key hole. So im basically looking for rear door handles, what vehicles could i find these on? I'm thinking on s10 blazers and jimmys with 4 doors. anyone know what other vehicles i could find them on? thanks.

How about these? Mid 90's GM cars, very easy to find.

are those two different door handles or am i just not seeing the door lock in the second pic? im just looking for a square door handle that does not have a lock cylinder hole in it, i wanted to use rear door handles off of a 88-91 honda civic which i have a pair of but seem like they are to large in depth and i dont think they would hook up to the rods.

Some cars (trucks) like my moms Trailblazer, only have a key lock on the drivers side door & none on the other 3. So finding handles without lock cylinders should be simple. Gonna suck tough, the day your battery dies & your locked out because the electric door poppers won't work. And you can't pop the hood to give the battery some juice to pop the locks.

They're different handles. The door handle shown in the 2nd pic is off of a rear door. The front and rear handles interchange. The drivers side handle still has the keyhole. I had thought about changing it too, but didn't want to have to crawl through the hatch if my keyless entry system failed.

WOW...this door handles look to sick...i want sum...

search for member Deadbird i think his came out of a grand am maybe or intrepid or something along those lines. they came out sweet they look like they came on the car

On Horsepower TV on Spike they said to check to see it the linkages are operating vertically from the handle or horizontally. If both the donor and receiving car are the same then assuming similar body shape then the job is exactly as described above. That is how they did it and even mentioned possibly having to braze or weld the linkage rods together. They also said that with all the choices out there that it would be much smarter to have the linkages be the same instead of having to do other mods to change the pull direction to make it work.

Yep. The C/K & S10/15 handles have virtually identical linkages. Only change that had to be made to put the C/K handles on my old Camaro, was that 1 linkage rod (vertical, IIRC) had to be cut a little shorter & the end rebent to the 90 degrees it need. And really that was a matter of a difference in location from where the original handle sat and where the C/K handle sat, in relation to the actual latch.

I am thinking about doing this to my '86 because the rivet holes have been stressed. Thats a thank you to people that don't know how to be easy on a handle when it's already starting to seperate. Anyway, I like the concept of the sleek look and I drive my car here in Alaska. I have already had my fun crawling through a rear hatch so I will never do the keyless thing. Thanks for the pointers on doing this.

Can you post pics of your car? I've been debating this mod for a while.

Ideally it would be better to thread the rods and use some kind of coupler if there were room to get in there with a tap and die set. Just for the simple fact that it's not always easy to get a perfect alignment to weld two rods end to end, and it gives you some adjustment for tension. But then I guess tolerances aren't terribly tight for what you need to achieve to get the door to operate.

I think I would still drill a sleeve and just weld the sleeve to both rods, just for piece of mind so I knew they were aligned straight.

Mathius

*subscribed*

I'd love to see multiple finish products and how its done. I'd like to do something like this; or how the 4th gens are on there doors.

Have you broken the fullsize truck handles yet? When I worked at a GM dealership we replaced those handles almost daily because the pot metal was prone to breaking.

4thgen handles are exactly like 3rdgen handles just minus the indentation in the face. They bolt on with no mods whatsoever. Most of the 4thgen birds are body colored though.

4th gens are flush with the door skin unlike the 3dr gen handles that protrude. i've never seen what the final product looks like. If it's as clean as I think, ill do it.

I haven't owned that car since 2002 or so. But in the 6-7 yrs I had it, the handles never broke & it was a daily driver. And the handles were just as functional the day I sold the car, as the day I put the USED (out of a junkyard) handles on.

No. They are not. The doors have recesses in them that the handles sit back inside. The handles themselves are just like I said, the exact same minus the indentation in the face that a lot of thirdgens use for decal placement. I pulled a set off of a 97 trans am from the junkyard and put them directly on my bird with no modifications. It's not as cool as some of the other door handles mods in here but still cleans up the lines of the car a bit.


*this picture is at least 5 years old so don't pay any attention to the small wheels and horrible paint. :P

I seem to remember 4thgen door skins being composite type material but its been years since I pulled those from the JY so I don't remember. If they are it'd be a royal pain in the *** to graft them onto a thirdgen. No where near as simple like what's posted in here about cutting out a section of donor door and welding it into yours.

Alright, that answers that. That's cool they lasted you so long. They're definitely known for the opposite.

You are correct, they are SMC, which is a composite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheet_moulding_compound

Mathius

Very subtle touch, but I added CF into the recess of my handles. And yes....My car needs paint.

[quote=iansane;4752252]No. They are not. The doors have recesses in them that the handles sit back inside. The handles themselves are just like I said, the exact same minus the indentation in the face that a lot of thirdgens use for decal placement. I pulled a set off of a 97 trans am from the junkyard and put them directly on my bird with no modifications. It's not as cool as some of the other door handles mods in here but still cleans up the lines of the car a bit.


*this picture is at least 5 years old so don't pay any attention to the small wheels and horrible paint. :P

I seem to remember 4thgen door skins being composite type material but its been years since I pulled those from the JY so I don't remember. If they are it'd be a royal pain in the *** to graft them onto a thirdgen. No where near as simple like what's posted in here about cutting out a section of donor door and welding it into yours.quote]

I stand corrected. Thanks for posting the pic. It's not as clean as I obviously hoped. They do look a little better than whats on the car now tho.

I will someday probably be doing the '94-'04 S10 style door handles on my Z28 at some point - I just HATE the factory ones on our cars.

I do like the newer "grab handle" styles found on most newer cars. Just gotta figure out which ones would fit and which ones are reasonably available.

Wish i knew someone in town; i totally would love to shave my door handles or replace them with something a bit more sturdy and stealthier

ANY body shop has the ability to do it. The hard part is finding a body shop that is willing to do something custom like the C/K truck or S10 handle graft.

Would it be more cost efficient to cut the pieces out myself in a junkyard and having the body shop do it?

Talk to a couple shops and find out what they say. That way you will know what is best when you have found one to do the work. They should be able to tell you exactly what they would want, extra metal around the handle etc.

Obviously more cost effective to cut them out yourself, if you have a saw to do it, or can borrow one.

I think the junkyard was amused by my idea, so they were happy to give me their big body saw to borrow in their yard. I think they wanted to see me fail, so that they could have a big laugh. I won! :rofl:

I just cut out a good 3" or so around the handle, so that the body shop could trim down to what they wanted to use. Easier to remove material than add material.

Good luck finding a body shop willing to do this mod, much less one that would spend their time going to a junkyard to get the pieces needed.

Sadly, they aren't amused around here because they think you 'ruined' a perfectly good door to chop what you wanted out of it.

I need to replace both of my handles (they are the orignal and pain in butt to open doors because metal piece connect to thin metal piece is broken). So if I went and get 4th gen door exterior door handles is there no modification and just put it on? Also another 4th gen question any1 have a link to put 4th gen interior door into a 3rd gen camaro?

Looks like I have something left to do.... that looks so good

You stole my doors!!! JK man, it looks great.

very nice man; what door handles are those from? I'd love to do that with the keyless entry as it is!!! :\ Just wish i had the money...