Removing rear outside door handles...

Repainting the Murder Wagon, and need to remove the rear door handles to do a proper job...there seems to be no access to the rear nut (of 2) that hold the handle on. I cruised through some old posts and saw that Fred Keihl mentioned removing the window glass.

Is that the best process? Thanks!

That is what I had to do to get to them. I do not know any other way to get to the nuts, and linkage. To remove the glass, you must remove the triangle at the rear of the glass. It has a small nylon fastener with a TORX head nylon locking screw behind the run channel at the top point of the triangle. There should be 2 bolts that hold the triangle to the body of the door. The locking screw will not want to come out, and you may have to force the fastener out if it does not release it. The fasteners are available, but I do not remember where. I was fortunate, after I damaged one of them, and while changing the carpet, found a new one under the carpet. Now, if only that type of good fortune would happen with expensive parts.

On my 96 RMW, I just windowed out a small section of the inside door sheet metal big enough to sneak through with a 1/4" drive socket on an extension. Worked fine and now on/off is easy.

Looks like I'll be dusting off the step drill bit...

Oscar73 wrote:

Looks like I'll be dusting off the step drill bit...

The step drill may work OK, but you will probably be around some corners and such so might not. I used an air powered die grinder with a carbide bullnose bit probably 3/8" diameter and it worked well.

I have carbide grinding bits, too...lol

Oscar73 wrote:

I have carbide grinding bits, too...lol

For some reason I thought you might