Driver’s Side Grab Handle

[NorthState]

Ever look at these beautiful trucks and say to yourself “Man, I wish they had done that from the factory!” i.e. functional drivers side extended cab door. I mean, obviously they had the design. Just needed to mirror it on the other side!

Well something I have been pondering is how hard it would be to add a factory-looking driver’s grab handle. Everyone’s heard how it’s bad for us to yank our way into the driver seat by the steering wheel. Right? Well other than welding in the appropriate threaded anchor points and slightly heating/reshaping and drilling the plastic trim panel, I thing it could be done!

My question is, has anyone ever seen/tried it? If not, standby. I’m gonna give it a whirl! Before I ended up with my current engine set up, I was going to LS swap it. I shaved a 5.3 intake manifold and was pretty proud of how wel it turned out. In so doing, I learned a crap-TON about the plastics used on vehicles. There is a fair amount of plastic welding involved. It’s not new, but it was crazy fun! I will post pics if I can find em.

But y’all let me know if this road has been travelled before! Thanks in advance!

 

[NorthState]

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[SinCity3500]

Definitely interested in this, subbed!

 

[someotherguy]

The plate the handle bolts into is pretty simple; my suggestion is find a donor truck and use a sawzall to chop that piece of the windshield pillar out. You'll need to drill 5 welds to get the plate off the pillar and it will be far easier holding the piece on a drill press than trying to squeeze in there with the windshield in your way of 2 of them.

A simple template made from the donor truck's passenger A pillar to position it on your driver side.. cover everything and I mean everything to protect it from sparks/slag - windshield, dash, seats, carpet, door panel, headliner.. and weld that sucker in. Then cutting the A pillar plastic to match the holes from a passenger side one, and you're set.

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The passenger plastic has a slight depression behind the handle for hand clearance, not sure how you could replicate that other than very careful heating of the plastic and gently smushing it in that spot. Might be do-able; probably ruin a few pieces trying it so maybe practice on some broken ones first.

Richard

 

[NorthState]

Exactly, someotherguy! I got a good look at mine today as I have had some pretty extensive Interior related work going on. I even thought of taking wet rags and draping across the outside of the A pilar and windshield as I weld so as to discourage any transferred heat away from the windshield seal.

As for the plastic. My idea is to practice, like you said. I wonder how the plastic would respond to a softly increased heat from a heat gun and then as soon as it gets supple, use a prefabricated object like a piece of wood to mimic the the profile of the passenger side. Other than that, I will simply need to replicate the holes for the handle to fit in.

At least This is going to be my first approach. The cutting and plastic welding would most certainly leave a scar, and be difficult to re-texture.

 

[GoToGuy]

If i ever find a good gray handle or two this is on my project clipboard. I plan on using high strength rivets, rather than welding. May have redo the gauge pod also.

 

[NorthState]

Yeah the gauge pods would present a whole other gremlin. Good thing is, my rig doesn’t have them.

As for the rivets, keep in mind the close quarters near the windshield that someotherguy noted. I’m not sure that a rivet gun would fit in to get those two spot welds.

 

[GoToGuy]

I am lucky in that i have a CherryMax offset head rivet puller. My wife is shorter so this would help her. She uses the two on the passenger side every time.

 

[someotherguy]

Exactly, someotherguy! I got a good look at mine today as I have had some pretty extensive Interior related work going on. I even thought of taking wet rags and draping across the outside of the A pilar and windshield as I weld so as to discourage any transferred heat away from the windshield seal.

As for the plastic. My idea is to practice, like you said. I wonder how the plastic would respond to a softly increased heat from a heat gun and then as soon as it gets supple, use a prefabricated object like a piece of wood to mimic the the profile of the passenger side. Other than that, I will simply need to replicate the holes for the handle to fit in.

At least This is going to be my first approach. The cutting and plastic welding would most certainly leave a scar, and be difficult to re-texture.

The holes for the handle are slightly smaller than the "trim" on the handle itself, so I think you can cut small, and the handle will hide your work. I agree with the pre-formed object for making the dent in the heated-up pillar plastic; sounds like a solid plan.

Richard

 

[BNielsen]

My truck had a grab handle added to it. It was owned by old people prior to me; and one of them pretty much took a passenger side handle and bolted it into the driver's side pillar.
I removed it a while back to make room for my pillar pods, I wish I would've taken a picture of it.