Driver’s Side Grab Handle

[NorthState]

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.

I looked up this CherryMAX offset head rivet puller. I am interested in seeing your use of it. It still looks like it would be a real tight fit.

 

[Hershel W Cecil]

I have a 98 and I installed a passenger side handle ABOVE my drivers door same location as the passenger side was. I cut out a small nickel sized section of the headliner (very carefully) drilled holes and installed nutserts. I has held up fine and matches the other side.

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]

I have a 98 and I installed a passenger side handle ABOVE my drivers door same location as the passenger side was. I cut out a small nickel sized section of the headliner (very carefully) drilled holes and installed nutserts. I has held up fine and matches the other side.

That’s awesome, Mr. Cecil. So yours is on the top of the door opening? Am I reading that correctly? Also, could you take a picture of it? I am interested to see how it turned out.

 

[NorthState]

Ok all, I got a donor/practice/pattern A polar this weekend from a T-bone wreck scrapper that we have. I started drilling out the spot welds, but ran out of time. Please see the following pics:

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Upon further examination, I noticed that the passenger side has a slightly larger girth than the driver’s side…

You must be registered for see images attach

Passenger side 5.5” around

You must be registered for see images attach

Drivers side (the one I had hopped to reshape and drill) 4.5” around.

Now I’m not sure that this will affect, but I am concerned that the larger one may be to account for concealing the bracket behind… more to follow…

 

[Jesse_Wenting]

Definitely watching this thread. Something I really wish had been done from factory as well. I can see them coming up with some reason for not having one on the driver side A-pillar, maybe they didn't want to obstruct the driver's vision idfk, but I've never understood why the driver didn't get a grab handle in the headliner.

GM made a lot of weird choices. We're just the owners though what do we know

 

[GoToGuy]

I have a 98 and I installed a passenger side handle ABOVE my drivers door same location as the passenger side was. I cut out a small nickel sized section of the headliner (very carefully) drilled holes and installed nutserts. I has held up fine and matches the other side.

What type and what size nutserts did you use? I have a few, if i need to order a few. Thanks.

 

[someotherguy]

That’s awesome, Mr. Cecil. So yours is on the top of the door opening? Am I reading that correctly? Also, could you take a picture of it? I am interested to see how it turned out.

Some models have a passenger roof mount grab handle, that's the one he's saying he added to the driver side. Not sure if I have a pic of one handy, but they shouldn't be too hard to find. The headliner for my 3500HD came from a base model 97 K1500 reg cab that had the passenger roof handle. Pretty sure they were fairly common in the SUV's, too. Until he comes back with a pic of his handle, here's where it would live (on the passengr side) -

You must be registered for see images attach

Ah, here we go - here's a factory passenger roof grab handle in a 1995 K1500 Tahoe:

You must be registered for see images attach

Richard

 

[someotherguy]

Ok all, I got a donor/practice/pattern A polar this weekend from a T-bone wreck scrapper that we have. I started drilling out the spot welds, but ran out of time. Please see the following pics:

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Upon further examination, I noticed that the passenger side has a slightly larger girth than the driver’s side…

You must be registered for see images attach

Passenger side 5.5” around

You must be registered for see images attach

Drivers side (the one I had hopped to reshape and drill) 4.5” around.

Now I’m not sure that this will affect, but I am concerned that the larger one may be to account for concealing the bracket behind… more to follow…

Ya gotta wonder what they did on RHD conversions, like in Australia. Would be interesting to know if they got A-pillar grab handles for the "passenger" side.

Richard

 

[NorthState]

Definitely watching this thread. Something I really wish had been done from factory as well. I can see them coming up with some reason for not having one on the driver side A-pillar, maybe they didn't want to obstruct the driver's vision idfk, but I've never understood why the driver didn't get a grab handle in the headliner.

GM made a lot of weird choices. We're just the owners though what do we know

The only thing I could figure is that the “factory” wants drivers to keep BOTH hands on the wheel… dunno.

 

[NorthState]

Some models have a passenger roof mount grab handle, that's the one he's saying he added to the driver side. Not sure if I have a pic of one handy, but they shouldn't be too hard to find. The headliner for my 3500HD came from a base model 97 K1500 reg cab that had the passenger roof handle. Pretty sure they were fairly common in the SUV's, too. Until he comes back with a pic of his handle, here's where it would live (on the passengr side) -

You must be registered for see images attach

Ah, here we go - here's a factory passenger roof grab handle in a 1995 K1500 Tahoe:

You must be registered for see images attach

Richard

Gotcha! I didn’t even see that on your initial picture post!