Replacing 95-99 Chevrolet OBS Exterior Door Handles with 88-94 Handles

Door Handle Mod

The 95-99 Chevy truck exterior door handles are prone to cracking. Replacing them with 88-94 handles that don't crack requires just a few mods.

Both my exterior door handles were cracked. The 88-94 door handles are smooth with no texture and stronger. The 95-99 are textured and weaker, cracking around the lock. An easy way to determine the year of the truck is check the door handles. Textures ones will be cracked.

Parts List:
Driver and Passenger exterior door handle from a 88-94 Chevrolet/GMC truck/SUV from a junkyard

Tool List:

flat head screwdriver

Phillips screwdriver

Plastic trim puller
T-25 torx head bit

10mm socket

belt sander or file for the lock cylinder if it doesn't fit

Introduction
GM value engineered the door handles starting in 1995, using a cheaper metal that's prone to cracking. It's inevitable that the exterior door handles will crack and separate. I didn't want to replace the handles with a replacement that would just crack again over time. The 1988-94 handles don't crack.

Smooth 88-94 handle on the left, textured 95-99 on the right

The 95-99 handles always crack near the lock

How 95-99 handles look when uninstalled

Interior Door Panel Removal
Remove the door handle trim piece. There are three tabs total at the top, bottom, and side. A flat head screw driver can slightly depress the clips to remove the trim. 

The triangular sail panel at the a-pillar just pulls out. Use your fingers or a plastic trim puller.

Pry the back of the switch panel up, pull it backwards, then pull it out. You can leave the connections plugged in.

There are two phillips head screws in the armrest.

Plastic clips are around the entire perimeter of the door with a channel at the top that hangs the panel off the door.
Here is the video tutorial on removing the interior door panel and door handle.

Exterior Door Handle Removal
There are (3) T-25 screws that attach the latch to the door. This provides enough leeway to reach the tab and rod on the back of the handle.

The handle is attached with (2) 10mm bolts. One is in the door jamb, one is through the inner door skin.

Pull the bottom of the exterior door handle out slightly, use a flat head screw driver to pry up the clip and release the rod.  Turn the lock cylinder tab up, pull the bottom of the door handle out, and then pull the door handle down and out.

Lock Cylinder Swap
The locks have a clip that can be depressed with a flat head screwdriver. The slot is on top of the 95-99 handles, and on the bottom of the 88-94 handles. This allows the cylinder to be removed from the back.

The 88-94 handle has the receiver slot on the top, the 95-99 (pictured) has the slot on the bottom

The cylinder will need to be rotated to fit into the older style handle. Remove the pawl from the back of the cylinder with a flat head. You need to flip it and reinstall it 'backward' to maintain the same orientation. The pawl is keyed to the cylinder. Reinstall the retainer. You will have to flip the door latch rod clip.

The 88-94 door handle with the 88-94 cylinder

The 95-99 cylinder on top rotated to fit. The pawl needs to be removed and flipped so it's to the inside of the handle and not the outside.

The 95-99 cylinder in place in the 88-94 handle, before flippping the pawl

The 95-99 cylinder in place in the 88-94 handle, after flipping the pawl

On one cylinder I filed down some ridges towards the front. While the cylinder was fully inserted, the clip didn't pop into the slot on the bottom back. The tension fit has so much friction I wasn't concerned with it popping out.

My passenger lock cylinder was too big to fit in the slot, just the passenger cylinder. I used a belt sander to file just a bit off of the entire cylinder so it would fit. It was able to fully insert into the cylinder and the tab popped into place.

The passenger cylinder has to be sanded to reduce the overall circumference to fit

Reinstall
The older handles didn't have the rubber surround. I cut the rubber surround off my trucks handles and installed them on the replacement handles. While the 88-94 handle surround is thicker and don't have any lock points for the surround, this works fine. Once the handle is bolted in place it holds the rubber in place, Just be sure to have the rubber fitted right before tightening the bolts. Since there aren't any pins, be sure not to pinch or twist the rubber during reinstall.

88-94 handle swap complete

When re-installing the handles, the short rod fits into the latch in a specific hole. When the handle is pulled up, this rod pushes the latch down to open the door.

Finish
These handles had some scrapes. I cleaned them well with acetone, primered them, sanded them with 400 grit, then applied spot putty to fill the scratches. I sanded the putty down, and primered the handles again.
After that I sanded the handles with 400 grit and painted them semi-gloss black.

While I could have tried to color match, my trucks paint is old and there's no way to get a good match so I kept them black. I have slick looking handles that won't crack now.

The factory handle with a few scratches

After first coat of primer and 400 grit sanding

Glazing putty

Glazing putty sanded and second coat of primer

Semi-glass black