The Excursion didn’t have a grab handle on the drivers side. Pulling oneself up bu the steering wheel or door is a sure way to damage the truck over time. I’m usually good about grabbing the pillar, but when it’s rainy, that metal is slippery, and now I’m at risk for hurting myself.
A bit of eBay shopping and I found a pair of pillar covers and handles in the right color, with bolts & bolt covers.
- Pull off old pillar cover.
- Dry fit new cover.
- Use center punch to mark where bolts belong.
- Put new cover to the side.
- Drill out the holes, using ALL the drill bits.
- The last drill bit is a 5mm bit.
- Tap the holes with an M6 tap (or whatever tap is correct for your bolts)
- Re-install new pillar cover.
- Start all 4 bolts.
- Tighten all 4 bolts.
- Install bolt covers.
- Use putty knife / small screwdriver to put weather stripping back in place.
In a perfect world, this project would be done while the windshield is out of the car. With the windshield installed, you can’t get the holes drilled square to the pillar and you don’t have room for the correct tap handle. That being said, I was able to get the drill fairly close to square. The tap was turned using an adjustable wrench instead of the T-handle.
Now I’m going to try to sell the other pair of covers, handle on passenger side only, to try to recoup some of my parts costs.
My original plan was to put an engine monitor at the base of the A-pillar. Hopefully this handle won’t interfere with the monitor.
Legal jibber-jabber
- As an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn commission if you purchase something linked from this page.
- Product reviews – unless stated otherwise, I have purchased all reviewed products with my own money.
- “Manufacturers claims” are exactly that. Their claims. If my text says “manufacturer claims” it means I haven’t checked it and I probably don’t have a way to check it. Hydrostatic ratings, R-values, Temperature ratings, etc.
- Follow these instructions at your own risk. I’m not a professional anything. I’m just some random human you encountered on the internet. I may or may not have any idea what I’m doing. I certainly have no idea what you’re doing. I accept no liability for injury, property damage or any other direct or indirect damages you may incur from anything on this page or any other pages I may or may not have authored.
- Copyright Reserved Creative Commons – Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike . If I’ve inspired you, link back to this page. Don’t steal my text or photos. Feel free to modify my designs in any way you see fit. Don’t try to make yourself money from my ideas.
- Comments will be moderated. Those that add to the discussion will be allowed. Those that add nothing will be deleted. If you don’t agree with my decisions, get your own website.
- DON’T PANIC
Modern Anachronist 