DIY Remove Interior Handles from Housing

[Nums]

I wanted to paint my door handles, but couldn't find a DIY or any info on it. Managed to figure it out and decided I'd share it with everyone else.

Disclaimer
Use this guide at your own risk. I nor TN assume no responsibility for any damage to your vehicle or personal injury as a result of following this guide. Any suggestion to improve the procedure will be gratefully received and incorporated where possible.

Begin by removing the door panel that holds the handle you wish to extract. There are many DIYs on how to do this, so I will not go through the process for that here.

This is what you should have to begin this process:



Begin by pushing out the handle/lock assembly by pushing in on one side at a time and then pushing out.



Now you should have just this:



First step is to remove the lock mechanism. To do this you need to wedge something (I used a flat head screwdriver) between the lock and the pivot on top (circled area). Then use another wedge (flat head again) to push up on the lock and out at the same time. It should just slide out.



The assembly should now look like this:



Next we need to release the tension off the spring. You need to push the upper piece out from its resting position and then push down. This will keep it from being able to return to its resting position and allow us to pull the handle out.



This is where it should be when its no longer in its resting place:



Now pull the handle as if you were opening the door. The spring piece we just moved should pop out as shown below.



Next you need to push up on the position shown below and keep pushing until you have cleared the lower pivot point as shown in these next two pics.






Now you should be able to just pull the handle out.



Now all that is left is to pull the spring out and you'll have your handle.



Everything taken apart:



Thats it! You're done!


Fortunately reassembly is a lot easier.

Take the handle and slide it back over the two pivot points. Essentially in reverse order of how you took it out EXCEPT keep the spring out.



Then push the spring back in, BUT make sure that you have the longest bar on top. The other one will slip out of the resting position and you'll have one hell of a time getting everything back out. Trust me, I did it, lol.





Then wiggle the lock mechanism back in. I couldn't figure out a way to take pictures of it , but just play around with it and you'll get it back in.

This is what I ended up doing to my handles. The picture doesn't really do it justices, but..

[xx03Camryxx]

Lol.....

[SilverBullet]

Good write up man! Now I can get some chrome handles......
Take a pic of the whole door reassembled with the red handles if you can!