This was one of the first mods I did and my wife uses them every time. It also keeps me from yanking on the steering wheel getting in.

I got them from 2 different Explorers as each Explorer only had 3 handles and I put one over each my doors. I don't recall the exact year of the donor Explorers but our '99 Explorer had the exact same handles.

I also snagged the clothes hanger hook and the white/yellow plastic anchor it screws to. The slots for the hooks are already in the truck. There is a pin on the hook to keep it from spinning, I don't remember if I just cut that off or drilled a receiving hole for it in the trim.

You will want to be careful drilling but there is more room back there than I expected. I took a lot of time laying everything out so the holes in the metal and the plastic were aligned. Put some blue painter's tape along the edge of the trim before you remove it. This lets you transfer your hole locations to the tape and then back to the trim so the holes underneath are lined up. I opted for the handles being in the forward half of the opening and they are about ideally located, any farther back and they would be awkward to use.

I used flat washers and allen head screws from NAPA as the hole they set in is rather tight. NAPA also had the rubber wellnut (google it for a pic) that I used as anchors. I wold have thought the rubber would have torn or the brass threads stripped by now as the wife really yanks hard on them but so far so good. And they are easily replaced.

The two holes I drilled and the clothes hanger anchor I picked up pushed into an existing slot over the rear door.


The rubber wellnuts pushed into the holes I drilled over the front door. The small hole is the trim mounting screw hole.


The bright sun makes the handle look slightly different color in the photo. In person these look factory.


And these are the handles and clothes hanger that are in our '99 Explorer. They would have made perfect donors if the wife didn't notice them missing. t think they made a significant styling change to the Explorer in 2001. So '00 to about '95 maybe?