How to Replace Tailgate Handle and Bezel 2000-06 Chevy Silverado

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

Going to replace this handle, tailgate handle, on this Chevy pickup truck. The bezel has already broken off on this vehicle. It's pretty common for them to break off. This is a brand new bezel from 1AAuto.com.

The way it fits in here if this truck had the bezel, these two little tabs on the bottom slide in these two little holes here. There’s push tabs up top here. And it would sit in like this. These tabs would lock underneath the sheet metal. If you were trying to remove it, carefully take a small screwdriver and push it in here on either side to release these tabs. Most likely if this bezel is old, it's just going to break on you if you're trying to replace this handle. You should probably have one of these on hand before you try to replace this handle.

Let's get into replacing this handle. After I sprayed some rust penetrant on these clips so that they'll move more freely, I'm going to push them down with my index finger. I'm not going to pull the rod out of this yet. It will just slide out, but I want to leave it in there, because I need the latch to work still. But it's easier to pop these off while this latch is attached to the sheet metal so it's not moving around on me. Now I can still open the latch and lower the tailgate.

There's two bolts here, and there's a third bolt that's hidden under this plastic bed liner, which is held in with these Phillip head screws that are all around it. I'm going to remove these, take off the plastic bed liner, and get to these three bolts that are back here. Use a Phillips head screwdriver to remove these. If you had a painted on bed liner, you may have to take a razor blade and cut around these bolts, but since this is a plastic one this plastic piece has to come off. These are the final two bolts.

I've removed all the screws that are holding this plastic on. These bolts are also holding the top of the latch. Start by taking these out. This is a 13mm socket. Lift this plastic up, put it in the bed of the truck so it's out of the way. And you'd see the final bolt. I'm also just going to hold onto the latch, because it's going to be pretty loose. Lift up the tailgate.

Since I've already freed these, I'm going to pull the rods out that go to the latches. This latch will slide right out of the opening, and you just have to maneuver it out. It's a little tight.

This is our old handle. This is our old handle from the vehicle, and here's our brand new one from 1AAuto.com. See, same exact design, same three bolt holes, same spring, same style black textured plastic. This will fit great and work great for you. This is a brand new bezel from 1AAuto.com. It goes around the tailgate handle like this, matches, same black texture.

If yours is broken off, this will replace it and make your truck look new again. Take our new handle, slide it up into place, align it up with the original bolt hole and go inside the bed. I'm going to capture this bolt here so that it doesn't move too much around on me. I'm not going to fully tighten it, I'll just leave it loose. I just want the handle in place.

Now I can push these little control rods up here that work the latches on either side, and get this one in to move that around a little bit. It's going to slide right back in there, pushed in. Then this goes up to lock it in place. Same thing on the other side. Adjust this over, can move this around a little bit, and do that. These are a little rusty. Push them in place, flip this around, and lock. Now I can open the tailgate again.

I can see the handle is lined up with the holes here. See it moving there? I'm going to hold it where I want it. I'm going to tighten this one, because once I put the plastic over it. I won't be able to get to it. Once it feels tight, I'm going to stop. We can lay out plastic bed liner back down, fits right into place. I'm going to replace these two bolts, tighten up the last bolts, real tight. I'm just going to stop, same thing with the other one.

And go and replace the rest of the Phillip head screws that are holding the plastic bed liner trim in. With the bed liner reinstalled, I can close the tailgate. Now would be a good time while you can get in here, to spray some lubricant on the hinge. That works really well. I'm just going to wipe up some of this oil that spilled. We can install our new bezel, and put the two tabs in these bottom openings here, and then snap it into these two top tabs, flip it up and over, just like that. You can open the handle a little bit. Whoops. A little tricky. New bezel is installed.

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