WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Lead and Lead Compounds, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.Delivery was rapid and in good condition. A link to an installation video was emailed to me just before delivery, which is a nice service touch. The installation video was very helpful, except that it did not reflect the reality that the rear of EVERY handle where it faces the escutcheon required trimming to fit (including the rear door pair). If you don't trim them, the handles simply bind against the escutcheons and stick out about 3/4" every time they are used, unless you force them closed every time.
Installation would have been very easy, taking perhaps ten minutes for the first and five for each of the remaining three doors if I didn't have to repeatedly install, evaluate, remove, and trim every handle numerous times in an effort to trim as little as necessary for the handle to fit properly. The escutcheon never required trimming because its mating face was smooth, but it must be unscrewed and removed to remove the handle to trim its mating face, which was always sloppy with mold lines and tabs, which were always chromed over without correction at the factory. Sometimes trimming even had to extend into the meat of the rear of the handle. Interference always occurred at the lower part of the mating surface. As a result, expectations of a 30 minute job became about five hours of frustration and disappointment with the final result.
A portion of the extended installation time was devoted to removing the pair of gaskets behind each handle and escutcheon and buffing away polish and wax residue from the gaskets and underlying paint. If you skip that step, your new handles are going to be surrounded with a few millimeters of grunge. New gaskets are an option, but that adds over $60 to the four-door job. That is certainly not 1A Autos fault or problem, but the installation video makes no mention of that reality.
When closed, the handles look as good as OEM, and the gaskets look like the rest of the faded black plastic used on the trucks exterior. When opened, the rear of the handles look like the poor fitting aftermarket item that required trimming that they are. Despite the $113.42 total I paid, so much for a like new appearance throughout.
As installation progressed from door to door, I maintained hope that one would fit without help from the box cutter. It never happened. I ran out of time on the fourth handle and still need to remove and trim it more some day when I have nothing better to do, which is pretty much never.
Two of the four factory escutcheons were not peeling yet. I probably would have been better off buying the OEM handles for those for $61 plus shipping, and buying another pair of OEM handles plus the escutcheons for the other pair, but that would have increased the total cost to $152 four four handles and the driver door lock bezel. 1A does not seem to sell a non keyed escutcheon, leaving the buyer to go elsewhere for that, but I estimate the total cost for parts that actually fit to be over $180.
It's too bad the manufacturer didn't simply smooth out the rear of the handles before they chromed them.
