[GUIDE] How to remove nearside rear barn door (wing door) handle and lock trim

[Andysmee]

This guide is for removing the trim bar which houses the exterior barn door handle and key lock barrel and number plate lighting. Here's the trim bar on the n/s/r door:



There are a couple of different ways to approach this depending on whether you simply want to change the trim bar or whether you also want to remove the exterior handle and key lock. To remove the trim bar you only need to remove the interior door handle to reveal the bolts (the upper black assembly in the pic below), otherwise you need to remove the whole metal frame with both assemblies to remove the lock. Honestly they are both about the same amount of work, but more items to disconnect for the whole frame, and maybe more to forget to reconnect.


For either approach, start by removing the plylining and door lining card, including the interior handle trim. If your van is already converted, your door card may have other fixings and be carpeted, I guess, but get that all out of your way first.

How to remove the nearside door handle trim only (not the lock)

To remove the trim without removing the lock, we need to expose four spline bolts on the interior of the door. The only part you need to remove is the interior door handle assembly.

Pull off the interior door handle left-hand rod at the bottom, and the interior door handle right-hand (locking) rod at the bottom (both shown disconnected in this picture).

Release the two clips at the bottom of the interior door handle assembly and slide down the whole black assembly to release. You need to pull very hard and you need three hands to keep the clips released at the same time. I improvised with a couple of trim tools to hold the clips out. They are quite robust and didn't break (hooray!).

Wiggle the black unit out of the hole a little, and then grab the right-hand rod and push upwards quite hard to persuade the unit out, whilst not bending the rods. It's fiddly but the rods aren't damaged by this.

 

[Andysmee]

How to release the trim bar

First disconnect the lighting cable for the number plate lights, and pop it off the frame. (shocking picture!)

The trim bar is then held on with four M8 spline bolts, two short bolts on the right that just go through the door skin, and two long bolts which go through the door lock and exterior handle assembly on the left. Undo them all, as follows:

The trim bar should fall away from the door.

Remove the grommet from the outside of the panel to free the cable and pull it through.

Reverse these steps to refit the trim bar.

 

[Andysmee]

How to remove the nearside door handle trim and lock

If you want to remove the lock completely, you need to remove the trim and lock (see picture immediately above), and this means removing the whole interior frame. I found this out after following the instructions to remove the trim, as above . So follow these instructions instead of the ones at the top of the thread (you still need to release the trim bar afterwards)


Pop off the rod to the latch at the bottom of the door.

Open the white clip that secures the lower end of the locking cable and free the connector.

Pull the Bowden cable support out to free the whole cable. Move to one side.

The frame is then held on with two M8 spine bolts on the left-hand side (top and bottom) and two 13mm nuts on the righthand side (top and bottom), as follows:

Disconnect the loom at the connector at the bottom of the frame before starting to remove the frame.

Remove the frame out and downwards and the rod from the exterior door handle will slide out of the lock assembly. This is not obvious, and this seems to be the best moment to slide it out, since you cannot slide it until the frame is free. When refitting, this is an important step to do before securing the frame back on!

If you now follow the instructions to remove the trim bar, above, the lock will be free: