I've actually gotten a compliment on the texture of the grab handles in my GS hahah. Leather wrapped ones would def be nicer though. My handles actually creak sometimes on rough roads and it is annoying as hell. That would be reason enough for me to swap if the new ones wouldn't creak.

 

Update.

Installation was a b***h. I literally spent an hour installing the front handles. It's much harder to reinstall than to remove.

Our rear handles have a coat hook. The LS does not have the coat hook. Behind the coat hook is a hole in the headliner. If you install the LS handles in the rear you will be left with a hole in the headliner. I'm trying to come up with a solution to cover that hole that looks oem. Or just put the oem handles back in the rear.

 

Ha! You made me go out and see what the heck you were talking about a hole in the back. OK, I see what you mean. Leave the original handles back there. After all, who rides back there???? Also, doubt a front passenger will turn around to check if your grab handles match. Nice thread!

 

This is a great thread! So, my Kia K900 has the EXACT same grab handles as the LS. So I am wondering if I switch the GS and the K900 grab handles and see if my lease company notices....hahahaha

 

Thank you for the update. Any tips on installing the new handles? I'll keep an eye out for a tan set and likely just do the fronts as I often use the hooks in the back for shirts when traveling. If the LS handles are the same front and rear, I could split a set with someone else that is just interested in doing the fronts.

 

There are 3 parts to the handle.
1) The handle itself
2) The plastic caps on each side of the handle(this actually locks the handle into the frame of the car)
3) The metal clip that grabs the frame of the car.

I found it very hard to insert the LS cap to lock everything in place, the prongs kept collapsing on itself.

I ended up cutting out the plastic on the inside of the OEM clip: Below is the plastic cut out using a pocket knife.


Then I installed that part to lock the handle into the frame of the car.
Then I took cut out the center of the LS cap and installed the cap.

So the LS cap has the insides of the GS cap. The GS cap install much easier.


I didn't give up on the rear handles. I used a hack saw to cut off the hook on the OEM handle.


I need to buy some sand paper to smooth the cut and make it line up perfectly with the side of the LS handle. I cut it at an angle on purpose.
Then plastic weld the back side together using a soldering iron, youtube/google it. Then use an epoxy plastic glue to reinforce it.

Worst case I ruin a oem handle, but I think I can pull this off and make it look good.

 

Thanks for the info and pictures. I've used a plastic weld tool before and it works really well. Sounds like you've got a good plan to get it all working together!

 

Here it is the First ever leather wrapped LS handle with OEM GS coat hook fused together.





This is the back side. I used a soldering iron to fuse the back of the two pieces together. Then I used chunks of plastic from the OEM handle and melted it down to reinforce the joint.



The part in Green is the OEM plastic that reinforces the back side of the hook. The part in red is the chunk of plastic I added to fuse the two pieces together making it very strong. I will have to trim down some of the plastic I added to match the shape on the OEM handle so this fits perfectly when I reinstall it.