The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Door lock position

It appears from your question that you have two separate issues. First is the door panel not fitting and secondly is the interior door control.

First, the panel. Is it possible you are trying the wrong side upside down?

Second, you are experiencing the same issue that we all have with later AD trucks in that the control looks to be mounted upside down.

First a bit of history. In the early AD series the control was flipped over so the arm going to the latch laid nicely in the trough on the door so it didn’t interfere with the door panel. You opened the door by pushing forward on the door handle which wasn’t ideal especially in an emergency. GM engineers realized this wasn’t such a good idea when people started falling out of their trucks. In their infinite wisdom they decided by flipping the control they could reverse the direction the handle operated. Pulling on the handle would open the door. Unfortunately this caused a rubbing situation on the door panel. They addressed this by putting pads between the door and the panel which causes the panel to bulge out a bit, rather than reengineering the interior door to accommodate the new position of the control. I am sure GM’s financial department got involved in this decision, after all, it’s only a truck!

There is a workaround that I am going to use on my truck, if you don’t mind deviating from stock. You can use the passengers control on the drivers side flipped over so the control rod sits nicely in the trough and vice versa, using only two screws to mount it. Then flip the interior handle over so it is pointing up. Now when you pull on the handle it will open the door. Pushing on the handle will lock the door.

I’ve included picture of the original position of the door control. Looks the same as yours to me.