Rear Lift Gate Handle Swap

First you need to have:

Phillips head screwdriver

10mm and 8 mm sockets with wrench

*New piece of **** screw anchors and plastic screws or some shoe goo to put in old piece of **** anchors so the crap ass screws will hold (that's what I did and it worked well) *refer to step 2*

New lift gate handle (chrome or painted, whatever you like)

1. Open lift gate and start unscrewing the panel screws on the door. Take all 4 off.

2. Pull off plastic panel, be careful as you have some plastic (pos) screw anchors that will pop out. The idea is to reuse these so if they come out just put them to the side

3. You will then see your rear windshield wiper motor......unbolt those bolts (10mm) a long with their ground wire to the left. You can't miss it.
There is no need to cut wires and remove the motor from the car. Just leave it hanging there.

4. Look with a flashlight in to the metal holes of the doors and you will see some "bolts" protruding in to the door from the outside. These are the hatch trim mounting bolts, they are attached to the hatch trim piece and they will not turn as you take off the nuts (these are 8mm) Commence removal of the trim piece.

5. There are 5 nuts to take off. If you look on your new hatch piece you will see that there is one in the middle....turn the wiper motor out of the way...(Don't worry, when you re mount the wiper motor the wiper will be in the normal position) and begin to undo the middle one....this one is a little difficult and you may need to use the short ratchet extension to get to it...

6. Pull off old lift gate handle and unplug the license plate lights from old handle..... YOU will need to reuse the lights housing so you have to remove them from the old trim piece and put them in the new one.....this takes a little pushing and prying, but it will work out just fine...

7. Plug in the lights, you can't mess up the wires cause' they have different connections.

8. After that, install is the reverse of removal! close hatch and enjoy!

Many Thanks to cositsworthit for this How-To