I did a search on TRUNK and HANDLE and didn't see anything on this within 200-250 threads... so I decided to post forth...
My 2006 H.E. has a little hand cup in the trunk deck liner which you can use to pull the lid shut. VERY handy! Our early build (6/14/2004) 2005 model 300C does not have this hand cup, and it is a bit of a pain to close the lid without fingering the paint finish (not impossible... just a pain).
So I figured one should be able to mod an '05 trunk liner to add the little hand cup. Talked with the parts department at my local dealer, and sure enough... you can order the thing. The "Pull Cup" Part No. I got was 5000066AA. Cost was $6.50
This is a mod you can do with just two tools... a long, large regular screwdriver, and a carpet knife (or Exacto* type of knife).
A word to the wise: When using the razor knife, be very careful.
Use cut-resistant gloves and make sure that you NEVER have anything personal... finger, palm, face, etc., in the path of the force you are placing on the cutting edge. One slip and you could be seriously injured.
Ok. I'll assume that if you have an early build 2005 300C you know what the trunk liner looks like... and that you may, or may not have seen (and drooled over) how this trunk pull cup looks on a 2006 or 2007 300C.
First of all the trunk lid liner, like the interior trunk liner, is made of a felt fiber impregnated plastic material. It isn't just tough felt. The shape holding element is the plastic. Behind the liner there is a metal, structural framework providing support to the deck lid itself. You can see how this framework looks by opening a Dodge Charger trunk (which comes without the deck lid liner).
You can determine the location of the hole in this metal framework, which is made to receive and hold this trunk pull, by removing the two plastic, ribbed rivets immediately to the right of the trunk latch (show above and below).
Using your fingers you can bend the liner down to get the long screwdriver behind each rivet head and work it out. This won't destroy the ribbing, and I was able to push the rivets back in their holes when I was done. They held just fine.
Once you can see the hole in the framework, you have to punch through the liner within the confines of the hole and then begin to cut a hole in the liner. As shown in the above picture, you will be done when the hole in the liner is slightly larger than the hole in the framework. Work slowly and carefully (see warning above), and take no more than you need. I also angled my cuts at the end to bevel the liner's edge to help it fit under the overlap of the hard plastic pull cup.
This is what the "backside" of the pull cup looks like... The edge shown is the "down" edge. That is, the edge which is down when the trunk is closed. With the trunk lid open, it is the edge toward the bumper of the car.
Notice, the gap between the two "feet" and the overlap edge. These feet have just enough clearance to grip the metal framework. NOT the metal framework and the liner thickness. This is why the liner must be cut wider than the hole in the metal framework.
The other "backside" of the cup pull looks like this... here the overall dimension or depth of the pull cup and the size of the feet is much smaller.
This is because these feet merely press against the opposite side of the framework hole so that the lower feet stay clasped along that edge and keep the cup in place. Again, there isn't enough depth on the feet for the liner to be right against the edge of the hole. Thus, cut the liner slightly larger than the hole on the top side as well.
In the somewhat fuzzy picture below (sorry!), the line on the end of the cup, which goes down and across the liner overlap show the position of what I think was plastic flashing, i.e., excess from the melt extrusion or molding process. While I was test fitting the cup into the hole of the framework, I was having great difficulting getting it to fit, and I found one of the two flashings damaged as if it was "in the way."
So I cut it flush with the body of the cup on both sides, and I had much less trouble with fitment after that.
It is also important to cut away some of the edge of the liner along the bottom or the trunk as shown below...
This is because the original degree of bend at this position makes it nearly impossible to flex the liner enough to get the cup in place and secured. Unless it is cut down, the strength of the molded liner will be more than enough to prevent you from getting the cup to grasp the bottom edge of the framework hole, due to the overlap of the cup on the remaining liner and its flexed angle away from the metal.
The 2006 models have a reshaped liner in this area. You have to go by trial and error to get the degree of cut away enough so that the liner edge appears to fit snuggly along this visible edge (with the trunk open) after the cup is in place.
Here's how the final fitment looks along that edge...
And how the pull cup looks when the install was complete...
One final hint... The molding shape of the liner around that inside (left) plastic rivet is tough to overcome. You can see the depression incorporated for the rivet. To overcome the resistance of the plastic, I made short, parallel cuts toward the rivet, and then along that forward edge to make the liner more flexible and compliant to shaping by the pressure of the pull cup's overlap skirt.
I can now take the cup out, and put it in place again relatively easily. Altogether I worked on this mod about 45-60 minutes. It probably can be done more quickly, but I was making up my own instructions and figuring it out as I went. No more fingers on the trunk paint!
10-15-2006, 07:23 PM
. You should have sent me a PM. I knew you could order the handle seperate. Originally I was going to buy a second one and see if I could install another pull handle on the other end of the trunk lid. One I am left handed,lol. Second, I was going to install some small LED lights in the handles. When the trunk lid was open it would shine more light into the trunk. But in the end I went this route and it is still a works in progress, but low on the list of mods to finish. I wish you would have told me you were looking for that piece. You are going to be mad, but I chunked mine in Le Garbage.
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