Hummer H3 - Door Panel Swap/Upgrade How-to

Here's a quick summary of how I swapped the front door panels on my 2007 Hummer H3 with a pair from a 2008 Hummer H3.
One of the changes for the 2008 model year H3 was to change the switch and handle positions on the interior door panels so that the handle is by your elbow, and the switches are up by your hand.
This helps you to prevent accidentally pressing the switches with your elbow.

I think the project was rather straight forward, and each door took me only part of an afternoon, learning as I went and taking pictures.

I ordered my panels on ebay from an 08 H3 which was being parted out. Luckily they came with most of the unique trim bits that I needed with the exception of one switch bezel.

First off, the before and after picture. I'm showing just the driver side, and the passenger side is just mirrored, and simpler with just the one switch.

You can see that the switches are now in a much more comfortable spot.

First things first, you need to remove the door panel, and there are three screws.
#1 is behind the door latch, behind a little circular cover.
#2 and #3 are behind the bit of trim covering the grab handle. You can pop the trip off with a small screwdriver or something.
If I remember correctly they are Torx headed.

Once the screws are removed, you can go around the perimeter and pop the snap fittings out of the door.
Then you get to peel the foam panel piece off the door too. The goop was still sticky for me and peeled off slowly but surely.

For the driver side, I needed to purchase a new bezel to hold the switches. The GM part number was 25876084.
The window switches are unchanged between the years, only the bezel is different. Here's a picture of them installed in the new bezel.


The most challenging part was making new mounting points for the door handle to attach to the door.
All of the perimeter snap mounting points are the same layout, but because the handle moved, the handle screws also moved.
Shown here in green are the old mounting points, and in orange are the new positions.
I fit the panel up and marked the locations with a permanent marker before removing it again and drilling the new holes.


I bridged the gap by riveting across a piece of galvanized steel angle bracket from the local hardware store, and I used a drill to make a new hole for the other clip nut.
Here it is all finished up, and ready for the door to install.


You will also notice that you need a longer bolt and a little spacer for the inboard door handle mounting location.
I bought and used a bag of 50mm M6x1.0 bolts, but you could get away with some as short as 35mm I believe.
I also just chopped off a maybe 20mm long section of pvc pipe to act as a spacer, but really anything close to the required shape would probably do.

One last thing to possibly buy is a new door mirror adjusting switch. Due to the new bezel having it rotated 90 degrees, the directional buttons are also 90 degrees off. I have not replaced it because I don't really mind, but when I was looking as the various part numbers, I think I saw that you can order a newer one that will likely have the correct rotation.

So, upgrade those doors, and happy wheeling! On an unrelated note, I took the H3 through some woods for the first time and was really really impressed with the turn radius, ground clearance over logs, and ability to fit through just impossibly narrow looking gaps. Woods driving is a great way to learn your corners.

Funny, I prefer the older door style. Resting my hand in the handle on the older style is so comfortable.

Nice writeup, thanks

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

Great write-up. Thanks! This has been on my list for a long time and just haven't got to it.

Awesome, I dont want the panels I want the doors! I need half doors

Schwarttzy said:

Funny, I prefer the older door style. Resting my hand in the handle on the older style is so comfortable.

Click to expand...

Me too. I think the new style looks funny. I drive like that too.

Gf's is 06. Mine 07. So we have both styles. Don't really care either way. Lol! We trade off daily and no big difference. Cool write up tho.

Update for 2018!

Turns out that I did care about the mirror adjustment switch being off by 90 degrees, and I learned how to fix* it.
First, I ordered a new mirror switch for the 08 panel (GM 15250458) and swapped it with my old one.

This didn't work. It still was controlling as if it was rotated 90 degrees.

As best I can tell, the circuits internal to the mirror switch remained unchanged from year-to-year, but the short harness adapter was re-wired to rotate the action. They only seem to have changed the graphics painted on to the top plastic. The good news is that you can use your original mirror switch.

Here's the harness;


And here is the wiring chart;


In summary, switch the following wires;
Brown/White --> White
Red/White --> Yellow
Yellow --> Red/White
White --> Brown/White

You can pull the pins one by one by using a needle to release the small retaining tabs inside the plug. You may also need to lift up very slightly on the orange tab underneath, although I couldn't see what it was retaining.

Then re-insert the pins with the new arrangement.

*The last interesting quirk is that pressing up makes the mirror aim down, and vice versa. I think I'll live with it for now. (or, you know, wait another two years until it bothers me enough to pull apart my door again, haha)

I did the door panel swap and went through the same process to rewire the mirror switch. Same results. I went to a salvage yard and looked at an 08 to see the wiring pin out. Even took a picture. Changed my wiring to be the same as 08 and yet everything is good except the up-down. I’m thinking the boards in the newer switches is different.

I swapped a mirror from an 08 to an 07 and the up/down changed. I did not change the door switches or any other wiring except what came with the mirror.