What kind of mechanic can replace door handles on a 1996 Chevy Express

John, I had the same issue trying to reinstall the door handle on my 2003 Chevy Express and found your question here after a lot of searching. Last night I found the solution in a Chilton's manual. The key is removing the window channel in order to allow enough wiggle room to fit the handle assembly and metal bracket. I just wrote about it here: https://littlevangoes.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/passenger-door- keyhole-recovery/ But specifically about the window channel removal, there are two places where it's secured. There is a bolt securing the bottom portion. That's the easy one. At top there is a kind of "neck-like" bracket the channel fits into. The channel itself has a kind of "tab" or lever that you have to push up or in to slide or pull the channel down through the bracket holding it there. When you reinstall the window channel, keep the tab pointing downward so that it can clear the bracket when the channel goes back up through it. Ones the tab clears the neck bracket, it will "snap" back into position as a catch to keep the channel in place at the top. Hope this helps. I know how frustrated I was.