oldracer

A week or so ago the inevitable happened and my driver's side door handle broke. It sure is a pain to lower the window, open the door from the outside, raise the window and all during one of our new to Southern CA rain storms! So I ordered a replacement kit from Amazon as I had a 25% off code for anything and it would be a week or so before I got it so I looked around. There was the pictures and steps how to do the cheap fix so I decided to pull the panel and give it a try. What do I see.......it has been fixed once before! I used a small drill bit and drilled a small hole on both sides of the break, scrapped off the chrome plating and mixed up some Gorilla Glue epoxy. I used a short piece of stainless lock wire left over from the race car days and used some epoxy in the joint and tightened the wire to hold the arm together and sniping off excess wire. I coated the joint with a thin coat of left over epoxy and let dry for 4 hours or so.

I reinstalled the plugs and panel which was one of the easiest I have ever done and my fix is working just fine. I plan to keep the replacement just in case the fix to the fix fails sometime in the future but I don't use the handle to close the door as I suspect the previous owner's wife did as she was only 5' 2" tall and couldn't reach the regular pull location?

JAN67

I wish I have a nickel for every time my kids let the release handle snap back after opening the door! I appreciate everyone who has posted this repair, and the sources of replacements handles. I'm sure I will need to fix one of my handles one day!