Re: IML: 60-63 interior door handle breakage fix ?

["A. Foster" <monkeypuzzle1@xxxxxxx>]

I think that filling the hollow portion of the interior door handles would
be a good way to strengthen them, if the compound will flow down through the
stem of the part. Let's put our heads together and figure out a way to
preserve these other two fragile pieces as well. Unfortunately, once any of
these is broken, they can't really be fixed.

Paul W.

Paul;
 I would have to disagree with you on this point, pot metal can be fixed and
quite effectively. A fellow down island from me owns a 1935 Chrysler Airflow
and in his case the little grilles under the headlights were broken with
pieces missing. He assembled all of the pieces and sent them to the plater
to have them copper plated. After he got them back he soldered the pieces
back together and made some new bars out of brass and soldered those into
place. He sent them back to the plater where they polished everything up and
rechromed them to as good as new.
  The door handles and horn rings can be repaired in much the same way and
in fact could be reinforced by soldering a chunk of brass to the backside or
perhaps through inserting a pin inside the break. This is what I will need
to do with the grille bars of my 54' Imperial and will do so when the time
comes. In the case of the 1960-63 door handles perhaps it may be worth while
making a plug, minus the weak spots, and having some cast out of a stronger
metal like bronze, as there are so many that break. Likewise it may be worth
reproducing the 1955-56 horn rings as they were used in every car from
Windsors up.
Best Regards
Arran Foster
1954 Imperial Newport
Needing a Left side tailight bezel and other trim parts.
1975 Chrysler Newport
Left the dome light on last week and discharged the battery.

In an email dated 6/7/2005 2:20:20 pm GMT Daylight time,
joestill1@xxxxxxxxxxx (Joe) writes:

>On our '61 Crown, the sole surviving interior door handle was filled with
some sort of putty, sort of like plumbers putty, when we got it. I don't
know if that is the reason is was spared and the other three weren't but
it's an idea anyway.
>
>--
>Joe
>Allen, Texas
>'61 4D Crown Southampton
>http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1961/JoeStill/index.htm
>
>
>-------------- Original message -------------- 
>Everybody who has owned a 60-63 imperial is probably aware of the problem
with the interior door handles breaking. I was pulling stuff off a 61 at a
junkyard last week and noticed that all four of the handles were broken on
that one. My blame for the problem is that the top of the handle is hollow
and gets real thin were it meets the stem, causeing it to flex, over time
all the flexing leads to breakage. My idea is to fill the hollowed top
portion of the handle with something. I believe that would stop the flexing,
add strenth and save the unbroken pieces that are left. I have considered
lead, fiberglass resin, or some sort of epoxy like maybe JB weld. As for the
already broken handles they're pretty much scrap metal, they're made of pot
metal I believe, and cant be welded as far as I know. I would like to hear
some of your opinions on this fix. Has anybody ever did this before ?
>


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