I think that your door handle repair is a great idea, Eric. I have never had
one of those door handles worn in that particular area, as far as I know.
Usually, if they are loose, tightening the screw has cured the problem. It
might be interesting to go through my box of spares and see if I find any that
have a worn roller pin. I have always kept extras because rear seat passengers
pull the handle too hard trying to open the door when it is locked, breaking
the top off.
A similar "loose pin" situation exists on the exterior door handles for '56
Imperials. The pin that holds them together eventually works its way out and
falls into the inside of the door. This causes the handle to become very loose,
although it will usually still work. I have put a number of these back together
which work for a few years before they fall apart again. The pin is not tapered
or expanded at the top to keep gravity from working it downward, and out of the
hole.
I wonder if a similar repair would work for that application. I no longer use
my '56 enough to have the problem, but it might be nice to fix it once and for
all so that a future owner doesn't have to deal with it. Maybe someone on the
IML is driving their '56 regularly enough to need a solution to this problem.
Paul
In a message dated 5/15/2004 2:57:44 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
gearhead@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> I'll be brave and will step on the holy grail; I've found a way to improve on
>my '63 Crown's interior door handle design. The two pieces, the chromed cast
>handle part, and the stamped part that pinches down on the door mounted post,
>are held together by a roll pin. After a few decades of use, the stamped piece
>will spread out from it's normal dimension, thereby allowing one side of the
>piece to come away from the roll pin. This makes for a loose fit, and to my
>estimation, could cause enough play to keep the door from opening. All four of
>my handles had one end of the roll pin loose.
>
> I bought a $20 rivet gun and a supply of long, 5/32'' (4mm) wide rivets. I
>removed the original roll pin, then compressed the stamped piece back to it's
>original dimension and popped in a rivet. This size of rivet fits snug and
>made for a very solid fit on the post.
>
> On another design flaw subject, my '63s dashboard's 2 switch pods on the left
>side, for the lights and wipers, have a deformation in the conical shape of
>the pod that forms the switch housing. The right 2 are fine, but its obvious
>that the mould for the left two was deformed at the time of the pour for this
>cast piece. For trivia sake, I'd be interested if others have noticed this and
>when this mould started pumping out
> deformed dash parts.
>
> Eric
> '63 Crown Four-Door
> '72 Newport Custom Sedan
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