IML: All You Ever Wanted To Know About Interior Door Handles And More

["Eric" <gearhead@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

David,
This type of interior door handle was largely the same functioning design 
from the '57-66 era, with varying hand grip designs. Common to these is a 
roll pin that provides the pivot point between the cast part and the stamped 
steel piece that acts as the gripping agent onto the door latch post 
assembly. This roll pin design is flawed in that it doesn't keep the stamped 
steel piece from spreading apart a little over the years, allowing the roll 
pin to come out of one side of the U shaped stamped piece so that only one 
side of the roll pin is holding it all together.

Broken handles, or handles that sit lopsided or are loose and won't tighten 
are pretty good indicator that the roll pin has come out of one side of the 
stamped steel piece. Passengers then exert more force on the handle to open 
the door and break the handle. It is likely to have happened to your car at 
some point, then someone replaced them with the incorrect color handles. The 
colors should be the same for each door. If you have a black interior, then 
the black handles are correct, or if it is a light color, the lighter ones 
are correct. I see those handles sold on ebay from time to time and proper 
colored ones shouldn't be too hard to find.

I have a repair upgrade for this roll pin design flaw. I replace the roll 
pins with 5/32'' / 4mm aluminum rivets, long sized, Arrow brand. These fit 
the roll pin holes tightly and being a rivet, will keep the stamped piece 
from spreading apart. All my handles on my '63 fit properly, they clamp down 
tight on the latch post and operate with little force. Some attention was 
needed to rebend the stamped piece to fit square again around the cast 
handle part.

If anyone would like more info on this, or would like to test out a door 
handle upgrade, I have a whole box of rivets left and can perform the 
repair. Contact me off the list at XNR@xxxxxxxxxxx

Eric
Portland, Oregon

*************************************************
From: DAWIWH@xxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2004 16:51:08 EDT
Subject: IML: Interior Door Handles (65)
Reply-To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Hi friends,

I have a 1965 Imperial LeBaron.  The car is an unmolested original car  with
27,000 miles on it.  I have owned the car 5-7 years.  I have  always 
wondered
why the interior door handles are different colors.  The  driver's side
interior door handles are white or some sort of mother of peal  imitation. 
The
passenger's side handles are black, maybe an imitation  Ebony.  The same is 
true
for the rear seat.  Does anyone know why  this was done, and was this done 
any
other year?  Also, I wonder if this  was only done with LeBarons?

Thank you,

David
North Carolina



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