Interior door handle repair?

Johnwindwood

Johnwindwood

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Nov 14, 2019
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Location
Bacup
Model of Z
Z3 M44
Guys

Our drivers interior door handle is falling apart at the top behind the mirror switch(Again). Repaired it with glue a while back and it lasted a few months but now failing.
Has anyone come up with a more durable fix? Why they made them from plastic is beyond me!

Cheers
 
Johnwindwood said:
Guys

Our drivers interior door handle is falling apart at the top behind the mirror switch(Again). Repaired it with glue a while back and it lasted a few months but now failing.
Has anyone come up with a more durable fix? Why they made them from plastic is beyond me!

Cheers
Click to expand...
Hi John

I have the same issue with my passenger door handle. Have you had any success in finding a fix?

Thanks
Steve
 
The door handle is made of some sort of cardboard or fibrous material that is molded. I think there are inserts that are added for high strength areas. The obvious thing about the mirror switch area is that the material underneath has started to break down. I would try to find a used door card for donor parts.
My issue is with the armrest for the driver's door. It has developed a crack that has begun to collapse. I think the obvious repair is to get inside or behind the armrest and reinforce the area underneath, then somehow fix the crack. I thought that expanding foam might work for the reinforcement and perhaps a thin armrest cover made of padded and upholstered hardwood and vinyl or leather might make a good repair.
If anyone has any ideas or things they have tried, please share if possible.
Short of any of these indications, the obvious choice for me would be to fabricate replacement door cards from metal or wood, pad and cushion it then add top cover material, perhaps take that assembly and have an upholstery shop make a cover for it? You can consult with custom audio shops that do high end work for ideas or even a full on conversion, many audio shops in the past had experience with custom door cards, perhaps a hot rod shop or even a custom upholstery shop. If you are not capable of seeing yourself do this then you need a talented guy or gal to make this for you.
Google "custom door panels for cars", there are lots of videos such as this one;
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr9CGT3BQGo
 
steve.ski said:
Hi John

I have the same issue with my passenger door handle. Have you had any success in finding a fix?

Thanks
Steve
Click to expand...
Unfortunately not yet Steve-mine is gradually failing so I'm going to have another look. Simply cannot justify the cost of a new one!
 
Ok thanks, I'm also looking at other pull handle options, could be quite quirky but I'll let you know if I get anywhere with this option!
 
steve.ski said:
Hi John

I have the same issue with my passenger door handle. Have you had any success in finding a fix?

Thanks
Steve
Click to expand...

I have a good fix for this. Repaired mine today if anyone is interested at all.
 
Last edited:
I not long ago repaired mine with epoxy and various tidbits here and there to strengthen the handle.
so far so good. The handle at broken at both ends in my case.
my suggestion is if you can repair it to treat it gently once in use.
 
Just to elaborate. I used an decent plastic solvent I picked up from screwfix. Did a great job welding the plastic inner parts. I glued it all back in place and was okay. The best thing I did was screwing directly in to the door handle right through the center of the little plastic locator that’s welded to the back of the door card. I drilled through this from the back with 3mm drill then a 1mm pilot hole into the handle. A 25mm self tapping screw with cup washer went in and it’s better than the original now. Hang yer granny off it!
 

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I would have elaborated but to be honest, I forgot exactly what I did.
I should have taken pictures as well but you know how that goes as well.
I do know I reinforced both mounts, especially the lower one.
Thanks, Zeddy28!
 
Zeddy28 said:
Just to elaborate. I used an decent plastic solvent I picked up from screwfix. Did a great job welding the plastic inner parts. I glued it all back in place and was okay. The best thing I did was screwing directly in to the door handle right through the center of the little plastic locator that’s welded to the back of the door card. I drilled through this from the back with 3mm drill then a 1mm pilot hole into the handle. A 25mm self tapping screw with cup washer went in and it’s better than the original now. Hang yer granny off it!
Click to expand...


I just had the interior passenger door handle "pull loose" on the "top section", and it looks like it pulled "right through the original screw" that went into the door card. So, your concept of "creating your own hole/place to re-screw it into the door card, plus adding some form of plastic solvent/epoxy/glue/etc. , sounds like the way to go. I'll let you know how it works. Respectfully, "Stands with Loose Door Handle"
 
I believe there is someone printing these now, try a search of the site and posts.
 
Hope I'm proved wrong, but tried to fix my drivers side 2/3 times without lasting success. In the end, bought a new one.
 
The problem with the door pulls is the material which all the stress is directed is plastic and thin, and it is used every time you close the door, so it is going to fail at some point. After looking for a replacement, new (absurd pricing around $200) and used (almost as much a new one), I decided to try and repair the original. I repaired my drivers side with a combination of "plastic weld", reinforcement, and an additional screw to spread the load. The reinforcement consisted of creating a small sheet metal "tab" to sit in the pocket where screw goes (to help spread the load), a small washer may work if the plastic is not yet damaged. Additionally I added a pair of cut-off wire brads between the 2 broken pieces of plastic to help hold the pieces together for the plastic weld, I applied the plastic weld on both sides of the screw pocket with the reinforcements in place. Before I reinstalled the door card I added an additional screw with an oversized (fender) washer from the backside of the door card into the top section of the door pull to help spread the load on the pull to both the door card and the original screw. I can say that after the repair, the door pull has never felt stronger and it convinced me to proactively reinforce the passenger side pull as well before it could fail.
 
Plastic melt/weld. I had 2 relatively straight breaks in the plastic on mine. I used black abs cement/solvent and some "spare" black plastic of the same stiffness & density I had lying around. I melt/welded the broken parts back together using the solvent, and then reinforced it by melt/welding small pieces of my spare plastic on both sides of each break using the same solvent. Seems strong (so far). link to solvent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RCP06Q?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
 
Plastic melt/weld. I had 2 relatively straight breaks in the plastic on mine. I used black abs cement/solvent and some "spare" black plastic of the same stiffness & density I had lying around. I melt/welded the broken parts back together using the solvent, and then reinforced it by melt/welding small pieces of my spare plastic on both sides of each break using the same solvent. Seems strong (so far). link to solvent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RCP06Q?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
 
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