[DeTomaso] Passenger door handle question

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/20/11 12 35 54, peter-kovacs at sbcglobal.net writes:


> 
> The passenger side door handle on my 74 has snapped. Is this part shared 
> with a
> more generic car? where do I find one? Any words of advice while doing 
> the R &
> R?
> 

It's a Pantera-specific part.   People bust their door handles all the 
time, because they tug the door open using the pull-tab on the handle.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.   Now, I admit, it should be possible to do that, but 
due to the nature of the design of the Pantera doorhandle, if you do that 
routinely, eventually you break the handle off. :<(

One friend in the UK has broken his door handle THREE times, because he 
keeps forgetting that he locked his car!   He tries to open the door, it won't 
open, so he just pulls harder until the doorhandle comes off in his 
hand--DOH!

The technique Gary Hall showed me when I bought my Pantera from him in 
1989, is to treat the pull tab as a LATCH only.   A gentle pull releases the 
latch and the door pops open an inch or so, then curl your fingers around the 
sheetmetal skin of the door and use that to open the door.

Another mistake people make is to use the window frame as an opening or 
closing device.   I think it was John Bentley whose door frame busted away from 
the door due to that sort of thing; he had to have it welded back to the 
door at a tech session at Roger Sharp's house many moons ago.   (JB, that was 
you, right?)

With regard to your current situation, replacement pieces are available 
from the Pantera vendors.   Original assemblies cost a fortune, but if you just 
broke the tab, you can buy a new tab fairly inexpensively.   Originally 
they were held to the plastic bucket with a long rivet; the tab should include 
a replacement attachment device (normally a very long, fine bolt and nut).

If you broke the plastic housing and not the pull tab, those are also 
available, both in plastic (a fairly good copy of the original) and machined 
aluminum.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out?

Mike