[DeTomaso] Door Handle Story

[Sean Keane]

Hi,

I finished up a little repair on my 1974 L-model recently, and felt the 
writing bug. I hope what follows is enjoyable for you to read.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today, I walked past my 1974 DeTomaso Pantera in the garage, looked at 
the driver's side door handle, and smiled.


I've never looked at a door handle on any other car I've owned and 
smiled, so what was different about this car?


The Pantera is an interesting breed. It's the original “hybrid” car, but 
instead of being a hybrid of mechanical and electrical components, like 
the hybrid cars of today, it's a hybrid of Italian supercars and 
American muscle cars. That's a heady mixture, as any Pantera owner will 
attest.


So why did a door handle make me smile? A 40-year-old car develops all 
sorts of ailments that the original engineers probably never even 
dreamed of. On my Pantera, the ailment in question was a tendency for 
the driver's side exterior door handle to lift up from the body as the 
door handle was being used. It was to the point where I think a good 
firm tug on the handle might have ripped it from the car altogether. 
Easily ripping pieces from the vehicle doesn't exactly bolster its 
reputation.


Like many Pantera owners, I might not be willing to tackle a complete ZF 
Transaxle rebuild, but I'm willing to have a go at simple repairs. 
Removing the door panel and extracting the exterior handle was 
remarkably easy, and immediately revealed the problem: a plastic piece 
on the interior portion of the handle had broken. Instead of two screws 
holding the door handle in place, only one was doing so, and that 
allowed the handle to pivot up and away from the door. The cause was 
obvious; now, for the fix.


One of the wonderful attributes of the Pantera is that enough of them 
were made that there is a thriving aftermarket for Pantera parts. Many 
of these parts are far cheaper than you might expect for an Italian 
supercar like a Maserati or Lamborghini. But sometimes, even the Pantera 
part gets into silly money. To replace the broken plastic component on 
my Pantera was going to cost well north of $100.


So I did what a lot of other Pantera owners do: I fixed the part that 
was broken. I'd love to say that I got it right the first time, but the 
truth is, I didn't. After removing the door handle from the car (where I 
thankfully didn't break anything else while removing the part that was 
broken), I noticed that a former owner had used epoxy glue to fix it 
once already. My first attempt at a repair was to chip away the old 
epoxy, rough up the plastic to create a better bond, and use new epoxy. 
Then I subjected the part to vigorous usage of the kind that might be 
expected of a door handle, and watched the part fail again.


OK, so on to plan B. This time, I used cyanoacrylate glue to bond the 
two plastic parts, and fiberglass mesh with epoxy on both sides of the 
break in the plastic. To improve the appearance, I also sanded down the 
paint on the exposed side of the handle, primed it, painted it with flat 
black paint, and finished with three coats of clear coat. This wasn't 
anything fancy, just good quality spray paint that I bought at the 
hardware store, but it was paint that I have used before and trust.


This time, the fix held up to rough treatment. When I showed the part to 
my wife, she said, “Wow, that really looks professional”. And it really 
did, so much so that I'll probably have to do the passenger's side door 
handle now, even thought it's not broken.


When all of this was done, I put the handle back in the door and 
reassembled everything. And that's why I smiled when I looked at that 
door handle today. Because I knew that it had taken a four-decade-old 
part, and made a quality fix that will last another four decades. And it 
really did look as good as new. And this is a story repeated throughout 
the Pantera fraternity. We improve what needs improving. We fix what 
needs fixing. And we take pride in owning the best-damn-looking car ever 
made.


To paraphrase a recent Dodge commercial, no one ever looked at the door 
handle of a Passat and smiled. I'm proud of the work I've done on my 
Pantera, and I'll smile every time I open that door.





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-------------- next part --------------
   Hi,
   I finished up a little repair on my 1974 L-model recently, and felt the
   writing bug. I hope what follows is enjoyable for you to read.
   _______________________________________________________________________

   Today, I walked past my 1974 DeTomaso Pantera in the garage, looked at
   the driver's side door handle, and smiled.

   I've never looked at a door handle on any other car I've owned and
   smiled, so what was different about this car?

   The Pantera is an interesting breed. It's the original "hybrid" car,
   but instead of being a hybrid of mechanical and electrical components,
   like the hybrid cars of today, it's a hybrid of Italian supercars and
   American muscle cars. That's a heady mixture, as any Pantera owner will
   attest.

   So why did a door handle make me smile? A 40-year-old car develops all
   sorts of ailments that the original engineers probably never even
   dreamed of. On my Pantera, the ailment in question was a tendency for
   the driver's side exterior door handle to lift up from the body as the
   door handle was being used. It was to the point where I think a good
   firm tug on the handle might have ripped it from the car altogether.
   Easily ripping pieces from the vehicle doesn't exactly bolster its
   reputation.

   Like many Pantera owners, I might not be willing to tackle a complete
   ZF Transaxle rebuild, but I'm willing to have a go at simple repairs.
   Removing the door panel and extracting the exterior handle was
   remarkably easy, and immediately revealed the problem: a plastic piece
   on the interior portion of the handle had broken. Instead of two screws
   holding the door handle in place, only one was doing so, and that
   allowed the handle to pivot up and away from the door. The cause was
   obvious; now, for the fix.

   One of the wonderful attributes of the Pantera is that enough of them
   were made that there is a thriving aftermarket for Pantera parts. Many
   of these parts are far cheaper than you might expect for an Italian
   supercar like a Maserati or Lamborghini. But sometimes, even the
   Pantera part gets into silly money. To replace the broken plastic
   component on my Pantera was going to cost well north of $100.

   So I did what a lot of other Pantera owners do: I fixed the part that
   was broken. I'd love to say that I got it right the first time, but the
   truth is, I didn't. After removing the door handle from the car (where
   I thankfully didn't break anything else while removing the part that
   was broken), I noticed that a former owner had used epoxy glue to fix
   it once already. My first attempt at a repair was to chip away the old
   epoxy, rough up the plastic to create a better bond, and use new epoxy.
   Then I subjected the part to vigorous usage of the kind that might be
   expected of a door handle, and watched the part fail again.

   OK, so on to plan B. This time, I used cyanoacrylate glue to bond the
   two plastic parts, and fiberglass mesh with epoxy on both sides of the
   break in the plastic. To improve the appearance, I also sanded down the
   paint on the exposed side of the handle, primed it, painted it with
   flat black paint, and finished with three coats of clear coat. This
   wasn't anything fancy, just good quality spray paint that I bought at
   the hardware store, but it was paint that I have used before and trust.

   This time, the fix held up to rough treatment. When I showed the part
   to my wife, she said, "Wow, that really looks professional". And it
   really did, so much so that I'll probably have to do the passenger's
   side door handle now, even thought it's not broken.

   When all of this was done, I put the handle back in the door and
   reassembled everything. And that's why I smiled when I looked at that
   door handle today. Because I knew that it had taken a four-decade-old
   part, and made a quality fix that will last another four decades. And
   it really did look as good as new. And this is a story repeated
   throughout the Pantera fraternity. We improve what needs improving. We
   fix what needs fixing. And we take pride in owning the
   best-damn-looking car ever made.

   To paraphrase a recent Dodge commercial, no one ever looked at the door
   handle of a Passat and smiled. I'm proud of the work I've done on my
   Pantera, and I'll smile every time I open that door.
     __________________________________________________________________

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