[DeTomaso] Door Handle Story

Mon Feb 23 21:27:00 EST 2015

Excellent!
Thanks for the cool read.

Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 18:57:59 -0700
From: jskeane6 at gmail.com
To: detomaso at poca.com
Subject: [DeTomaso] Door Handle Story

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 --------------
   Excellent!
   Thanks for the cool read.
   Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 18:57:59 -0700
   From: jskeane6 at gmail.com
   To: detomaso at poca.com
   Subject: [DeTomaso] Door Handle Story
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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