[DeTomaso] Door Handle Story
Michael Shortt
michaelsavga at gmail.com
Mon Feb 23 21:53:46 EST 2015
Very cool,
Michael Shortt
On Feb 23, 2015 9:27 PM, "Christopher Kimball" <chrisvkimball at msn.com>
wrote:
> 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.
>
>
>
>
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> [1]http://www.avast.com
>
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>
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>
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-------------- next part --------------
Very cool,
Michael Shortt
On Feb 23, 2015 9:27 PM, "Christopher Kimball"
<[1]chrisvkimball at msn.com> wrote:
A A Excellent!
A A Thanks for the cool read.
A A Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 18:57:59 -0700
A A From: [2]jskeane6 at gmail.com
A A To: [3]detomaso at poca.com
A A 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.
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
[1][4]http://www.avast.com
A A _______________________________________________ Detomaso Forum
Managed
A A by POCA Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes DeTomaso
mailing
A A list [5]DeTomaso at poca.com
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A A subscription (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) use the
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A A above.
References
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