[DeTomaso] Door Handle Story

[John Donahue]

We are so much alike, I have to smile. A Good Story with good analogies.


> On Feb 23, 2015, at 7:06 PM, Marshall Smith <marshallgsmith at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 
>   A good entertaining Pantera fix story!
> 
>   Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
> 
>   -------- Original message --------
> 
>   From: Sean Keane
> 
>   Date:02/23/2015 5:57 PM (GMT-08:00)
> 
>   To: Pantera List
> 
>   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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