Door Handle

[Ron Dacher]

My wife was backing our 01 Trac up and somehow managed to catch the passenger side door handle on a plastic trash can and broke off the handle at one of the tabs. Luckily the trash can was plastic and didn't scratch up the car. The door can be opened from the inside but not from the outside.



Looking at the Haynes manual, it seems that I need to take off the door panel (I already found a posting on how to do this), disconnect the locking mechanism and drill out the pop rivits. Installation on a new handle calls for using pop rivits.



Just wondering if anyone has had any experience in replacing the outside door handle and if there are helpful suggestions.



Thanks in advance.

 

[Kevin Palmer]

You have pretty much nailed it as far as how it should be done.



Some have used nuts and bolts to put it on, however, I would not as they tend to stick out and it is easy to catch you fingers on the bolt heads.



Also, the rivets are HUGE.... They will not fit into a regular rivet gun.



Do all of the strip down work and then head to any local body shop, they will have both the rivets and the special gun. Most charge 5 to 8 dollars for the job.



Then go home and button it up.

 

[Travis Munday]

The rivets are very soft, and in removing mine, when I center punched the rivet for the drill bit, I popped the center out of the rivet and the whole thing fell apart. Because the rivets are soft, be careful when drilling to not left the bit wander, possibly getting onto the metal surrounding the handle.



Once the rivet is drilled, it still may not want to come off. In these cases, a large screwdriver will be needed to pry the three tangs that hold the rivet head to the door.



Overall, it is not very difficult to do, you just have to take you time and be careful to not damage the surrounding metal. The most difficult part is disconnecting the release rod from the handle to the latch...I removed the rod from the latch and pulled it and the handle off the truck as one.

 

[Ron Dacher]

Thanks for the insight.



Coastie Joe- Thanks for the suggestion about having a body shop rivet the handle. There's a local one nearby that already worked on a couple of our cars over the past year, so I'm sure they will do it for cheap.