S/W door handle restoration?

Charles Coe

Charles Coe

Senior Member
Is there anyone restoring S/W door handles? Mine are all cracked presumably from being used to close the doors. The Restorer or Model A News had an article years ago about using and end mill to bore out the cracked portion and then press fitting a machined cylinder in its place. Is there anyone out there who can do this or anyone have other methods?
 
Since you say "used to close the doors" I assume you mean the inside door handles.

Don't they sell good repro inside handles for these cars?:confused:

I've seen the handles show up on ebay in the past, but I found 4 nice ones for my 31 at Hershey about 6 or 7 years ago.
 
Yes, I should have said the inside handles. The repros that I have seen were not authentic copies. However there may be some available that I'm not aware of?
 
first of all is your S/W a deluxe fordor or standard. if it`s a deluxe it uses type S in the JS`s you can find NOS ones or reproductions ones on the reproduction ones they only come chrome plated. but if you have a standard uses type L JS`s no one reproduces them that I know of and they are real hard to come by. they can be repaired using some steel square stock that fit over your remote shaft. counter bore your handle and JB weld it in.
 
It's a town sedan so uses type S. I'd like to find some good original handles or else repair the ones that came on the car. I'll have to check the repros out now. The ones available when I checked last some years ago were not good reproductions.
 
from time to time NOS ones turn up on EBay, they are bright nickel not butler as you need but you can butler them yourself, that handle was also used on some 32 ford`s
 
I bought one of the repro S/W inside door handles. It certainly looks OK for a driver, but there are some sharp edges along the inside surface that make it unpleasant to actually use. They got a little lazy designing the casting, and only worried about the appearance, not the functionality.

Doug
 
I have the same handles as Doug mentioned above. I was thinking of using epoxy to fill the cavity on the inside of the handle and make them more finger friendly. This would not be visible to the observer.
Roland
 
Here is the article from the November December 1980 Restorer Magazine on restoring the type s handle.

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I filled the hole with an old motor brush carved to the right shape. Using a propane torch and aluminum brazing (zinc)rods I filled in the missing part and sanded it to shape.
 
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