door handles not conecting

[dave a]

got my upholstery redone and the upholsterer used a little to much foam on the door trims. combine that with the door cards i made ' we have a problem.but only on some of the handles. they dont seem to be going on to the spline enough to catch. you have to push it hard on , then turn. ive tried pulling most of the foam out from around the holes but still not going in far enough. any one got any suggestions , getting desperate

[MeFB]

got my upholstery redone and the upholsterer used a little to much foam on the door trims. combine that with the door cards i made ' we have a problem.but only on some of the handles. they dont seem to be going on to the spline enough to catch. you have to push it hard on , then turn. ive tried pulling most of the foam out from around the holes but still not going in far enough. any one got any suggestions , getting desperate

Have you replaced the door rubbers also, or just the cards? The reason I ask is that it's normally the replacement door rubbers that cause that problem.

[MeFB]

Sorry - just read your build thread - very, very nice

Saw that you did do the door seals. If they are the ones from Rare Spares, then they are notorious for being too fat and making the doors difficult to close without slamming them pretty hard.

Might not be the seals, but I'd check them first before attacking your nice new door trims.

[Trev]

You might have to check that the spline inside the handle is in good nic, I had some real nice handles that were worn out half way inside the holes and didn't work.
If that isn't the problem, take the door cards back to the upholsterer and tell him your problem. He might be able to remove some of the padding around the handles.
Good luck.

[MeFB]

Now I get it. Forget what I said about door seals

[parisian62]

Hi Dave

I've just done all the doors on mine - 8 'handles' in total - 4 winders and 4 door openers and yep it can be tricky getting them on.

I found it sometimes useful to have two people on the job. Someone to push the door card in and someone to carefully push the special tool to engage the clip.

As Trev said if the door handle wont either wind or open then the spline is stuffed and no amount of pushing will fix that.

regards
Stewart

[wot179]

Try a light smear of vasso on the spindle so the clips slip over easily when you wallop the handle with the palm of your hand.

[dave a]

thanks for all your suggestions, i really didn't look inside the handles i was to busy picking out the best chrome. that might explain how some work and some dont. thanks i'll keep you posted.

[Blacky]

You can get new ones - I bought '57 Chev ones from Danchuk in the US - they are identical.