Shaved handles

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Major System Category: Body (Doors)
Task:
Parts:
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs:
Time Requirement: 3 hours
Date Started: August 23, 2013

Date Completed:  August 24, 2013
Shaved door handles means that the normal latch/handle arrangement used for opening a door doesn't exist anymore. The exterior handles are not installed. This does present a problem, because the doors come with an oval pocket to for the external door handles.

This the cut out acrylic template after it was buffed and sanded. Yes it is clear (that's the point) so the shape can be easily traced.

I am going with a door popper system. Briefly the door popper opens the door latch (which is internal to the door) when a solenoid fires and contracts the steel cable connected to the latch. Once the latch is released, a plunger on a spring that is installed through the body shell pushed the door open. As a precaution, I need to rig a manual cable to open the door in the event the battery is dead. Hopefully, the InReserve system performs as advertised and this never happens.

Traced pattern on scrap fiber glass.

I used a clear acrylic piece and a permanent marker to roughly trace the opening for the door handles from one of the doors. This is one of those times that something is identical between both doors. I cut the template out of the clear piece and sanded the edges until it fit easily in to the door handle slot. I used the acrylic template to trace two patterns on fiberglass scrap, and produced two fiber glass plates that fit (after some more sanding and shaping) into the door handle openings.

Cut out plates for door handle openings.

I then set the doors so the outer surface faced up (remember to support underside with something so there isn't undue pressure on the rear pillar). I used LocTite's fiberglass and aluminum epoxy. One tube was more than enough for both handles. I worked it along the edges. Next I set the fiber glass plate in place and attempted to make it as level as possible with the door surface. It doesn't have to perfect at this point, just close. If you spill some epoxy on the door, that's okay as well. It will get cleaned up in next paragraph.

Fiber glass plate epoxied in place. I used the angle grinder to eliminate high spots.It was high on the right hand side.

Since summer is still in full force, I set up the doors on a table outside the garage. I took the opportunity to sand and prep the doors for primer using the orbital sander. This allowed me to get rid of excess epoxy on the door surface. The plates I cut from scrap fiber glass were not completely even (as they came from the exhaust vents I cut in the body shell). I worked off the high spots with the angle grinder. I needed a light touch with this, otherwise, I would have done more damage than good.

Doors after the second layer of bondo was applied. Time for a quick run to let everything set up and dry.

Finally, it was just a matter of applying bondo, sanding, more bondo, more sanding until there is no indication that a handle socket ever existed.

This was pretty close to the finish. I applied some glazing compound to handle a few low spots.