the weather is cold and the door handle broke on my 93 mustang. i have already priced the part. do i have to go inside the door panel to replace it or can i do it from the outside and how?
have to remove the inner door panel when replaceing the handle to engage the linkage. instead of using rivets, I used aircraft grade bolts. Also ordered them from 50resto. the ones I bought at local auto stores were junk. wasted my time and money on them
Yep...you have to remove the inner panel, then drill out the rivets from the inside, then disconnect the linkage from the inside and pull the old handle out. Install is reverse of removal, make sure you get steel handles, and like ponycar said, it's easier to use bolts. I can't remember exactly how I did it on my old Mustang, I think I used carriage head bolts but I'm not sure.
+1 on the carriage bolts. I opted for stainless so they wouldnt rust up on me. much easier than drilling, especially since my wife cant seem to open the door without breaking a handle.
Okay can anyone give advice on how to remove the panel. I have taken off all the screws and bolts that hold it on. There are still the 'christmas tree' shaped fasteners. How do you pop those off? I don't want to buy a special tool. I've been told you have to go up from the bottom, release the clips and then slide it up and release the top clips. But it didn't want to budge. Thanks.
First make sure you've got all the screws out... I think there's 3 or 4 in the armrest, 1 holding the window crank (if you have manual windows), 1 in the triangular plastic trim piece over your side-view mirror, and maybe 1 or 2 more in the panel itself (near the speaker?).
There are 12 plastic push fasteners up both sides and along the bottom of the panel. Carefully insert a flathead screwdriver between the panel and the door and pry. You'll be able to see the locations of the fasteners on either side of your screwdriver, so you can slide the blade up next to one and pry it out. Just work your way carefully all along the sides and bottom of the panel until you've got them all pulled out.
At that point you should be able to lift the bottom of the panel up as though it were hinged at the top. If you can't, there's still a fastener or screw that you missed. Once you can pivot the panel up, just carefully slide it up and off the lip of the metal door.
Yesterday, my brother-in-law walked by my car in the garage and darn near ripped my door handle off. His jeans caught on the edge of the handle and started to pull it away from the car. I was able to bend/push it back toward the door, but dang, I almost lost it.
Thanks a ton Jimmy for the tip. That really takes the guess work out. That's pretty much what I was told but I was told I would probably need a special tool in order to get the clips off without breaking them. If I were to break them where might I find some more clips? Are they just glued onto the panel or? Thanks in advance sorry if i'm stealing your thread d00d lol. BTW hit up your local wrecking yard the handles I got were identical to ours but are chromed steel and came off a 80's ford station wagon, was stoked. They look great and will never break. Hope they don't look out of place when I paint the stang black though.
You can get the plastic fasteners from most auto parts stores like Autozone, O'Reilly, Napa, etc. The reason you might want to spend $5 for the door panel tool, also available from most auto parts stores, is so that you don't damage the door panel. The door panel is glorified cardboard that will tear if you try to pull the panel away from the clips instead of pulling the clips from the door.
Awesome tips glow, U know the small secondary panel right about the armrest? Well I removed that because I wanted to rewrap it in black vinyl like my seats, and found out it was the glorified cardboard you're talking about. So i used it as a template and cut new pieces out of 1/8 inch wood particle wood which is a bit better, then wrapped those. But yeah you're right I don't want to go just tearing the panel off because then it will be bowed out on the bottom. I will get the 5 dollar tool then I shouldn't get broken clips or a bent up panel, thanks d00d. Love doing a job right.
You can reuse the pins at least a couple of times, but after that it is a good idea to just spend a few dollars and make a nice tight fit for the panel to the door.