drivers side door handle (exterior)

here

www.50resto.com great place for everything you need

Go on Ebay, Blue Oval Industries sells a pair of them for 25.00, that's what I used on mine. Great stuff and fast shipping.

Drill out the 2 rivets that hold it on, put the new handle on, and take it by a body shop and have them pop the new rivets in. They will do it free or cheap.

didnt use rivets on mine. used nuts and bolts with washers.replaced both sides this way 3yrs ago.

You'll have to replace the whole handle now and you might as well do the otherside while you're at it. You'll have to remove the interior door panel also to get to the door handle so you may want to check up on some other things while you have that panel off, like are your windows closing properly, how's the door lock knob, pwr mirrors, etc etc.

Get the steel replacement handles while you're at it. Forget those plastic one. They come in black and crome. I think the crome ones are aftermarket and 50resto sells them.

As for using rivets, you can buy the rivet tool/gun for $20 at an auto store. they usually come in a kit with 4 sets of different sized rivets so you should be able to find the size you need. In fact, I did some rivet work on my car and didn't want to keep the rivet gun, so I just took it out of the package real carefully, used it, and then re-packaged the gun and returned it for a full refund!

Using a nut/screw and bolt with a washer is an ok idea, but I'd be worried that over time that nut will get loose and the only way to tighten it is to get behind the door panel, and taking it off all the time can get tedious and tiring. Rivets tend to hold well and if "popped" in correctly, will not work their way loose over time. If you do use the nut and bolt idea, ask for something called a "lock-nut". These things are used on stuff like skateboard truks and wheels. They allow the wheels to spin without loosening themselves over time. They have some rubber or plastic gasket inside them.

Definately go with the metal replacement. Mine broke several years ago. Ford wanted $45 for the PLASTIC replacement, so I made my own from aluminum. (No one offered aftermarket metal replacements at the time.) Works great and looks almost like the original.

I bought a rivet gun, but the rivets that come with the handles are way to big for it. And the rivets that fit my gun are too small to hold the handle on. I just stopped by the Ford dealer body shop and they popped them in for free.

If you don't want to use pop-rivets and are worried about standard bolts coming loose, just double-nut them. Not very likely to come loose.

90StangLX said:

If you don't want to use pop-rivets and are worried about standard bolts coming loose, just double-nut them. Not very likely to come loose.

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Dealership here wanted 85 bux a side for handles Then i went to Ebay.

I used carriage bolts instead of rivets and then i got some lock nuts (with the nylon ring on the threads) Probably cost me 2 bux total at the hardware store.