F355 LH Door Handle Failure/Repair - Ghetto Repair Version

Long story short, my drivers side door handle failed and honestly I didn't want to pay $150 for one and more importantly, I didn't want to wait the 7 or more days for it to arrive in Guam. I like the Hill Engineering piece and it's the right way to fix it... but... I have JB Weld!

So follow along, criticize if you must. I am not going to rehash the door panel removal other than to say there are 4mm Allen Head bolts on the outside in the scoop area and 10mm bolts both under the door and at the front inside of the door. Mark locations carefully to make re-alignment easy.

Once you remove the panel and finally the door handle itself, you'll likely find this.



What I ended up doing was building a 16 gauge sheet steel shim and bonding it with JB weld to the original aluminum bracket. I further decided to reinforce the bond with 4 blind rivets. As you can see below, I fashioned a quick little jig out of wood 31/64ths for the drive hole, 0.480 for the threaded rivet hole. 0.125 for the spring and rivet holes. I grabbed a small piece of scrap 16 gauge sheet metal, threw it in my metal brake (small HF hand brake) and shaped it with my grinder.

It's not pretty mill worked CNC aluminum, but minus time to build it, it probably is less than the cost of a beer to get the door working today, rather than waiting a few weeks.

Is it ghetto? Ya, probably that or Hill Billy, you decide.
Will I replace it with the Hill Engineering piece? Yes, it's the right way to do the repair.
Does it work? Yes.


Enjoy
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I feel your pain.