Let's face it,not all repro schtuff is marketed towards four door cars. Even the wagons can be completely ignored.Most of the repro is geared towards the more desirable 2 door hardtop and 'vert styles. A lot of us captains of barges happen to have an extra set of doors behind us when we are driving. So when we need to replace our rear door handles-what do we do?

Fortunately,Ma used the same door handle on the A/B/C cars,also on the trucks and B series vans for many years. The only real difference is how they operated in relation to the door latch.
I will show step by step on how to adapt a repro door handle to work on the rear doors of a 4 door hardtop,or sedan and wagon. Shown is an old rear door handle an a new el cheapo "Made in Taiwan" repro handle. Note the difference in the hardware..






Removed for clarity, you can see how the rod works with the rear door latch. The old door handle's rod and related hardware will need to be swapped into the new repro handle.




Make note of the position and angle of the rod in the old handle before removing the button. Disassemble the old handle. One screw and it will come apart.




Clamp the rod tight into a bench vise. Hammer out the rod. Disassemble the new handle and hammer out its rod from the button. Use a rubber mallet so not to mark up the new button.




The original rod is much more beefy compared to the thin soft wire type rod from the repro.




The old rod has to be installed into the new button. It's thicker size warranted reaming out the new button. Do not use a too big of a drill bit or the button will be junk. The rod has to fit tight.




Clamp the old rod in the vise very tight. Align the new button in the same position as the old button. Use a rubber mallet to hammer it home. careful not to bend the rod!!!




You will have to re-use the old spring and bracket to put the new handle back together. Just slide the spring on, and screw the bracket back on. From here, the handle is ready to install.







Hang on!! There is more to this than you think! These "Made in Taiwan" knock-offs do have some flaws but you can make them work. They do look great compared to tired old pitted handles, IMO.

The gaskets are terrible. They do not even match the handles. To install them, put back your 7/16" and pull out the 10 mm. The studs AND nuts are metric in the handles. No washers on the nuts!! Use yer own,eh? Just small schtuff that car nuts will pick up on. Nobody at the local cruise night will pick up on.




Shown on the top is the factory original gaskets. Repro on the bottom.




The repro gasket really sucks.This looks awful.




It does not even fit the repro handle!!




If at all possible, re-use the original gaskets. If they have a wax or paint build up, just clean them with lacquer thinner. Original gaskets on repro handle--not perfect-but looks much better....




NOS rear door handles are not cheap--when they do become available. Most old rear door handles end up getting crushed and eventually get re manufactured into something like what you had seen here..LOL Hope this helps anybody out there who owns a four door car or wagon.
Leaburn