C8 progress in Texas

[David DeWeese]

My door latches were completely worn out,(no big surprise), and in need of a major overhaul. You could turn the door handles almost 45-degrees before any resistance was felt, so...

Dissasembled the passenger-side latch to reveal a list of problems to repair, but the worst being the square hole where the door handle shaft installs. It has a brass insert that now looked more like a clover leaf than square. Faced with brazing the hole closed, drilling it out, then spending hours with a tiny file to make it square again, here's what a desperate mind came up with...

Put one thin layer of masking tape on the square shaft of a door handle, then filled the area to be repaired on the brass insert with a very strong structural epoxy. While the epoxy was still in a semi-liquid state, I installed the piece on the shaft. A few hours later, was able to remove the piece before the epoxy fully cured.

After repairing all the other damage to the latch, it seems to work OK. Now on to the the driver's side latch. I's the really bad one!

Thanks, David