Author Topic: Door handle fixings on S2  (Read 510 times)

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Offline StephenH

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Door handle fixings on S2
« on: Friday,February 17, 2017, 11:46:20 PM »
At one point today I suspected the Europa was going to look like a pile of ashes, after I set fire to it......

Was working on the drivers door having done a bit of maintenance on the lift motor, decided to tackle sticking latch (not aligned well for a start) and loose door handle.
So first I managed to jam the door shut, with the window up and the passengers side hard up against the garage wall.....
That took a while to get past , the swearing alone probably went on for 30minutes.
During the poking and prodding I realised the door handle wasn't so much loose as cracking the glass around the fixings.
So rolled a radius into a mudguard washer to match the panel and spread the load on the front fixing, easy done.
Then the rear, looked at it and thought 'this isn't going to be easy', I was right.
I got the bolt out, rolled up another washer and cut it up to suit the shape of the handle mechanism.
Then had to get the bastard back together.
If you have never looked, that bolt is placed neatly behind the window runner where you can't get anything directly onto it.
So getting the bolt started takes several unique yoga positions, tiny hands and fingers with double joints and eyes located on the fingertips. I took a break after about an hour and started looking at the saw and some hinged plastic windows........
Got there in the end, using magnets, mirrors, duct tape and bent up aluminium strip to hold everything in position so I could get the thread started.

After I finished, I looked in the manual (the correct order for a man).
Interestingly that rear bolt doesn't exist in the factory drawing, they only show the front one.

If I have to do this again, I think I'll pull the windows out completely.


Stephen
54/1690 1969 S2

Offline EuropaTC

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Re: Door handle fixings on S2
« Reply #1 on: Saturday,February 18, 2017, 12:49:28 AM »
 :)

I think the last time I did that job I used a small swan neck ring spanner on the rear fixing.  I couldn't get my 1/4" drive in there and IIRC that was the only thing I could get round the glass and onto the fixing without hitting the rear part of the handle.  The worst job for me was trying to get all the clips back in place, plenty of sweating and swearing on that one !

Brian