britcon, here is the tech article i submitted to the bolt they will post in the future.
hope it can help you in some way....leonard.
1957 custom door handles
Hey guys, do you hate the inside door handles on your truck stripping out ?
Go to buy new ones and find the after market Chinese made handles are worse than the ones you are trying to replace ?
That happened to me, so here is how I made my own custom door handles...
I was going to try to fabricate something with a 12 point socket or 12 point box end wrench, but found out that the splinned shaft coming out of the door panel is 16 point, so no go with that idea.
So I made a simple cinch nut that will NEVER come off again, and got a neat looking handle to go with it.
Here is what I did.
Parts needed.... (2) 7/16-20 nuts, (4) 1/4-20 nuts, (2) 1/4-20 socket head cap screws, (2) 1/2 inch wrenches, (2) 1/2-13 nuts.
I will explain one handle, just do this twice....
First, take (1) 7/16-20 nut and drill the threaded inside out with a 7/16, .437 drill.
Then take (2) 1/4-20 nuts and screw (1) 1/4-20 socket head cap screw into the both of them, leaving about a 1/8 gap between them.
Then tig weld the (2) 1/4-20 nuts to the 7/16 nut in the fashion in the picture.
Now take the 1/4-20 socket head cap screw out.
Now drill ONLY one of the 1/4-20 nuts out with a 1/4 inch, .250 drill.
Now hack saw the 7/16-20 nut BETWEEN the (2) 1/4-20 nuts.
Now weld a wrench, (i used a 1/2 inch wrench with the box end cut off), to the 7/16-20 nut.
and to fill the space between the 7/16 nut and the door panel, I drilled out a 1/2-13 nut with a 1/2 inch, .500 drill, and tig welded it ONLY in one small area of the 7/16-20 nut.....you don’t want to weld it to both legs of the nut. it wont cinch if you do.
Now screw the 1/4-20 socket head cap screw through the drilled out 1/4-20 nut, into the still threaded 1/4-20 nut.
Slip over the splinned door handle shaft, position in any desired way, and tighten the 1/4-20 socket head cap screw
Now you have a custom looking door handle the will NEVER strip again, and will never fall off.
You can add anything you want to replace the wrench idea I had..... I will also do something along this line to my window cranks also....
http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/RATRODKING/57%20door%20handles/Hope you like my idea.....LEONARD
