It never rains, but... (door problem)

[Junglie]

Hi folks,

I love my 110. So much that it still hasn't been set on fire or beaten within an inch of its life. But it gets close sometimes. Oh yes.

Some of you may remember that I had some issues with opening my driver's door a while back, which coincided with the window jamming so for a while I couldn't get out at all. The window is fixed (for now - I have new runners and regulators to fit) but the door is a challenge.

Important note. I have lift up door handles. Some people hate them. I rather like them. But this does make a difference, as I have found...

I can open the door from outside. Or by winding the window down and lifting the handle. Until today the interior handle didn't work. It now does, because I MacGyvered the actuating arm. The problem is this.

Work the interior door handle and it causes a piece of carefully shaped pressed hard cheese to engage against a balsawood spindle and push it downward, releasing the door catch. Over time the cheese erodes - maybe it's the same rodents that eat the doors, maybe just friction or sunspot activity or something - until the handle can no longer make it move far enough to push the spindle (which has probably also eroded) sufficiently to release the door.

Normally I'd just buy a replacement, but they seem to have become NLA since around the turn of the century, and I'm darned if I'm paying through the nose for one on EBay, even if it is new old stock. I can almost get a nice new door skin for the same price and fit the later latch and be done with...

I can't be the first to encounter this little foible. Does anyone have some engineering drawings I can use to fab up a replacement part? Or some other creative suggestions?

Cheers...

[Filbee]

I'm afraid I can't help with your door, but your post did make me chuckle 😁

Good luck with getting it sorted 👍