These handles typically break when people yank on them to pull the door card off (replacing actuator motors or putting some sick speaker installs in). To mitigate this, you use a pry bar at the side and run your finger around from the bottom to the top uncliping each clip. Then you pull the whole card up and away. Don't be tempted to pull on the handle, it will break like this and you'll be pulling your hair out to fix it or to find a replacement card at a wrecker.
I had a similar thing happen in a Peugeot. A nut inside the door had become loose and jammed against the window when it was rolled down. The previous owner had forced the window down, tearing a gash in the window tinting film where it scraped against the loose nut. Fun times.
God, this is bringing back memories/PTSD. I had the exact same problem with one of the rear doors on my BF XR6T. I genuinely can't remember how I fixed it - probably just used some araldite and hoped for the best.
Mate have fixed dozens of them . Generally the best way is to use an 1/8th inch drill and actually drill down the centre of the shaft of the door handle mount and then use the correct size self tapper with a large washer and screw into the hole. Even for the one that has no shaft from memory you can actually drill through the actual handle base and use a long screw even though the screw comes through the handle it is covered by the boomerang trim cover that you clip back on. It will never move after you do this. But you can use the Bogan welding method for lots of other uses. Yo can the swap the centre trim piece of the door trim just go around each of the plastic welds (like the one you drilled out) and then melt them and pull away on each one you melt to leave as much plastic as possible. Once all melted you can remove the trim piece and then replace it with one that matches the colour you need. Have done this on EF's, BA's and BF's. The other are to use your soldering iron is on the plastic seat trim cover as the crack in all B series and even FG's. What we do is remove the cover then place it on a bench and make sure the is crack closed as much as possible. By just soldering the crack will not provide enough strength and therefore we have used small strips (40ml x 10ml) of plastic from the under tray of an EF as this is pretty thick. Firstly run the soldering iron along the crack on the inside to seal it and then place the strips vertically usually 3 -4 strips depending on the length of the crack and "solder" these on. By being placed vertically they ad strength rather than just running along the crack line. While the trim cover will now be the stronger and the correct shape the actual crack would most likely still be visible. What we do is run a fine tip soldering iron along the crack to seal it and then paint the trim using plastic trim paint from Supercheap. Also, if the trim has cracked then most likely the seat bolster has also collapsed as the weld the frame break from people sitting on the edge of the seat when getting into the car. The simple fix is to to remove both front seats and swap over the seat bases as normally the passengers side side one is in good nick. The seat bases are identical so no issues there. You can weld the frame or simply swap over as the drivers side base would now be up against the centre console and really not noticeable. It takes around 2 hours for one person to do.
Thanks for that! Was planning to fix the cracked seat trim on my BA ute this weekend after having fixed door actuator yesterday. Fixed collapsed seat bolster a few years ago by rebuilding with some gardening wire 🙂
Do you find the black shaft to have more girth? Does it fit into the white hole deep enough? Or will it break after many uses? are there any concerns with a messy member ? Cheers
I've been avoiding this fix on the front passenger side door of my BA Fairlane and everyone's getting sick of my warning them to be delicate with the door closing. Bogan plastic weld gods send me strength 😂
STAPLES!!! Seriously, those big 1-inch wide ones from heavy duty packaging. From past experience re-bonding plastic can be a prick if it needs to be very strong afterwards. I repaired a flip up* headlight cover from an old LTD by doing something very similar (one of the pivot tabs on the back had let go) but I cut and formed some F(*&ing big stables, melted them in below the surface and added some extra plastic ontop. Bit like ribs. If anything it's now stronger than it was from factory, at least in the repaired area. *Edit, up not down Great seeing the renewed DIY focus dude! This channel will go far :-)
Never knew why someone never made an after market door card seeing how big a problem these are. Most people either do a rough patch up job depending on the break or replace the whole card itself
I don’t know if an entire aftermarket door card is needed but someone like Rare Spares could make a aftermarket grab handle that could be affixed to the existing door card using screws rather then the shitty plastic spot weld that ford originally used…
Ive had both the front handles break on me and went to a wreckers and $70 later I got 2 door cards in good condition that Ive whacked on its been good eversince
I reckon car manufactures design it like that so it is easier in the long run to fix. But some don't like the car being tampered with. Tesla(The Apple of the car world) for example.
Their is just something about ford falcons and door handles... My XD Fairmont ghia back in the day, and now it's my BF GT. (Its done the same as yours RHF) 😔 I'm all for tradition but honestly, why? Why you do this Ford Australia???
I broke a BA door handle like this on a TAXI one time just by simply closing the door. The driver said “don’t worry it always happens, just throw it on the floor”
Very creative mate. I like it. Sort of thought that was going to happen on your first attempt but filling it with a cable tie might have been what it needed. I was thinking a little super glue than the soldering iron cable tie bogan plastic weld might also be an idea. The card on that door looks mint too might I add. 👌
Put a bit of grease on the screw where it touches the plastic underneath so that won't try too turn and grab as on final turn it will slide instead of twist and snap
Bert's mower have not use a soldering iron before to repair on car parts in the B series Ford or on anything to do with car parts but it is certainly useful information thank you for sharing
That I certainly never used soldering iron before on any car trims - the game apologies for my Miss typing I am yet again using audio text so if I don't speak up clearly then something is going to go wrong - my apologies buddy... Cheers
Yes but the iron is not much good for actually soldering after it. I am currently contemplating the same fix for my Territory drivers door the arm rest section has separated.
this video is an absolute life saver!! had my passenger door handle snap clean off on both top and bottom, finding a cream door card for a ba xt is absolutely impossible!! found out after fixing mine right after i watched this video that the screws were never put in for the handle so it was the plastic bits that just gave out! door handle is now back the way it should be
Gotta love Ford's plastics! The interior plastics in my EB (like your Fairlane) have metal clips on plastic standoffs that always break off. Never remove your A-Pillar trims unless absolutely necessary, they break pretty much every time and they never go back on properly. Apart from those painful clips, the rest of the plastics aren't so bad. I've plastic welded a few things with a soldering iron before, works well!
Thanks very much for the information buddy it would help me fix any of these cars up in the future if I did decide to buy a b series Ford of any sort most likely any BF series Ford Fairmont Ghia all series's came out with 6 speed Automatics which I prefer the 6 speeds... most likely the next car I would probably be saving up for would be a 4WD... Mitsubishi Pajero manual... that's ok we are all different as the world would be boring if we were all the same... keep the good work up buddy
I've heard that there been numerous of people saying their door car handle has snapped. My BA with nearly 500,000km has never done a single one (yes I know I'm really lucky). However, I'm sure there should be a good solution in terms of fabricating a bracket or something so it never happens again. I don't think the materials that are used here are crap exactly, rather I think the way Ford mounted them weren't the best. However, I still reckon BA are far from crap since you do still see stack of these cars on Australian road and most of these issues that do occurs are a matter of age, after all BA are not far off the 20 year old mark.
How on earth did the BA and BFIII cabs I drove never encounter this?? I drove each for three years. They must have had an industry exclusive remedy. I admire your willingness to get in there and tackle a job even if it may not turn out to be the best method. You always get the desired result.
I have a bf falcon with a broken driver's side door handle, I think you're plastic welding technique is going to be helpful, so thank you, wish me luck 😅
@@petercairns7509 each to their own. I think the most painful was the mixer shaft for the heater, pulling the whole dash out was pretty shit. Then dicking around with the door actuators wasn't very fun. Door card issue was equally as shit. Most expensive was rebuilding the BTR to handle the turbo motor. I feel like what is usual an easy task of replacing a headlight globe was also a pain in the arse, compared to the AU, but I'm not too sure about that one... I love the mighty Blue Oval, but for me, the BA just didn't tick the boxes 👍🏾
Yep, never had any problems like that during my first and last time as a Toyota owner. It dumped the entire contents of the sump all over the Hume Highway twice owing to manufacturing faults that Toyota knew existed but never bothered to tell owners. But the door cards? Never a problem.
Nice one boss. Useful information. You can also use superglue and baking powder. It's a little messy but does work. I'm surprised that none of my door handles have busted off in the wagon, especially the drivers side because it gets a hard life. Door locks are something you can look forward to repairing if you haven't had any stop working yet. The little plastic worm gear breaks. I've just had another one break so I might try welding that. I would have to do a bit of reshaping after as the shape has to be right for it to work properly. Thanks for the demo.
There is a 2 part super glue like product called Rapid Fix. 1 Bottle with super glue type liquid, 1 Bottle with a fine powder (crushed glass?) Lay a bead of the liquid out then sprinkle powder over and progressively build up layers to the required amount. Dries instantly as hard as rock. Just roughen up the plastic surface being repaired. Life saver for these sort of jobs.
It's such a stupid design from Ford Australia. The lack of quality across the whole EF series onwards is just shameful. The repairs don't last long, especially if you have kids or adults who are rough. A company is now manufacturing brand new replacements for the front doors, we're just waiting on the release of the back door kits now. Hopefully, it's not too much longer.
Damn, this happened in my BF MKII XR6 Turbo, and having the velour doors.. yeah, none at any wreckers in WA at all. Had to get the gross lightning strike pattern, ended up selling the car not long after and the new owner didn't even notice hahahahahahahahah...ha.
My door card handle broke tonight - rear passenger side. I tried to be like Sean with mad ghetto welding skills, but I was not successful. Great engine, rubbish interior. Never had any dramas like that with the old AU... Trying to find a new card is going to be a pain...
Hi all when it comes to plastic you need to find what solvent melts the type of plastic you have and most plastic will have some letters on the back telling you what plastic it is so for example if its ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) very commonly used in hard plastic car interior parts and one of the only plastics that can be chrome plated , now acetone melts ABS so if you put a small amount of acetone into a small container now add some pieces of ABS plastic now as it starts to melt stir it adding more plastic or acetone until you get a uniform glue like paste and what you have created is ABS plastic glue or you can buy model car kit glue like airfix humbrol etc now this will glue the door handle parts back together but the design of these door handles is weak so some extra reinforcing is strongly advised, now as you don't see the back of the door trim and the handle stays with the door trim the best thing i found was to use Selly's KNEADIT epoxy putty from Bunnings ,rap it around the screw tubes and also put strips in the inside of the handle then the other end of the strip onto the inside of the door trip plastic ,this makes a rock solid repair . ps this door handle is for closing and opening the door and the 2 most important screws on these door trims are the 2 screws that hold the handle to the door without them you will rip the handle off the door trim so if you lose any screws these 2 must be fitted as the rest just hold the trim and can be replaced later .
I used smaller threaded screws that wired fine And for the cap I used super glue and reinforced it with bread clips it's a tank nowtganks for the inspiration
Great info Thanks. Is there a fix for Au exterior door handles they break and no after market parts. Search on line finds el and ba etc not AU new ? Have to buy second hand which will break.
I have done several repairs to my AU3 and my 80 series LandCruiser in a similar fashion, I use my soldering iron and also a heated flat blade screwdriver to flatten out areas after I have run the soldering iron over it or just used the hot flat blade screwdriver.
