Grab Handle

[rayandre]

Does anyone know how this handle is attached/anchored into the skin? I'm restoring the exterior of our 70 Overlander (as you can see it really needs some help!) and I'd really like to remove this and have it re-chromed but when I went to remove the screws it acted as if it was bolted in with nuts from inside the skin even though the threads didn't appear to be machine threads. When I unscrewed one of them a little bit they wouldn't back out the way most exterior screw attachments back out which is why I suspect it's nutted from inside the wall. I really don't want to have to start taking apart the interior wall for a grab handle-while I'm retentive I'm not doing a shell off restore of this beast.

[68 TWind]

On a 68 there are nuts behind the handle between the inside and outside skins. If you are trying to unscrew the handle and it keeps screws won't back out, I'd bet yours it the same as mine. I had to drill out the rivets on the interior skin along the door frame to get enough clearance to put a wrench in and hold the nut as I unscrewed it from the outside. You have a window very close to the door so you could have a bit more difficulty. There were a lot of small rivets to drill out, but it was not a hard job and on my Trade Wind it was pretty straight forward. I used white 1/8 pop rivets to put it all back together. Hope this helps.

[rayandre]

Thanks, that's what I was kind of afraid of. You are right on the money about the window. Unfortunately, the PO had to replace both of our lower oval windows and used pop rivets to put them back together which was poorly done and looks like Cr#p. So, I've toyed with the idea of pulling that apart anyway and getting an Olympic rivet gun and making it right. If I go through all of that, I'll deal with the handle at that time-especially because I also have some 12V switches that need to be either replaced or at a minimum lubricated with some electronics cleaner. Another project for another time-too many things to get ready for our month long west trip in July. The handle will have to wait since it's more of a smaller cosmetic issue.