Door Handle - Replacement for 1981 Excella

[guy99]

Andy,
I agree with your comments and very happy that you have a solution. That way I know I have a fall back I can trust if my other approaches don't work. We count on you.

Guy

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

Part of the inner stiffner or stringer needs to be removed.

Our kits were designed to have some type of answer, instead of sorry, you have to do without.

Plating the door to some owners is ok, to others it is not.

Keeping things original, is fantastic, but there comes a time that other measures must be implemented, or simply, do without.

Having parts machined for the old locks, is a very good idea. The problem is to find a good machinist that will make some parts, at a reasonable price.

Those machinists, don't exist in southern California.

Andy

[perryg114]

I am going to try this route to making a new door handle. I have a machinist that I work with and he makes things for me on the side. If the cost is not too bad I may have several made. I already make motorcycle parts so why not Airstream parts. My handle broke once and was welded. I will make new ones out of 6061-T6 aluminum which should be much better than the Aluminum Zinc Casting the original was made out of.

Perry

[vswingfield]

Originally Posted by perryg114

I am going to try this route to making a new door handle. I have a machinist that I work with and he makes things for me on the side. If the cost is not too bad I may have several made. I already make motorcycle parts so why not Airstream parts. My handle broke once and was welded. I will make new ones out of 6061-T6 aluminum which should be much better than the Aluminum Zinc Casting the original was made out of.

Perry

This is an older thread. A forum member, John Burkey, has made some out of stainless steel and has them available. Here is a link to one of his posts about them. The following post has a photo of the one I got from him installed on my 1983 Excella. Very nice piece.

[perryg114]

You got a link to his stuff or do I have to contact him directly. I can probably make one for free. You sure he still makes them?

Perry

[vswingfield]

Originally Posted by perryg114

You got a link to his stuff or do I have to contact him directly. I can probably make one for free. You sure he still makes them?

Perry

You can send him a personal message (PM) here on the forum. Some others have contacted him since I did, so as far as I know they are still available. If you look at the last post in the thread where I posted a photo, there is a "thanks" message from just a couple of months ago.

He is a member who did exactly what you discussed, had one made for himself and made them available to others. He's not a dealer or anything, so there is no website to link to.

If you do decide to make your own, there is a nice measured drawing in post 19 in this thread. Ajheinonen converted an autocad drawing to a pdf so he could post it here. He also posted a dxf version in post 27, but changed the file extension to txt so he could post it. You will have to change the extension to dxf to open in a CAD program.

Let us know what you do.