Zanama
Newbie
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2015
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 9
I've been playing around with the idea of making some door handles. I've had 3 gmt400's and have never gotten along with the door handles. Plus my kids have trouble opening the door and its a PITA to have to walk around every time to let them in and then there's the fact that the lift I'll be putting on it won't make it any easier.
I've looked up the Topkick/Kodiak door handles. Can't find the lock/latch rods anywhere and before I go and fab up my own or start messing with using cables, I'm trying to explore my options.
Originally I thought f150 door handles would do the trick, so would NBS handles, or even H2 handles. Problem being, I don't have access to any of the necessary tools to do that sort of swap properly. Much less access to a donor vehicle.
So I finally decided to see what I could make work. I ended up ordering an H2 door handle to start with because the plastic ones are insanely cheap on amazon and I'm just going to use it for mock up at the moment. Also got a cheap OBS handle too.
The idea is to graft the pull handle functionality of the H2 onto the OBS handle. This way I can maintain factory handle fastening and hopefully I can rig something up to make the lock/latch rods work like factory. It will be a bit of trial and error but we'll see. If it comes out pretty good I'll send it off to be scanned and reproduced so I can have replacements in the event of breakage or failure of any component.
Starting with this (I actually ordered the passenger side but couldn't find a detailed pic):
The OBS handle for reference:
And the H2 handle disassembled and ready to start hacking:
Definitely not for the faint of heart. But if it comes out like I think it will it should look pretty good and won't be as beefy as the Topkick handles nor as round as the NBS handles. We'll see. I plan on using epoxy to get it all back together and brace it as best I can. I'm not familiar with what would be best so I'll have to research that. I want it to come out as quality as possible but realistically it will fail over time unless I get it reproduced as a solid piece.
I've looked up the Topkick/Kodiak door handles. Can't find the lock/latch rods anywhere and before I go and fab up my own or start messing with using cables, I'm trying to explore my options.
Originally I thought f150 door handles would do the trick, so would NBS handles, or even H2 handles. Problem being, I don't have access to any of the necessary tools to do that sort of swap properly. Much less access to a donor vehicle.
So I finally decided to see what I could make work. I ended up ordering an H2 door handle to start with because the plastic ones are insanely cheap on amazon and I'm just going to use it for mock up at the moment. Also got a cheap OBS handle too.
The idea is to graft the pull handle functionality of the H2 onto the OBS handle. This way I can maintain factory handle fastening and hopefully I can rig something up to make the lock/latch rods work like factory. It will be a bit of trial and error but we'll see. If it comes out pretty good I'll send it off to be scanned and reproduced so I can have replacements in the event of breakage or failure of any component.
Starting with this (I actually ordered the passenger side but couldn't find a detailed pic):
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The OBS handle for reference:
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
And the H2 handle disassembled and ready to start hacking:
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
Definitely not for the faint of heart. But if it comes out like I think it will it should look pretty good and won't be as beefy as the Topkick handles nor as round as the NBS handles. We'll see. I plan on using epoxy to get it all back together and brace it as best I can. I'm not familiar with what would be best so I'll have to research that. I want it to come out as quality as possible but realistically it will fail over time unless I get it reproduced as a solid piece.