riverrat62
New Member
Interior door handle broke on my Liberty, pulled on handle to close door and it came right off in my hand.
After finding out what a replacement door panel was going to cost me I decided to fix it myself. Here is what I came up with. First step was to prep the door handles for reattachment. I epoxied the pieces of plastic from around the screw hole back together. Then I cut and fitted small blocks of wood to fill in and strengthen door handles. These were also meant to give the screws I was planning on using a little more meat to secure to than just the plastic. I then epoxied the blocks into position.
Next step was to remove the door panel. I am not going to go into how to remove door panels, already some good threads on how to do that. I know this because that's how I got them off. One thing I will say is it can be done with a putty knife, but a trip to Auto Zone and $9.99 for a door panel removal tool was well worth it. I then lined up my door handle to the door side of the panel and marked where my screw holes would be.
I then put the door handle into position on the inside of door panel and drilled pilot hole for screw. I used # 8 x 3/4 inch sheet metal screws with a 7/8 inch fender washer to secure handle. I then repeated this with the other marks. I placed 6 screw into the panel. I probably could have used only 4 but I did not want to do this again, and I have always been know for overkill on my repairs.
All that was left was to reinstall the panel back into the Jeep. Handles are now very secure and I do not think they will coming back off anytime soon. Hope this helps somebody, I have learned a lot about fixing my Jeep on here, and was hoping to return the favor.
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After finding out what a replacement door panel was going to cost me I decided to fix it myself. Here is what I came up with. First step was to prep the door handles for reattachment. I epoxied the pieces of plastic from around the screw hole back together. Then I cut and fitted small blocks of wood to fill in and strengthen door handles. These were also meant to give the screws I was planning on using a little more meat to secure to than just the plastic. I then epoxied the blocks into position.
You must be registered for see images attach
Next step was to remove the door panel. I am not going to go into how to remove door panels, already some good threads on how to do that. I know this because that's how I got them off. One thing I will say is it can be done with a putty knife, but a trip to Auto Zone and $9.99 for a door panel removal tool was well worth it. I then lined up my door handle to the door side of the panel and marked where my screw holes would be.
You must be registered for see images attach
I then put the door handle into position on the inside of door panel and drilled pilot hole for screw. I used # 8 x 3/4 inch sheet metal screws with a 7/8 inch fender washer to secure handle. I then repeated this with the other marks. I placed 6 screw into the panel. I probably could have used only 4 but I did not want to do this again, and I have always been know for overkill on my repairs.
You must be registered for see images attach
All that was left was to reinstall the panel back into the Jeep. Handles are now very secure and I do not think they will coming back off anytime soon. Hope this helps somebody, I have learned a lot about fixing my Jeep on here, and was hoping to return the favor.
arty52:
