door handle & locking woes!

[whiteonyx]

Greetings fellow Spider owners
My 81 Spider 2000 came with door handles with no lock barrels which were just holding on into the doorafter the car was painted, so i bought a complete new set of door handles and barrels.
Fitting is becoming a nightmare, is there any tricks of the trade or does anyone have info on how to fit correctly before i pull all my hair out!
thanks in advance
Neil

[76was124]

If you are struggling with getting the handles back in the door (vs. cylinders in the handle) I know when I went to reinstall my door handles after a paint job, it was an extremely tight fit; To the point it scraped off some of the paint on the edge of the sheet metal opening. If I remember correctly, I put the wide end in first snug tight up against the gasket/flanged part with heavy pressure holding it and with a closed fist on my other hand gave it a tap and it popped in. It was not without worry I would mess up the paint or dent the door though! Sanding the edges of the opening in the corporate may have been a better approach..

[AriK]

If you are struggling with getting the handles back in the door (vs. cylinders in the handle) I know when I went to reinstall my door handles after a paint job, it was an extremely tight fit; To the point it scraped off some of the paint on the edge of the sheet metal opening. If I remember correctly, I put the wide end in first snug tight up against the gasket/flanged part with heavy pressure holding it and with a closed fist on my other hand gave it a tap and it popped in. It was not without worry I would mess up the paint or dent the door though! Sanding the edges of the opening in the corporate may have been a better approach..

I thought i was the only one, mainly the drivers door.

[azruss]

I replaced mine with AR aftermarket. The lock casing on the back of the handles was fatter than stock and required some grinding on my part to get them to fit. I did not check the stock handles to see if similar grinding would make the install easier.

[76was124]

I thought i was the only one, mainly the drivers door.

its nice to know your not alone isn't it?

[AriK]

I thought i was the only one, mainly the drivers door.

its nice to know your not alone isn't it?

Frustrating when you remove one and then find it physically impossible to get it back in without marring the paint.