How do I take my old door handles off my 88 t-bird. Also will mustang door handles work? My friend had some new ones laying around and he said that mustang ones should fit.
Yes,the Mustang handles will work just fine.They're the same.I remove mine by pulling the door panel (obviously),and on the backside of the handle,there are the backs of the rivets.The back of the rivet will look as though it has 3 "tabs" bent out holding the handle to the car.Simply get a flat screwdriver and bend the tabs up a little,the break the off with a pair of pliers or wire cutters (2 rivets on each side).After that,Get a phillips head screwdriver,and place it in the center of the rivet on the inside of the car and pop it with a hammer.The rivets will pop out,and the handles will come off.Easy.When putting the new handles on,use bolts,lock washers,and locking nuts.It makes removing them in the future (hopefully you won't have to) easier.Good luck.I hope I explained it alright.I'll be glad to help you in any way.Good luck.
Instead of mesing around with prying this and that...from the outside, take a punch and knock the center out of the rivet and then drill the rest out with a 1/4" drill bit....
Boom, done in less than 2 minutes. You still need to get to inside though to work the handle off the latch lever, but you'd have to do that anyway.
, you guys are mind-readers. I was sitting in a parking lot today waiting to pick my aunt up from work, and started thinking I needed to deal with the partially busted door handle on the '86 soon. I know the trick to opening it quickly, but no one else here does. (thumb on the top of the handle, holding it in place so it can open properly) Should fix it soon, too.. the car may get more drivers once my '88 is operational.
Ehhhhh.. I get bored, I post pictures:
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Must be common because I broke mine on the driver's side about three years back and was opening my door the same way for about 3 months until I decided to repaint the car and put the new handle on.
drivers side of the red bird is broken too, and it seems every fox body guy thats opened the door knows what to do, thumb on top of handle to push down on it while you lift it to open
LOL thats exactly what is wrong with my door handle. Thanks for the picture, it's helpful.
My handle broke today.................jinxed.
If you want an even quicker way to take the old handles off, just find an idiot coworker that thinks it's funny to jerk up on the handle as hard as he can when the temperature is 10 below zero. Comes right off! I hate that guy.
My '84 has a broken passenger's side handle. Where's a good place to get a new one? I'll be doing this fix soon, too.
I'll have to remember to do that the next time it drops below -10 down here.. :p
Did you or someone else witness this?
If so, you did not press charges and make him spend a little while in the pokey because......?
You can get new handles at Autozone,etc.
Guys, be careful with Mustang handles. The 1987-93 cars had plastic handles that break all the time. The 1986-earlier cars had metal just like ours. CJ Pony Parts (http://www.emustang.com) has the correct black metal handles for our cars, among other places.
When you install the new handles, instead of trying to find a large enough pop rivet, I would recommend using 1-1/4" carriage bolts and some thread-locker. They're a lot tougher to drill out so that's a theft deterrent. You'd only be able to remove the bolts from inside the door panel then. Economical and effective.
Happened to me in the winter of '98. He paid for the handles (made him replace both) after a call from my lawyer. He drove a Geo Tracker........I think that was punishment enough. :grinno:
A Geo?Wow,that has to suck.....and hurt.
ok, so i tried to take one of my handles out today, and i ran into a problem. I got to the two rivets and one of them were busted, can't seem to get it out. Is there any way i can get it out? should I just drill in a bigger hole or what?
Time has been served indeed :rollin:
Just drill the holes slightly bigger than what they are now and then follow Eric's advice and use carriage bolts with thread locker. You'll thank yourself and Eric later.