During my early restoration attempts I noticed a couple of broken door handles for my 1942-6719 and found replacements through the normal sources and had them chrome plated with the other items. Yesterday I was installing them and the holes for the tapered pin that holds them in place do not meet up with the holes in the door. Upon examination I noticed that the flat part on the ends are the same as they are on my other ones but the holes are 1/4 inch further out towards the end so the handles work but there is a 1/4 inch gap between the handle and the door.
If I can find an appropriate taper drill I could drill new holes and solve the problem or if someone it set up to do this I could send him the handles and pay for the drilling.
I have found other length shafts on door handles but never before have I found the same length shafts with the holes different.
This is a lousy time to say this, but when you have handles like these, they could be from who knows what??
I had found new handles for my '41 Chevrolet, and they were not drilled. I had the tapered screws, and I drilled the holes in place, and all went well.
I hope you can re-locate the holes properly!
Doug,
Did you use a tapered bit or just drill them to the larger size? I am concerned that the tapered screws would break if the holes were not tapered also? I see no problem locating the holes because the difference is exactly 1/4 inch and the larger size of the taper is 3/16 inch so there will be 1/16th inch between the holes.
The problem without having the taper would be that the screw would only bite in the hole on the widest part of its thickness near the slotted end. In constant use this would eventually become loose and the handle would drop.
I don't think these holes were tapered, only the screw is tapered. There is a TSB on page 34 of Sept 37 stating that all replacement handles are undrilled and must be located and drilled in the field to get the clearance with the door skin just right. They say to use a 3/16" drill. I have taken to welding these holes up before chroming (or after chroming until I learned my lesson) and custom drilling them to get the door clearance right. The particular handle on the 40, 41, 42 etc. is very common but there are a lot of different shaft lengths so check before chroming that it is close.