This '36 cabriolet had both a door handle and a lock on the passenger side. The driver side, however, had no lock. |
The first thing we did was remove the handles and the lock assembly. We ground all the paint around the holes. |
We inserted a washer into the handle holes and cylinder holes to reduce filling size, then tacked the washers into place. |
We welded around the washer, inside and out, then welded the remaining holes. |
Next we ground the weld smooth and prepared it for a light coat of filler. |
With a little filler, primer and a bit of block-sanding, the door looks like it never had a handle. Here's the finished car ready for the final coat of paint. |
With the advent of the smoothie look, rodders have been cleaning the body lines of their cars in many ways. Some of the first things to go are the door and trunk handles. Perhaps the cars to benefit most from "shaving" the door handles are cabriolets and roadsters. One drawback: You'll have to reach inside to open the door. Unfortunately, there is no way to lock a roadster, but locking a cabriolet can be done with a remote-control unit that rolls the window up when the car is parked. In this story we'll show you how we removed the handles from a '36 cabriolet.