Making an Unbreakable Door Lock Button
MrWhoopee
Wagonist
I'm tired of dealing with those d*mn brittle door lock buttons. Why couldn't Honda use the same locks as the Hatch and CRX? Anyway, I wandered the aisles of Home Depot looking for something made of plastic that I could make into a replacement vaguely like the original. I ended up in the plumbing department, looking at black ABS drain pipe. Ahhhh! Inspiration!
I went home, grabbed a piece of 4 in. pipe and started hacking. I cut a piece a little over width and plenty long.
Then I took the heat-gun to it, warmed it 'til it was getting soft and pressed it between the tabletop and a piece of steel to flatten it.
I cut it roughly to length, took the cut-off drop and glued it with ABS glue to create the hook.
After the glue had set up, I went to work with rasp and file, getting it roughly to the shape of the original (without the thinned area - weak spot).
I drilled a 1/8 hole in the bottom (no need to tap it, the rod will make its own threads), sanded it a little, primed and shot it with some GM paint I had laying around and that was it.
It's a little crude, I may repaint it with satin black, but it's way better than nothing and much stronger than OEM.
If Honda had used ABS instead of whatever that crap is, we wouldn't have all these problems now. Not that they cared.
I went home, grabbed a piece of 4 in. pipe and started hacking. I cut a piece a little over width and plenty long.
Then I took the heat-gun to it, warmed it 'til it was getting soft and pressed it between the tabletop and a piece of steel to flatten it.
I cut it roughly to length, took the cut-off drop and glued it with ABS glue to create the hook.
After the glue had set up, I went to work with rasp and file, getting it roughly to the shape of the original (without the thinned area - weak spot).
I drilled a 1/8 hole in the bottom (no need to tap it, the rod will make its own threads), sanded it a little, primed and shot it with some GM paint I had laying around and that was it.
It's a little crude, I may repaint it with satin black, but it's way better than nothing and much stronger than OEM.
If Honda had used ABS instead of whatever that crap is, we wouldn't have all these problems now. Not that they cared.
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