Broken Door Trigger: porschedoorhandles.com?

[Quicksilver]

Anyone order the door triggers from PorscheDoorHandles.com / After Market Products?

Had the driver's side door handle trigger on my car snap a couple weeks ago. (I was smart enough to remember to leave the window down as the passenger door isn't accessible in the garage!) My trigger snapped a bit different from most I've seen pictured. It is at the base of the 'blade' instead of across the hole of the hinge pin.


I researched for a bit to decide how to deal with it and the idea of buying another magnesium trigger that has had 30+ years to start corrosion cracks seemed kind of dumb. Paying cubic $$ for a new NLA handle seemed dumber. There are a few posts warning about fitment issues with reproduction parts but I have better than average fabrication skills and equipment so...

There are a few different companies making replacements but PorscheDoorHandles.com (After Market Products) has CNC aluminum instead of cast so I "pulled the trigger".
- My question is: It's been a week and I haven't heard a thing other than a PayPal receipt. Not sure if they are down in LA for Lit week but it still seems off. Anyone have some experiences to share?
(And if someone sees them at the Lit show tell them to check their orders!)

[GH85Carrera]

Please report back if and when you get the trigger and get it installed and the final results.

If they have a quality product, I will order one and keep it in stock just in case.

[EC900]

I recently notice how stiff my driver door trigger is to pull, thinking the cold weather, lack of lube, and 40yrs leads to the trigger snapping off. I guess I'll add to add another project to inspect my handle trigger. That doesn’t look like a complex R&R and they give good detailed instructions on their site.
I too might even order one too. Also I’m considering is just swap the triggers,from Passenger side (since it’s least used) to Driver side, they look interchangeable
Anyway, checked their Site and if you click the lower highlighted “After Market Products”, the link has a Contact Us phone number. Maybe they fabricate these a few at a time and drop ship a bunch when the get enough orders like those wonderful shifter springs and bushing chaps.

[FA-18C]

How about just swapping out with a used door handle? Move your lock cylinder over.

[Quicksilver]

Originally Posted by FA-18C

How about just swapping out with a used door handle? Move your lock cylinder over.

A used door handle will have another magnesium trigger with 30+ years to get some corrosion cracks going. It just doesn't make sense to use "aged magnesium".

_______________________
So the plot thickens . . .

I sent them an email to the address listed on their PayPal receipt: "support@aftermarketproducts.com" and their mail server returned the error: "550: No such person at this address".

This means that an email account for "support" doesn't exist on the "aftermarketproducts.com" server. Their website's contact page lists an email address of "sales@aftermarketproducts.com" so I've forwarded the failed email there. It's the weekend so I'll see if that goes somewhere and I get a response back.

Best case would be that someone messed up and did away with that email in error and they aren't getting the notices that they received an order. Worst case is they are ghosting the planet and I'm the one who discovered it.

I'll let people know next week.

[Quicksilver]

Well their "sales" email address isn't bouncing so maybe this will clear up on Monday.

[sgroer]

A new set of complete handles is $200 from our host. I just replaced mine. Perfect fitment. Totally worth it.

[nocarrier]

I've used a replacement door handle trigger from porschedoorhandles.com. It is an excellent product. The machining is very well done and the fitment is excellent. (coming from someone who also does cnc machining)

I've had the replacement trigger installed for a few years now and it's holding up perfecly.

I'm very happy with their product.

[fanaudical]

Another option - A local Porsche shop recommended this when mine broke:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/131232780510?hash=item1e8e1550de:g:-8sAAOSwbqpTtcE5

Fit and finish were very good and worked well in my '75.

[Brandonmel85]

Hi guys I managed to put everything back together Im at the home stretch but for some reason the door pin doesn’t push far enough when i engage the trigger.

[Brandonmel85]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lytfunejh5coxzj/Video%20Feb%2026%202023%2C%2012%2008%2031%20PM.mov ?dl=0

Here is a video of whats going on! Thank you so so much for anyone that can help!

[Quicksilver]

Ok! I found out what was happening with PorscheDoorHandles.com/aftermarketproducts.com.
nocarrier gave me his direct email address and he had no idea that the old defunct email address was still linked to PayPal and his sales email address is very rarely checked as they really don't do direct sales anymore. And the last communication problem is they ignore the phone as they are solid booked with large production runs with specific customers.
After getting my email this morning he saw my caller ID and jumped on the phone to let me know he's handled it. My triggers have been shipped. The shipping is already refunded (as it says on his site) and he has got the email address on the PayPal fixed.

He says he has about 20 triggers left on the shelf and he says he probably won't be doing more in the future as his business has changed to doing large runs of large CNC parts. Turns out that he isn't a "Porsche guy". He knew a guy with the Boeing Sports Car Club that had him make a CNC trigger replacement for him. After that he did a run every once in a while but demand has really gone away.

If someone wants his CNCed triggers best order them before what's on the shelf is gone. And when you order you should probably send an email to eric@aftermarketproducts.com.

[EC900]

Thanks for posting that info Quicksilver !

[Quicksilver]

The quality of the PorscheDoorHandles trigger is pretty apparent!

There are some radiuses in the area where I've seen some of them break which is pretty cool.
When I get to actually fitting the trigger I'll report back but I'm pretty happy with what I've received.

On the broken trigger you can see the surface of the magnesium 'blooming'. Pretty amazing that there is that much corrosion on a car that is always in a humidity controlled garage.

I noticed that all other posts I've seen show the trigger cracking through the hinge pin. I guess things will break any way they can!

[Quicksilver]

After being distracted by another "vehicle emergency" (wife's trucks brakes) I finally got back onto the "broken door trigger project". It took some work, I have the handle together, and I'm happy with what I ended up with but I'm not sure other people would be happy with what I had to do to put it together.

If you're going to break it break it good!
(Why have 2 pieces when 3 is "more".)


To quote john walker's workshop, "The aftermarket triggers don't fit well."
I don't know if some of the early cars had different dimensions on some of their parts. The width of the "fingers" that contact the "nut" that pushes the rod that opens the door is noticeably different.

The original "nut" that the door trigger pushes on...


In this closeup you can see the rather deep divots on either side where the "fingers" on the original door trigger had worn into it. Even if everything fit perfect that nut needed to be replaced.

The width of the "nut"...


The width of the original door trigger's "fingers"...


The width of the CNC replacement trigger...


In theory the replacement trigger would press on the nut but at best you would have only 0.043" width of each finger pressing on it. The outer width of the CNC's fingers is 0.600" so a wider nut would be way better.

So out to the garage to look through the metal pile and picked a chunk of aluminum extrusion to build a "nut" from.

[Quicksilver]

I found a nice piece of heat sink with a thick base and cut off a section to work from. I made a couple 0.010" passes spaced to fit with the spacing of the fingers of the trigger from porschedoorhandles.com and then drilled a hole and threaded it to a 4mm x 0.7 thread.


From there I machined it to 0.230 wide and 0.600" long keeping as much thickness as possible. When I got done I had a "nut" like this.


I test fit the nut to the trigger's fingers and I used a Dremel to add some clearance between the fingers for the screw as I don't know how far it will stick up.


Next I put the hinge pin in a drill and dressed it with some 600 grit to get a good finish.


Then I reassembled the door handle using a little bit of Bosch Distributor Grease on each of the moving surfaces. You can see the nut at the point of the q-tip.


It is has a really smooth action now. Last thing is to install it and figure out exactly how far the hex end of the actuating screw needs to be protruding to get the correct unlocking feel.

[GH85Carrera]

It is sad that it is not just a "plug and play" drop in replacement. Now we need someone to make the new nuts as most people don't have the skills to make that little nut.

Sigh.

[ahh911]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

It is sad that it is not just a "plug and play" drop in replacement. Now we need someone to make the new nuts as most people don't have the skills to make that little nut.

Sigh.

Translation:
PorscheDoorHandles, we'll buy the nuts for 16$ each in addition to the pull lever, just have a selection if needed.