E body for handle conversion

[JeffTheMarine]

I seem to remember seeing a duster kin a magazine that had this done but I could be wrong. Has anyone on here cut the door skin and welded in the section to accept e body exterior for handles? Would love some info armor or pictures if someone has it.

Thanks
Jeff

 

[mprhound]

Use something else beside and E Body, those handles are a weak link and break frequently, ask any other e body owner. (I have one)

 

[JeffTheMarine]

Well I want to stay Mopar and I like the flush look and overall design. What part is it that is breaking? Is there some way that I could reinforce it prior to installation?

 

[72bluNblu]

E-body handles are kinda lame. They're actually not all that easy to use, and they're made out of cast metal and all the moving parts have tight clearances so there's a whole lot of nothing you can do to reinforce them. The tabs on the back of the lever/handle that mount the spring are what tends to break, leaving the lever flapping free of all the linkage. The originals on my Challenger broke within a week of each other. Now granted that was after like 60k miles of driving I did with the car and that was a year or two ago, so they lasted a good long time from '72. I don't think I'd make the effort to weld the recessed section from an E-body skin into an A-body skin. But that's just me. And of course, the originals are better than the reproductions, and being E-body parts they're all expensive.

If you do go that route, remember that the original Challenger and Barracuda handles are NOT the same. Challenger handles are flat, Barracuda handles have a slight curve to them. So, you might consider which one you would use depending on the contour of the door where you decide to section them in. The cheaper reproductions are all flat and say they fit all E-body's, but that's not entirely accurate.