Door Handle Conversion - Door Pull to Hockey Handle?

[Salvagedcircuit]

I have the base model SporTruck which has simple door pulls on either side. My driver side door pull failed and is now flopping about. The door pull looks to be made from hard foam wrapped in vinyl and backed in a black plastic plate. That plastic backing plate has cracked in half. The plastic door mounting studs are fine. I looked on ebay for replacement door pulls for the past 3 weeks and none have come up in honey / tan. There is just one in gray, but it looks just as damaged as mine.

 

Does anyone know if its possible to swap out a door pull for a hockey stick style handle?

 

This is the Hockey style handle I'm talking about:

 

I just finished buttoning up my door with sound deadening and I completely forgot to check my door to see if there's a threaded half nut where the top post of the hockey handle attaches. From my photos, I can't tell if there's anything behind the square cutouts. I'm hoping there's some kind of fastener.

 

 

If anyone has done this modification to their truck, I would really appreciate any input. There are 20+ hockey stick style handles in tan on ebay, but none with the straight door pull.

 

Thanks a Metric Ton!

[eaglescout526]

I mean I have my XJs old straight ones if you really want them. But I converted chuck to have the hockey stick style, those half nuts are hard to find that aren’t broken. I almost want to bet GM may have used them but I am not sure. But you can convert, as long as you have a parts XJ or the retainers. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Thanks for the info. You know what, I'm going to look through the auveco catalog and see if I can find anything. They have a lot of gm original fasteners that many 60s--> now vehicles have used. I believe I found the speaker fasteners that were missing from my comanche doors:

https://www.auveco.com/nylon-grille-nut-8-or-10-screw-size-1-2-head-13933

 

If anyone has a photo of what the door half nuts look like, that would be awesome. Thanks!

[schardein]

33 minutes ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

If anyone has a photo of what the door half nuts look like, that would be awesome. Thanks!

If you mean the insert that the upper stud of the hockey stick door handles engages into, here they are.  They are difficult to remove from the door.

[Salvagedcircuit]

That's exactly what I was after! Woah. Those look mighty custom. Are they just pressed in from the front?

[eaglescout526]

13 minutes ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

That's exactly what I was after! Woah. Those look mighty custom. Are they just pressed in from the front?

Basically the hockey stick gets rotated up, and pressed into that nut, once in you then rotate the stick down to be bolted to the two retainers. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Thanks. I saw some videos on how it installs, but I've never seen close up the retaining hardware. Huh. I have a feeling my door does not have the hardware for the hockey stick handle. I'll have to investigate with a usb endoscope camera

[eaglescout526]

It probably won't, my XJ didnt and I nabbed one from a junk yard XJ and the other I kinda fabricated from a clip in similar size from some Chrysler hardware I had laying around for the other door, it works. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

It's safe to say mine does not have it. All I had was a hole. This is what it's supposed to look like:

 

That's an image of a 2 door XJ, but the same thing applies. That circled item is the exact insert @schardein posted. I have an empty square there. It's safe to say there's no mount there in my door.

Thanks for the investigative help guys!

[pizzaman09]

The clip is nice to have.  My one friend managed to pull the clip out when he was pulling the door panel off, he didn't know the hockey stick needed to be rotated.  The clip fell out into the bottom of the door.  I had a loose handle for months until one day I poked around, found the clip in the bottom of the door and put it all back together correctly.