Category: door

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Door Handles That Last (Post #611) 6/5/2023

If you were to rate the most annoying things on a Range Rover Classic at the top of that list would be the Questionable Use of Paint and Seam Sealer to Prevent Rust. I think we could all agree with that. The second item has GOT to be the Door Handles.

At some point in owning a Range Rover Classic or a Discovery 1 you will have a door handle fail. I’m not sure what specific material the door handles are made from. I’ve speculated in another post that they were made from Play-DohTM. I’m pretty sure they are made from some kind of aluminum mache’ and hope. You might as well say they were made of Unobtainium [Wikipedia] because finding a set of new/old stock (ran out decades ago) or on a rig in a breaker’s yard (aka junk yard in the USA). I haven’t seen a Range Rover in a junk yard since 2016 [Okierover.com]. The odd one may have snuck past me in that time…suffice to say they are getting rare. Spotted one in 2015 and 2011.

It was quite frankly a surprise to me that it took so long for some smart guy or girl to machine their own. I am surprised no longer. A gentleman right here in my home state of Oklahoma is making them. This is the best of all possible situations, Made in Oklahoma, Small Business, genuinely nice guy, and almost certainly better than OEM.

Chris McCune‘s [Facebook] handles are made from 6061 aluminum. I am but a simple caveman and your systems of measurements of specific metals frightens and confuses me, but when I get in my Range Rover Classic and drive to the mall through the outback, I want to open the doors with the handles and not crawl in the window like psychopath.

(Apologies to the, now deceased, genius of Phil Hartman for the paraphrase above.)

You are more likely to pull the entire handle assembly off the door, than to have one of these break like the OEM handles. He’s so confident in his design he is offering a Limited Lifetime Warranty. Basically as long as you aren’t using the handle as recovery point when you get stuck, he’ll make it right if one of his handles fail.

This is an unsponsored product recommendation. I have not been compensated in any way to promote Chris’s products. I’m just helping out a fellow Okie with his small business in this niche market.

The next time you tear your door handle remember Chris and order some handles. I would publish the price, but prices of metals change and I don’t want someone in the future who may be reading this post to get the wrong idea about what the handles cost. At the time of this post (June 2023), they are fairly priced. I’ve seen them for sale for more than this and have purchased some crappy OEM ones for this same price. Click the link above and send him a Private Message.

I looked up my previous posts on door handles, check those out too. One contains the instructions for replacing your door handles.

Why Children Should Not Drive Your Toys, Part 2 (Post #283) 1/21/2012
Weekend Repairs (Post #358) 6/21/2013
Door Handles: The Trapeze of Opening (Post #342) 5/24/2013

Thanks for Reading and Happy Rovering.

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Door Card Refurbishing (Post #605) 3/21/2023

Door cards

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness. – Oscar Wilde.

I’ve put together a video of me assembling the refurbished door cards for the Range Rover Classic. I didn’t record an intro nor did I record an outro. It’s just me assembling the cards. If you watch the Working Axle YouTube channel [YouTube.com] you will see some of the prettiest videos. If you aren’t watching him, you are missing out. His videos are simple, cinematic, and yet informative, and he doesn’t say a lot. So this is my homage to his brilliant work. Unfortunately for you, my videos aren’t as pretty or well shot, suck to be you, never-the-less I appreciate you visiting me and sincerely hope this content assists you.

So there’s no pithy commentary. I had to stop at one point and run to the hardware store to get more nuts and bolts. Just some assembling of door cards.

Brown is back!!! I think these door cards look great now with a new coat of paint. The dark brown is very similar to some of the interiors of modern cars today. I seriously looked at getting dark brown seat covers. But in the end I went with the Knightsbridge seat covers so they ain’t going to be brown.

You can support me on Patreon.

Thanks for visiting and Happy Rovering.

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Current Progress (Post #594) 12/14/2021

In the latest installment, I chat about my current progress on getting the Big White Bus back on the road. I had to take a week off for family coming in for the holiday, and Mrs. Okierover and I both got bronchitis that decided to hang on for 3 weeks (you can hear the Stevie Nicks in my voice). That slowed work on the to-do list. This weekend I’ll probably need the new heater in the shop as it should start getting colder here on the Southern Plains.

In the video, I show the closed cell neoprene installed. I talk about a small missed part on the heater box install. Also talk about getting a new seat controller ECU and getting the seats out. A few words about adjusting the door handle for the driver’s side rear door.

Then instead of shutting up, I drone on more about my desire to have a new bumper, a storage box/bed, and installing D-rings.

I know the video work needs improvement and as I torture you as you watch them make more and more they should improve. When I’m a big interwebs video star you can say, “I remember when that bum first got started. Man those early videos sucked.”

Your feedback is always appreciated.

Thanks for reading/watching, click and subscribe, and Happy Rovering.

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Starting the Year off Right, Sorting Out A Few Annoying Things (Post #522) 1/4/2015

After I took the Christmas lights off the house I moved the Range Rover into the shelter of the garage. It’s a little bit chilly out there and being out of the wind seemed like a good idea.

The first annoying problem I looked at was the problem opening the driver’s side door. As most of you Land Rover owners have experienced, the flappy-paddle-trapeze of opening a Range Rover Classic door is silly. Once it gets out of adjustment it’s pretty frustrating trying to get your doors open. To top it off my door especially doesn’t like to open when it is cold out.

The left rod in this picture is the rod you turn for adjustment.

I pulled the door card and looked for the outside handle’s adjustment rod. To adjust it you remove the keeper clip at the top and then turn the rod clockwise. I chose to turn it four revolutions. I hooked it back up and then tested it.

Worked just as I expected it to, perfectly. The inside handle needed adjustment too. For this rod you trace it from the handle to the end that attaches to the trapeze bits. It has a “Z” in the rod and a spring to keep it in place. On the end it has a 7mm nut. It’s not fun to find the end and get the wrench on it.

I gave it at least a full revolution. The inside handle now engages the release a little sooner. This is better than the last time when I got a bit carried away and couldn’t get the door open after adjusting it.

The second was getting the unlock lever back into it’s guide. I had removed this when I had trouble getting the door panel reattached to the door. The guide broke and I didn’t bother to reinstall it until today.

The broken guide I had glued broke again. I installed it anyway. I think it looks better than just the lever floating around in a hole in the door card.

When the door card was off I investigated the electric door actuators. Mine have become weak and cause the famous “bouncing lock problem“. Since those initial investigative blog posts I’ve learned the actuators weaken and don’t set the lock correctly and cause the lock and unlock issue. Replacing the actuators fixes the issue in some instances.

I then turned my attention to the center brake light. It has not worked for a while. I thought it was a burned out bulb. A few months ago I check it and the bulb was just bouncing around loose in the lamp fixture. So I swapped the bulb, still no light. I made the sure the bulb was making a good connection. I then traced the wires to the plug under the headliner. I found two plugs that did not match. I guess when I replaced the upper rear door frame they sent me a frame with the wrong plug on it.

I went out to my old frame, which I kept because it has good glass still in it. I had cut the old plug off. I guess in my haste to reinstall I didn’t swap the plug. Well long story short the plug is in a box somewhere and instead of digging through boxes for hours, I decided that I’d just splice the wires. Once completed, my center brake light now works again.


The last thing was the Range Rover letters on the tailgate are coming unglued. After I worked on the brake light they were all but coming off. In fact the A did come off.

I got some rubbing alcohol out and cleaned up the glue locations. I got some glue and decided to attempt to glue them back into place. If it fails again, I have another sticker I can replace them with.

So today I knocked out these little annoying things. Not a bad day if I say so myself. I wish I had time to work on the radio too but it will have to be another day.

It’s January. S.C.A.R.R. is in April. If you can make it to S.C.A.R.R. now is the time to plan for it. If you are from Oklahoma contact me, I’d like to get us in matching shirts and make a good club showing. I promise you will have a good time.

Thanks for reading, Happy New Year, and Happy Rovering.

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Finger Lakes Rover Club Tech Tips (Post #452) 2/18/2014

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From the Finger Lakes Rover Club Site

I found a link to the Finger Lakes Rover Club today in a forum. I was researching the common problem of failed door locks on Range Rover Classics. In the Rangerovers.net/forum page “grnole” posted a link to an article on the Finger Lake’s page.

I immediately sorted through the URL to get to the Home page. They have a tech tips page that has several very helpful links to articles. I highly recommend you check it out.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Rovering.

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Weekend Repairs (Post #358) 6/21/2013


Guess what I’m working on this weekend? My dear wife Mrs. OkieRover “accidentally” damaged my door handle. She was unaware of the adjustment problem with the driver’s side door and instead of asking for help, kept pulling the already damaged (by Diet Mountain Drew) door handle.

I know the “trick” to opening the door and have been limping along. This changes everything as the door is now hard to open. I ordered a used door handle off eBay and it arrived yesterday. I’ll be installing the replacement handle this weekend. At the time of this writing getting a left side door handle is very difficult.

What the sweet hell is this? I’ve noticed in the last week that the rust here on the windshield wiper shafts is amazingly bad. I have a really bad feeling about this problem. First is removing the bonnet. Maybe with it removed I’ll find the leak that is flooding the carpets. In any event I hope it is repairable.

Think good thoughts.

I also have to clean up from the latest storm. Yeah, we had a little blow of a storm that dumped an inch of rain on us on Sunday. I had planned to drive out to Newcastle on Sunday afternoon. So when I got home from church I didn’t roll up any of the windows, nor did I close the sunroof. Yeah, second time I’ve done that in a month.

The inside got pretty wet. As did I when I went out at 0330 in the morning to roll up the windows. The leather is looking pretty rough now and the windshield has water drop markings on it…on the inside! The storm was blowing in from the north and the orientation of the Range Rover directed that rain on to the dash.

What ever rain drained out brought a couple of nasty stains on the concrete under the Big White Bus. That’s nasty. So a good cleaning is in order. I may even pull the carpets and hose them off. The leather seats need quite a lot of loving care. Sadly I think they are mostly past it and I may need to investigate getting the covers replaced. That’s not going to be cheap.

Think more good thoughts…

We have an interested party for the Honda Civic. He is my son-in-law’s youngest brother. He has had his eye on the Civic since we bought it. He mentioned to me a year ago that if I were ever to sell it, he wanted it. He is coming out to test drive it tonight. This will eliminate a car from our car insurance and a car payment as well. This will make Mrs. OkieRover very happy.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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