Changing Morris door handle to S4s & beyond handle

[nicholasshen]

Hi guys,

Just like to gather some knowledge on which model (Opel i gather) esprit door handle being used on the current version. mine is the 88 turbo model with the morris handle & i'm contemplating to change to the current model. Pls advice me on this issue. Thanks

[Evil_Dr_Fish]

Door handles are for wimps - get rid of them!

I think the S4 (onwards) handles are from a Vauxhall (Opel / GM) Calibra?

You would need to mess about with the internal mechanism quite significantly too I would expect.

Tbh... The amount of work invovled in changing them over to the S4 versions, you could change them to *anything* you liked. It would be easier to remove them completely and use a solenoid kit, as I have done on my Turbo (and Karl did first on his GT3)

Has anyone ever tried matching a Thompson re-design door to a Stevens car? If they still fit / match, it might be easier to swap doors! I guess you will probably need to swap the catch on the bodywork too.

[Paul C]

Yes it's off the Calibra:

A whole ton of work to change i think. People have fitted Round rear lights,

wheel arches, bigger wheels, front bumpers, rear bumpers, side sills and

V8 spoilers onto older Stevens cars to make them look newer...

...but all seem to have stopped at the door handles and left them be.

I'm guessing there must be a pretty good reason for that being so.

Anyway, the greatest of all Esprits, The Sport 300 wore both types

of handle during it's production run, and if i had the chance to buy

a sport 300, i would probably not even notice which type of door

handles it had until i got the thing home, and then i would not care!!!

B)

BL handles

GM handles

[neal]

...but all seem to have stopped at the door handles and left them be.

I'm guessing there must be a pretty good reason for that being so.

[snip]

The Sport 300 wore both types

of handle during it's production run

Ha, ha - is that not an argument that it can be done?

I very much doubt Lotus would have gone to the trouble of specifically putting the handle into an SE door. It's much more likely they just swapped the door from an SE to S4, which the 300 sat between. With the rest of the 300 remaining SE, it would suggest the doors are otherwise identical...

[neal]

Another thought - has anyone tried painting the BL handle? I think the fact the GM one is colour coded accounts for a subtantial part of the 'improvement'.

I mean after that they are just, well, handles and I doubt anyone would lose sleep over the fact that they lever in different directions!

Even if you were to retrofit a GM handle, you'd have the issue of painting it anyway. Unless you were *very* lucky to get one in your body colour!

[Paul C]

I very much doubt Lotus would have gone to the trouble of specifically putting the handle into an SE door.  It's much more likely they just swapped the door from an SE to S4, which the 300 sat between.  With the rest of the 300 remaining SE, it would suggest the doors are otherwise identical...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

remember the 300 body is neither SE or S4 and is in fact a light wieght

one (of 64) off bodyshell. So they could have orientated latches etc in a

very hand built kinda way prior to assembly. I am with you on the fact

it's highly likely the 'SE' mould (and thus door appatures) was used for

the whole S300 run.

...so all you need to do the job is to buy one of those Sport 300 doors!

Same place you get hens teeth...

[nicholasshen]

Thanks mate for the advice. Btw I'm currently embarking on an wide body (4inch per side with Opel OPC extreme lookalike) project with lambo diablo lights (aka fairlady lights), BTCC style side skirts. Mine is already fitted with 2004 rear lights conversion & spoiler. All these modification would make it a supercar superior than the mass-produced poshs, ferrari & lambos Except for the morris handle...sigh........

I'll be getting my car in 2 weeks time & will definately post my pictures for all to see.

[slade]

I believe our friend in the River City has a similar mod inherited halfway done

Fish, did you actually shave the doorhandles on your car or do I correctly spot an editting line from MS Paint If so you'd get along well with a lot of Impala Drivers in So Cal

Seriously... looks good. Smooth.

I've always wondered how the Esprit would look with Z lights, but I still prefer pop-ups overall (also cause it annoys Fish). Sounds like an interesting project anyways...

slade

Edited January 2, 2006 by slade

[WayneB]

This is the thread about Stevens door handles from ten days ago.Stevens Handles

If you decide to go the electric solanoid route like EDF ,dont forget top put a separate grounding strap from the solanoid to the frame of the car.

I didnt do this years ago on one of my past cars, and you dont get a constant relyable earth through the door hinges

Edited January 2, 2006 by WayneB

[th4neuk]

Have a butchers in the owners section in LEW. I think a couple of people have painted theirs.

It's something I've considered doing to mine.

HTH

Cheers

[neal]

remember the 300 body is neither SE or S4 and is in fact a light wieght

one (of 64) off bodyshell. So they could have orientated latches etc in a

very hand built kinda way prior to assembly. I am with you on the fact

it's highly likely the 'SE' mould (and thus door appatures) was used for

the whole S300 run.

I would doubt they did anything special to the 300 doors, I still reckon the GM handled ones are just bog standard S4. But I take your point about the bodyshell, being a special edition they could have mounted the latch whereever they wanted. So it's possible the BL and GE ones are in different places as Fishy suggested.

Fishy, out of interest, did you have any hassle during the MOT with no handles?

[Paul C]

Fishy, out of interest, did you have any hassle during the MOT with no handles?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Interesting question...

Dunno if it's an urban myth, but i've heard the lambo's had to have windscreens

that the driver could kick out should the car be upside down (gullwing doors see).

Nowadays everyone locks their doors while driving (i do so the central locking

locks the back of my van, stops someone opening the back in traffic). So i guess

fishy's handle-less thing makes no difference to the Emergency Services as they

probably have to smash the window or pry the door to get in anyhow, and Robin

still has rod operated handles inside for his escape when he needs it.

I mean if he needs it, of course.

[Nigel]

Pre S4 Esprit with colour coded handles..........

[mwmackenzie]

I'm currently messing with this task... changed to vx carlton handles.. that's the easy bit... problem is that the old morris handles lift the latch and the new ones push down so you need to fabricate a translator to fir in a tiny space!! not easy.. mine faild so I'm going to use solenoids worked by a button which will be pushed by the new handle.... not an easy task... door swap not possible as the striker plate on the body is ib the wrong place and will require relocating....

Good Luck, let me know how you get on...

Mark