A different approach to repairing the dreaded door pull

[OhioYukon]

I recently purchased a very well kept 2014 Yukon XL with really nothing in the way of issues besides some worn climate control buttons (repaired via an inexpensive Amazon sticker kit) and the dreaded broken door pull / door handle. I read some threads and watched some videos on this but I kept coming back to how challenging this would be to fix well without removing the door panel. So that is precisely what I did.

I went further off the beaten path by drilling out the plastic welds that held the door pull / armrest assembly to the rest of the door card. That allowed me to work on the door pull / armrest assembly while it was completely separated from the door card and opened similar to a sub sandwich. That made injecting the 3M Window Weld much easier/cleaner.

Once the Window Weld had setup well enough I rejoined the door pull / armrest assembly with the door card and clamped it together with a slew of clamps (including large furniture / cabinetry style clamps) and then applied 2 rounds of adhesives to the locations of the factory plastic weld locations. Round 1 was JB Weld Plastic Weld and Round 2 was JB Weld "Classic" (mix it yourself type).

Very happy with the end result and certainly cheaper than buying a new door card from GM. Hope this post is helpful to folks.

 

[OhioYukon]

And a few more pictures...

 

[swathdiver]

So that entire armrest with the buttons you were able to remove from the door panel to make the repair?

 

[OhioYukon]

That is correct yes. Once you drill through the plastic welds (denoted by the grey JB Weld spots in the post-repair pictures) the armrest assembly completely separates from the door card. Just make sure you have plenty of clamps beforehand to hold it all in place while the JB Weld cures.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Thank you for posting your work. Our collective knowledge base has been increased.

 

[JBravo1977]

I have the problem with the door pull where it's broken and feels like it's soft and going to pull apart. A small piece of white plastic came out of it. Can somebody post the full info on how to fix this?

..and what exactly is the door card?

 

[CTX-SLPR]

How's this holding up? Interested to see how the JB weld replacement for the essentially plastic rivets that were there originally are holding up.

Thanks