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Wonder if instead of heat and twist on the shaft there is space to attach and wrap a turn or two of 1/16 wire rope around the shaft. Hook the free end to a spring attached somewhere close by in the door so the spring would put tension on the wire rope and in turn would want to twist the shaft to lift the handle up. If there is room, even better would be to modify some kind of commercial small rope pulley with about a 1" diameter wheel and a groove to hold the wire. Remove the pulley from the hanging part of the assy and attach the wire to it. Drill or rework the center hole and file it square to fit the shaft and slide it on before reinserting the shaft in the latch. That way the wire would have a bigger diameter to pull against for better leverage in raising the handle and pulley could slide off so the handle assy would be easy to remove if needed..

No idea of door construction or space layout or how heavy a spring would be needed but if such would be possible it would be inexpensive, easily removable, and not likely to damage anything hard to come by.

If the doors droop slightly or are out of adjustment it will cause the handles to drop a bit. I have this issue on one rear door, adjust hinges and good for a couple years.

Good point. The latches have the single bar which moves inward to clear the striker and release the door. Possibly something is preventing the bar from moving all the way outward when the door is closed thus not allowing the mechanism to let the handle shaft rotate the full travel to bring the handle level.

It would seem an easy way to check for that possibility is to open the door. If the handles are level when the door is open look for misalignment or the striker being too close preventing the bar from extending. If the handles are still tilted when the door is open then wear or a weak spring would be more likely and the extra pull of a wire rope might help.

EDIT: Opening the door didn't make a difference on mine. I think the droop got worse when we had to take the handles apart for chroming. We put pins in to hold the pieces together. We might be able to pull those, add a thin washer or shim to make them tighter. But they hung like that before, which tells me it was wear.

Unless I can get a quick fix on twisting my doorhandles, I'm going to wait until fall for a major realignment of all my doors.

REBUILT STROMBERG CARB: The carburetor is performing beautifully. Cold starts, warm starts.

The throttle rod hadn't been returning all the way, but we mis-diagnosed the problem as worn linkage, so we greased the linkage and added a spring to pull it closed attached to the fender splasher. I didn't like it, but it was needed. But in Seattle's stop and go traffic, the engine warmed to a point where it warmed the spring, so when I let off the pedal, the idle returned to being way too high and I'd have to tap the pedal to get the idle to drop every time I had to stop, which didn't always work - a real nuisance and not safe.

I fixed the problem yesterday. With the Stromberg, the accelerator arm was just a little short. I cut a new piece of longer 10-32 all-thread so I could lengthen the arm to be sure the throttle returned all the way with the idle screw firmly against the stop when I let off the accelerator. That worked and I tossed that spring in the junk pile.

SPLASHER VENT? In the meantime, I have yet another part, like the throttle guard that will be returning to its rightful place soon. I think they are called the Front Fender Splasher Vents. 351299 Right for an 1803, and 341989 Left. Bad as they look, the metal is still strong.

This is what heaven will be like. Our old, decrepit parts will return to our bodies in a glorified state. No drooping or deterioration.

What I was looking for in the Parts Book is the attaching hardware for these, but none is listed. So they either share some existing screws or this is not the correct name and part number for these items.

At the last club meeting I was told that these are not only for keeping road water away, but for creating a draft to suck more air through the radiator and keep the engine cooler.

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On the driver side you will need to pull the pitman arm loose. As I remember.

. . . and disconnect and lower the exhaust pipe on the passenger side.

I would need to take a look at my car, but what I think I did for the passenger side, since the exhaust was already hooked up, was to pull apart or drill out the rivet on the brace across the top rear of guard. Then used a small machine bolt and nut to hold them back together.

Yes Iwas aware of having to do that. What fun!

But first they need a little cleaning up and straightening out.

STABILIZER/SWAY BAR: All the details were posted before the 6/20, but today I actually did it, and that black window weld is the messiest stuff you can imagine. Even if you wear gloves (mine split in the process), you definitely need a spray can of 3M Adhesive Cleaner because this black stuff gets on everything - all over the cap and cup, the cotter pin, your pliers, screw driver, etc. Also, for me, after putting in the weld, the bottom rubber, forcing in the tongue of the bar, more weld, the top rubber and cap, you need a special clamp to force it together to insert the cotter pin through the cup-cap-rubber plug and out the cap and cup. You can't do it by hand, I couldn't anyway. I lined up the holes of the cap (and drilled rubber plug) and cup, then pressed them together with my vice. It was tricky, but it work. I didn't take pix because I couldn't touch anything. But it's done. So I'll wait 24 hours for it to set up before driving.

CARB: Now that the accelerator bottoms out, I used the idle screw and a laser tach to set the idle to spec: 375 RPM.

CONCOURS: Forest Grove Oregon has a Concours d'Elegance in mid-July. Tomorrow os the last day to enter. I entered this morning, hoping the last few items might be done by then. Attached are the pix I sent for entry.

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Good Morning Joe...Your Packard is very lucky that it lives with you! Ernie in Arizona