Henry Ford Wouldn't be Pleased!

It never ceases to amaze me how poorly things are constructed. After going through numerous after market door handles for our F-150 pickup I finally decided to do something about it. I decided to make my own. After picking up some 3/8" round bar I proceeded to fabricate some door handles that would last longer than the truck itself.

Once I got the door handles off I thought it would be a simple matter of welding them on to the mechanism that does in fact open the door. However after looking at the mechanism that the door handles were attached to I realized that even that part had its design flaws. The entire mechanism was held onto the inside of the door via one bolt! Talk about fast and cheap. As I started to mull the design over in my head it actually angered me. Here it was a part that could easily been designed and manufactured to last a life time was basically just slapped together. To add insult to injury probably wasn't even put together by a human.

Once I determined how to remedy the situation I reinforced the mechanism with some welds and then proceeded to weld on the new handles. Although their visual appearance isn't perfect they look uniform. More importantly however they will work and I'll never have to give them a second thought. Its just too bad everything couldn't be made this way. Hopefully consumers will hold manufacturers responsible for their shoddy workmanship and demonstrate how they feel by their purchasing practices. If Henry Ford was still alive I'd be willing to bet he have a thing or two to say about the modern craftsmanship being used on a product that bares his name.