cooperdm

Hello.
Yes I had the same issue with a lot of the plastics - Especially the door handles. I tried a lot of different repairs and did eventually go for buying replacements but had the same issue as you. The plastic accepting the bolt cracked leaving the handle loose of falling out.Here is my solution.

1. Take the handle out completly.

2. Find a piece of rubber or plastic tube that is a little larger diamater than the original housing. If there are bits of the housing that are of dubious intergrety just break them off. Put some cuts or rough sandpaper the back of the door handle caseing and around the outside of the housing. Basically you are keying the plastic to make a strong bond for the step further down.

3. You will need to make some artistic cuts in the tube (which is going to be your external mould) to get it to fit nicely. You have a bit of leeway with the diameter but you want the mold to be the SAME HEIGHT as the original. You can use some placerticine to make a watertight seal around the outside of the tubing mould so the resin does not leak out when attempting the following process.

4. Sit it on a sturdy bench and brace it do it will not move. Also make a way of suspending the bolt in position that it should sit when installed. Make sure the bolt is suspended nice and straight. Superglueing a chopstick to the head of the bold will have two advantages. (make it easier to suspend it in place and make it more easy to see that it is straight). It is better to break away any suspicious bits of the original bolt housing or even drill out the whole a bit because thicker bits of resign are much stronger then a thin layer. "Think Dentristry".

5. Coat the thread of the bolt with vasoliene. just brush lightly with a small paintbrush. If you want to remove the outer plastic mould give the inside of it a brush as well.

6. Once everything is sitting nicely and you are about 80% sure it is waterprof. pour in the resign. You can use fiberglass resign with the catalyst mixed or you can buy one of those dual syringe resign mixes you see in the $1 shops. Mix the resign in a medicine cup)before pouring into the mold. Make sure you have done the vaso brushing of the bolt before pouring the resign in.

7. Pore the resign in and leave to harden. Wear rubber kitchen gloves as any last minute adjustments are much easier done if you do not stick to everything you touch. Be sure to have a bit of plastercine handy to fix the 20% of gaps in your waterproofing you did not expect. Use a small tool (toothpick to poke around in the mould after pouring to remove any bubbles.

-2. You can always wack on a small glob of plasterciene if you detect a leak after pouring in the resign. This is why it is good to have the assembly nicely held in place so no panicky actions do not affect the alignment of the structure.

8. Leave to dry and try and avoid the temptation to give it a wriggle just to check. Keep the medicine cup you used to mix the resign so you can judge the resign cureing. The stuff in the medecine cup will harden faster than other because it is more exposed to the air. If can leave it long enough you should be able to unscrew the bolt. If will give a slight resistance. If you need to remove the outside tube you can slit down the side with a stanley knife and rip it off.

Hope this helps.

I have made a lot of parts using these moulding tecquniques. Youtube has a lot of videos on moulding. There are a few agents that can be used to prevent the resigns from bonding to the captive. Wax - Vasso. Also some more funky things besides resign to use to make moulds. Latex is great expecially when brushed on in several layers. I have made new side mirror handles using latex to make the mould and retain the intricate anti slip dots in the profile while replacing the weak plastic fixing with resign filled steel tube and grubscrew. I used a wax coated carved bit of balsa wood to mimic the 6mm - 7mm tapered spike the handles fixes to. I also found making a small spring compressor to make the mirror movement a little freeer as silicon on the surfaces did not make that much difference.

Once you find the moulding method you are comfortable with you can make lots of the oneoff clips and stuff. I fould a bit of black spray paint in the resign mix does not hurt and saves painting afterwards.

Methods used so far - Clay moulds crack and usually can only be used once. The hot glue method in hot water does not provide the intricate detail and hardens a bit fast if you want to try it. Slip off one of the aluminimup cups of a tealight candle fill it with chopped up bits of hotglue and sit on the oil burner for 15 minutes bit easier than juggleing in in a pot of boiling water and making sure it does not touch anyting. (does not pour well).

Latex wins hands down. Expensive though. If you have to buy a 1l container usually about $30. Find a spare container of the same size and some smaller ones. Line the empty containers with the plastic bags from the groxery store. Pour the latex into the bag lined container and twist and put a rubberband on (Ha Ha what irony) and fill some of the very small containers. It sets when exposed to air so the more air in the container the more that gets wasted and at $30 a litre it is almost as expensive as petrol!