Yep, my outside door handle on my Gen II Lincoln just broke.

First, let me say this is a HUGE PAIN IN THE A$$ to get out. Honestly, if it wasn't broken in the first place, I don't even know how I would have gotten it out.

I tried to have my fabricator weld it back together - we pretty much knew it wouldn't work, but it can't get any more broke, so it was worth a try. No dice.

I went to Ford and picked up another one for about $40. I have a mobile paint guy coming out to paint it, and hopefully I can get the damn thing back in there. The paint alone is $85, and the poor guy quoted me "$100 or less" - so he's basically losing money on it. However, he said it's "an opportunity to gain a customer" - and I'm probably a good customer considering I'll have him do a bunch of work to the silver car if he does a good job with the Lincoln.

Taking off the door handle on Gen II's is easy - there's only two screws, and basically you just pop the whole thing off and disconnect all the electrical connections.

Stupid door handle. All the wierdest $hit breaks on my car...

Paul.

mine broke on my gen 1, 180.00 bucks to fix it at the dealership. the paint matched perfect too...:D

door handle broke on my genII back in August, still broken :D no money to fix it.

i'll be f*cked when the pass. side breaks then there is no way back into the car

mine broke in the middle of winter and i just opened the door 2 minutes earlier then snap, mine was cheep and the bodyshop had an f-150 the same color getting painted so i got it sprayed for free

Well, at least I know I'm not alone. This thing is a serious pain in my a.s.s.

I should hopefully have it fixed up by Monday though. I let you guys know how the re-assembly goes.

Paul.

Here's how to fix it (http://www.lincolnsonline.com/tech/00148.html)

I replaced my drivers side handle a couple of years ago. I just got a spray can of auto paint that was close to the color of my car (Opal). Of course there isn't a clear coat on the handle, but honestly you can't tell the handle isn't an exact match unless you look at it closely. I don't remember the procedures to replace the handle, but it wasn't easy. If you follow the instructions from Rich's link and decide to do it yourself to save you some money, then you might think about painting it yourself, too.