Snapped Door Protector

I was noticing that there was a weird sound as I was closing the right rear door on my bear the other day. Protector looked to be retracting OK but looked like it was just catching between the door and the frame before completing its retraction. Had a fiddle and the protector came off in my hand. On inspection found what looks like black gasket goop has been used to bodgy a repair! The bit that slides onto the door mechanism has a crack down the centre and is missing one of the two teeth at the end. It also looks like someone attempted to weld the crack back together with a soldering iron 🙄

I then remember that I took it to the panel beaters a few months ago to have a ding fixed near the door and that they mentioned they would have to remove the handle to blend the paint. After my initial annoyance from realising what they did I decided it was probably going to be a fight not worth happening and figured I would just order a replacement given they aren't too expensive. Unfortunately it's pretty difficult to source in Australia so instead I managed to repair the broken part despite the previous mangled attempts by the panel beaters. The attachment only has to resist the small amount of spring tension that holds it against the door when activated so doesn't need exotic materials. I rejoined the main crack with superglue and then fashioned the missing tooth by making a mould with some Blu Tac from the protector from the other side. Just make sure you make the mould from the corresponding missing tooth and spray it with some isopropyl alcohol so it doesn't stick to the Blu Tac when you remove it. I then poured some epoxy glue in it and let it set then superglued it back onto the protector. I used superglue as it sets quickly and has decent tensile strength albeit poor sheer strength but shouldn't be an issue for where the forces are at play here.

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