A customer went to release the trunk lever in his Dino and the lever snapped off in his hand. It looks like the plastic plate holding the levers was not doing too well either, but luckily replacement parts are available.

The customer ordered the parts from one of the usual suspects that supply Dino parts, and the lever was a nice reproduction. The backing plate was made from machined aluminum and looked to be black anodized instead of the original plastic that gets brittle and fragile through the years.

They also sell new cables, but installing them would have involved removing the fuel tank. Luckily, the cables on this car were in great shape, so I was going to try an easier method to replace this panel.

At first glance it seemed like a nice piece, but if I were to be critical, the machining marks could be seen through the anodizing and in the right light is very obvious. If I were building a show car, I would actually consider sending this part out for powder coating for a smoother finish, but realized the extra paint may affect the clearance of the levers in the slots. It’s a shame so much time and money was spent reverse engineering this part from scanning, digitizing, machining, anodizing, only to come up short with the final look of the part. If I had the digital file, I would widen the slots a few thousandths and powder coat the part instead of anodize, but what do I know?!

After the owner got the new parts delivered, he realized the replacement was not so simple and sent the car to me! The plastic panel was secured to the rear panel with two screws, but there was not enough slack in the cable to pull the lever assembly away from the rear panel to access the cable attachments. The fuel tank obstructs access to the rear of this panel, so there had to be another way!

The braided cable that attaches to the various lids and levers ran through tubes that were welded to the undersides of the fenders, so I disconnected the cables that pulled on the trunk, the engine lid, and gas cap at their respective latches. I was careful not pull the cables out too far into the tubes as getting them to push back out might be problematic. The last thing I wanted to do was to have to pull the gas tank for access to the cables!

With the engine lid cables, it was easier to disconnect the whole latch assembly to give a few inches of slack instead of disconnecting the cable.

The cables are attached to the back of the levers with pins and tiny e-clips. I left the cables hanging and disassembled the rest of the lever assembly out of the car.

The pivot rod has to be punched out being careful not to lose the tension springs on each lever as they clear the pivot rod.

Installation was the reverse of removal!