[1972 Goat herder]

I am restoring a 1972 Trans Am with a Standard interior and have a question on how the Pull Handle insert, affixes to the door panel itself. I am restoring that car as "correct" as I can, so I am sweating these small/stupid details!

I am assuming I use two collared interior screws (like those shown in pictures 5 & 6). Is that correct?

The reason I am confused is because there is nothing other than the two holes in the lower door panel cup (plastic) that would hold the pull handle insert (ie no metal or holes on the inside portion of the door).

Picture 1 - Shows the lower portion of the door panel (arrow points toward the cup that the pull handle insert fits into).
Picture 3 - Shows the pull handle insert sitting alongside the cup that it fits into.
Picture 4 - Shows the pull handle insert sitting inside the cup that it fits into.
Picture 5 - Shows the detail of the collared interior screw and the pull handle insert.
Picture 6 - Shows the collared interior screw placed into the pull handle insert.

Thanks in advance for any help or pictures that you can provide

[dataway]

Someone help this guy

To me it sure seems like the factory would have had a metal backer for those screws to screw into.

[1972 Goat herder]

dataway - I also posted this question in the 70 - 73 Firebird & TA Tech Forum and a few guys were able to steer me in the right direction.

The short of it, is that there is a metal bracket that screws to the door frame, giving the door panel "a little" more rigidity when closing the door on a car with a Standard interior (ie: no pull strap, like a Deluxe interior car).