I attended a Metalshaping Meet in Ballarat over the weekend. Adam from Classic Auto Metal in Launceston gave a demonstration on how to repair pot metal parts. He started with two broken VW door handles. He melted down one to make a filler rod and then used this to gas weld the other handle together. The final part just needs tidying up with a die grinder. The repaired part seemed to have good strength.
There is a bit more detail & photos at the link below. I'm not sure if the photos will show up without logging in to the forum:
http://www.allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?p=104011#post104011