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Sun Jun 15, 2025 8:47 am

After spending tons of $ and time looking for NOS rear seat handles that fall apart and a couple of repros. I just decided to put back what Mr Goodman the original owner had in place since back in the 60’s.

Broken NOS handle

Very well made

Looks good!

Sun Jun 15, 2025 9:36 am

Did the repros break too?

The good used one on my '63 is intact but I don't pull on it with any force

Sun Jun 15, 2025 9:42 am

They call me kitty soft paws. I don’t break anything. They all literally fell apart, the remaining pieces stuck on the seat back, broke into two when I unscrewed them. My garage is not that hot, most of all the rubber or plastic /vinyl components are still plyable.

Sun Jun 15, 2025 4:13 pm

ALLWAGONS wrote: They call me kitty soft paws. I don’t break anything. They all literally fell apart, the remaining pieces stuck on the seat back, broke into two when I unscrewed them. My garage is not that hot, most of all the rubber or plastic /vinyl components are still plyable.

Yup, I used an old original one until it broke, then I used a section of a seat belt back there. It stayed in place and was useful until I sold the car. As far as I know it's still on there doing it's job.

Sun Jun 15, 2025 6:28 pm

ALLWAGONS wrote: After spending tons of $ and time looking for NOS rear seat handles that fall apart and a couple of repros. I just decided to put back what Mr Goodman the original owner had in place since back in the 60’s.

Similarly, I used a section of a tie-down strap.
It's held up since about 2007, and I don't anticipate it'll break anytime soon.

Mon Jun 16, 2025 4:55 pm

BSQUARE wrote: ALLWAGONS wrote: After spending tons of $ and time looking for NOS rear seat handles that fall apart and a couple of repros. I just decided to put back what Mr Goodman the original owner had in place since back in the 60’s.

Similarly, I used a section of a tie-down strap.
It's held up since about 2007, and I don't anticipate it'll break anytime soon.

Very nice!

Tue Jun 17, 2025 10:17 am

I think I've snapped 3 or 4 NOS handles now. I stupidly yanked on the one I installed in my '63 Squareback a few weeks ago and there it went. The repro handles we made are better, I just haven't installed one yet.

The NOS handles we had are all gone and I would recommend they stay in your parts cabinet for display purposes only...

Tue Jun 17, 2025 12:50 pm

squaretobehip wrote: I think I've snapped 3 or 4 NOS handles now. I stupidly yanked on the one I installed in my '63 Squareback a few weeks ago and there it went. The repro handles we made are better, I just haven't installed one yet.

The NOS handles we had are all gone and I would recommend they stay in your parts cabinet for display purposes only...

Yeah, I don't know what kind of rubber they were originally made of, but it's not very durable with some age on them. By now they're display only things.
I just checked out the seat belt I put on my old Square back in 1998, and it's still fine and working good.

Tue Jun 17, 2025 1:04 pm

Bobnotch wrote: Yeah, I don't know what kind of rubber they were originally made of, but it's not very durable with some age on them. By now they're display only things.

I think it's a combo of poor design, petrified rubber, and heavy seat backs that are awkward to lift in the down position. We did a lot of testing on the new handles, but I still recommend grabbing the seat back by the corner versus relying solely on the rubber handle.

We used to have boxes, and boxes of NOS handles. I have a picture somewhere of all of the boxes with 20 or so in each box. I thought they would be a lifetime supply 10 years ago...

Sat Jun 28, 2025 7:22 pm

Here's a photo of a bunch of the rear seat grab handle boxes.

Fri Jul 11, 2025 1:46 am

Hi there if your stuck i cut the shape of the handle out of some thickish leather and dyied it black and had a small velcro tab to keep it down looked the part until i located a good one a few years later

Fri Jul 11, 2025 5:18 pm

3type3 wrote: Hi there if your stuck i cut the shape of the handle out of some thickish leather and dyied it black and had a small velcro tab to keep it down looked the part until i located a good one a few years later

If the reply was for me, allwagons? Thank You. I will keep it in mind. For now, I will continue to use the canvas handle the original owner used.

Martin
Allwagons

Thu Jul 24, 2025 10:41 am

I ended up using one of those guitar case type handles. The ones that sit flat but can slide slightly outward. I believe Josh suggested it to me. Put it on Amazon, it works a treat.

Thu Jul 24, 2025 1:26 pm

Mr. Norman! How are you doing Sir?

Glad to hear from you! How's the squareback?

Serrano

Sat Jul 26, 2025 9:09 am

Hey Martin. Good to hear from you. Yeah I've been pretty quiet on here. I've done a few things with the squareback over the past couple of years, but I keep having transmission problems, The latest being that I installed yet another transmission, but had problems with clunking noises in third and fourth... I should update my thread, I suppose. I also bought an old 911, so a lot of my money has been tied up in collecting parts for that.