Exterior Door Handles 1967

[ronfay]

I have a 1967 Beetle that is in pretty good (daily driver) shape. However, I have an exterior driver's door handle (only one that has an external keyhole) that is difficult to unlock. A PO obviously had some difficulties as well, as it appears that someone tried to force the lock with a screwdriver or similar once, leaving the keyhole distorted.

Knowing from here how rare 67 door handles are, I'm considering rebuilding the door latch, if such a thing is possible. Question for here is: while the door latches changed over the years, is the interior workings the same for some years in common with 1967? I was thinking of buying a more common door handle and then using its mechanism to rebuild my 1967 door handle.

[61SNRF]

67 door handles are not rare, and only a small percentage of people who own 67's would be looking for them.
You can often find matched pairs here in the classifieds and they're at nearly every swap meet I've ever been too. Not perfect but they are out there.

They are unique and a big part of what makes your car unique, and nothing out there to make them any better.
You can buy new latches that can be modified to work in your doors with these handles.

If only your button(s) are damaged, pick up a distressed pair with good keys and buttons and rebuild your handles.
If you're real handy you might even be able to re-key them all to match, otherwise there are Samba vendors who can do that for you.
_________________
-Bruce

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[ronfay]

Great, thank you for the response.

So, question answered: guts aren't the same, so a re-build of my handle will require another 1967 handle. Now I know what I need to do.

Thanks again.

[jimdubs]

ronfay,

Taking the lock mechanism apart is not difficult. Just be aware that not all 67 handles are the same, they changed the internals slightly at some point, they look identical from the outside but the guts are not directly interchangeable.

I just went through this on mine, you can make it work but you have to disassemble both handles and piecemeal them back together.

[61SNRF]

jimdubs, may you have mistaken late '66 door handles with push buttons as 67's?
Late 66 look the same from the outside, but were made by Huf with totally different molds and mechanisms. 66 also has the single profile key sets like SC, SV, or SU.

Pic is from Bruce's Gallery. Third from left is '66 Huf where the lock paddles face backwards, and fourth from left is '67 AKS where it faces forward.

As far as I know, all 67 door handles that were made by AKS are mechanically identical with interchangeable parts. They will have dual profile keys and a code beginning with a capital K.
_________________
-Bruce

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[jimdubs]

I'm pretty sure these are 67s, at least by the standard that you are providing.

They have forward facing fingers, K code, but the "pedestal" that holds the button in is shaped differently at the base and is not interchangeable between handles.

[61SNRF]

jimdubs, can you post some pictures? They would be interesting to see and serve as a good reference for this topic.

VW did have orders for about 2 million door handles in 67, so no doubt there are multiple variations and more than one supplier/vendor.

Tried a search of the classifieds for 67 Door handles and found them readily available from salvageable parts candidates to a fully matched set "turn key" ( ).
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/search.php...or+handles

One oddball stands out from that crop of pictured ads, the plain cast one without stainless steel covering. Never seen a 67 w/o stainless wrapped handles.
Ad may not last long, but was not able to copy the pic...
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1910850#
_________________
-Bruce

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[jimdubs]

Note the narrower base where the screw goes through on the left handle, as well as the different shape near the finger.

In this pic you can see the different shape of the button unit (square eared vs round)

The pedestals and buttons must stay matched (i.e. the narrow base pedestal will not work with the round top button and vice versa)

[61SNRF]

Great pictures.

We can just make out the AKS logo on the left handle, which is what I've seen the most of.

If you clean up the handle to the right you can probably find the maker's logo on it too.
I'll hazard a guess and say it's a Huf?

For sure if a person were to piece together one handle from two they will want to find two handles from the same maker to help ensure interchangability of parts.
_________________
-Bruce

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[jimdubs]