OEM Black Door Handles Options

[pfreiburger]

I am now quite certain that the factory did install some black door handles. I came to this determination in a roundabout (and expensive) way, starting when my inner hammer mechanic escaped and broke the driver door handle.

As no black ones exist, I picked up a new chrome (Sierra Madre) handle and was surprised to find that my old lock cylinder (after removing the black paint) would not fit the chrome handle. The length was fine, but it fit so tight it could not be turned. At all. Measuring the ID of the handle bores confirmed that the black handle was larger, even with paint on it. The used chrome-handle lock cylinder I bought on line later fit and turned in the new chrome handle just fine. And that used chrome handle cylinder definitely had more clearance when inserted in the old black handle. Measuring the cap ends of the lock cylinder confirmed it – the cylinder from the black handle was larger in diameter.

Dissimilar sized handle components are almost certainly no customizer job, and damn sure no hot rod job. The only conclusion I can draw is that Porsche had a supplier make a run of black handles, and for whatever reason some components were made a little different. This fits with what I found when I scraped some black paint from the broken handle: no evidence of chrome ever being applied to the casting. Lastly, there are factory pictures (albeit poor ones) of black A pillar cars that look like they have black handles also.

Am I missing another explanation?

[wonkipop]

the red (said to be #1 car) reminds me of the holden torana gtr-x show car that GMH produced here in 1969. i saw it as a child when it was still in its original white with 70s go fast graphics. years later when i saw it again it was silver with updated alloys.
you kind of forget that in the 80s the 70s looked very dated to big hair mullet haircut eyes. things 70s had to be given a bit of an adjustment.

because the car on public display was silver it led to all sorts of speculations that it was a second car, the original one had been destroyed or lost and .......there were records that said two existed.

the truth was a bit more ordinary. there were two cars. one got thrashed into the ground for testing and then crashed flat out into a concrete barrier for a final sacrifice in a prelim collision test. and the white 70s survivor got tarted up in 80s silver.

earlier this century GMH took back the silver car on loan to a museum and restored it to its original 1970s state.

i suspect that little red #1 car went through a similar kind of taste update in the 80s sometime when the 70s looked "over" and out of date.

the track record seems to point to some pretty loose treatment by car companies of their own exhibit pieces.

if i remember right, porsche themselves faked up their le mans winning 917 for years by repainting another car.