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?

[Tom_T]

No factory black door handles. All were chrome. AFAIK Porsche still has the OEM originals to sell.

You have either aftermarket if actually proven to be produced in black, or painted over the chrome - which chrome may or may not have been stripped.

IIRC the aftermarket chrome handles/locksets are a different diameter than the OEM ones. So your black ones are probably repainted black, or else aftermarket black.

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Tom
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[mepstein]

Your argument doesn't make sense. The black handle and lock core is sized differently from oem or replacement parts so it must be original?

More likely a cheap reproduction since chrome is expensive.

[SirAndy]

No factory black door handles.

This car is supposedly all factory, including the blacked out windshield trim and blacked out door handles.
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[mepstein]

Factory with early painted bumpers and early rear valance but later wheels and side mirror? Plus a hood emblem that wasn't on production cars.

Also looks like early passenger seat but later mirror.

And painted foglight grills & rear sail trim?

[JeffBowlsby]

That is purportedly 4702900001.

Its an oddity as mepstein described and also has the pressed sport wheels produced beginning in 1974.

Id say that its been customized somewhere along the line.

[wonkipop]

That is purportedly 4702900001.

Its an oddity as mepstein described and also has the pressed sport wheels produced beginning in 1974.

Id say that its been customized somewhere along the line.

think you would be right mr. bowlsby.
VW's idea of a restoration a few decades back?
creative updating done.

there are older photos of what i am sure is the same car held in VW collection.
i'm guessing it led a hard life early on as one of the test cars - so it might have been looking a bit worn sitting in the museum. or perhaps it got damaged and required restoration - and some liberties were taken.

wonder if its the same car that appears in test track footage running with other VWs. ] was also a red car with painted bumpers.
(maybe there was a batch of test cars and all the same).

in older photos the trim is chrome and the wheels are earlier vw standard wheels.
no hood badge either. in old photo it appears as if rear targa bar trim is red body color, as per photos above of its updated condition. also the body color painted headlight moulds are interesting.

oddly the test track photo is dated 1973 but i think that must be an error.
the footage i have seen relating to the b/w photo shows 411s not 412s on track and the photo has a 914 with a K70 which was introduced in 1970. i think the photo must date from early 1969 when both cars would have been in testing.

[wonkipop]

strangely porsche appear to hold an unmolested 74 1.8 in their collection.
looks like it came straight off the production line.
(makes you wonder if they have any more from other years like that you never see).
a mate shot these images in mid noughties.
no surprises with black trim.

[wonkipop]

the red VW museum car seems to maybe be in a fluid state of trim over recent images.

was on display at 50th in porsche museum.
trim around windscreen and door handles def. chrome.



back in 2014/15 it looks like it might have been black, but could also just be lighting,
black surfaced ceiling making reflections in chrome look black.
door handles look like they are chrome.

if the photos are to be trusted, its been chrome, then black, then chrome again.
or its just always been chrome and some of the images make it look black.

[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.

[JeffBowlsby]

These changes over time could have just been design department styling exercises.

"Gee how do the new steel wheels look like and fit the 914? How does body color trim look...and lets try blacking out the trim."

That would explain why the changes are not original to the chassis, but reflective of the design process as the model years developed.

[wonkipop]

a good explanation mr bowlsby.

the red car belongs to VW.
(though these days thats a bit academic - VW group owns porsche et al).

would make sense VW styling dept. wanted to see what the steel sport wheels would look like in 73 and mounted them on.

VW trying out black out trim is not long after 73/74 either.
beetles went into black out trim very late in german production - last ditch cost saving measure.
there was a very late beetle, might have one of the last ones off the german production line that used to be in melbourne in a collection in the mid 80s. i got to look very closely over it when i was younger. best i can remember is it was orange. external chrome trim was black. no hubcabs, plastic press on dress up bolt covers. it did not have sport wheels, they were a more regular type of VW wheel. one sun visor. etc

some more photos of orange #1 car.
on 4legends website and not possible to blow up well and look into.
there are some anomalies that are odd.

far as i can see dashboard has no centre vent?
windscreen cowl panels don't seem to have plastic panel seam joiners.
seam is there, but it looks like an expressed groove.
its had a recent going over, the exhaust is mint paint.

[wonkipop]

last emden beetle.
end of german production 1978.
base model strip out job.
pretty much what i saw.
even harsher than i remember. no glove box lid.


don't mind the aesthetic.
esp. seat fabric. they even dropped their "safety" merc style steering wheel.

easy to see direction they were going in with base model product.
probably a lot of angst about which bits to de-chrome on their product range from 73 on.
rising DM value.
the red 914 probably went in front of marketing committees etc - prepped by the styling dept.
likely did get its chrome blacked out, would have been a hobby paint job mockup - nothing production line.

i like how the door handles stay chrome.
reminds me of what an old builder said to me once,
you can rip the guts out of a house to make it cheap, but whatever you do,
make sure the front door still makes a good impression.

[wonkipop]

slightly off the side of the topic.
found info plaque photo i had for silver car.
former owner explains condition.
one of the men behind the boxster.
friend who went there 15 years ago knew i had a 1.8 so took many photos of this car.
i guess this one has twin carbs and a bit more poke than my L jet.

[bbrock]

strangely porsche appear to hold an unmolested 74 1.8 in their collection.
looks like it came straight off the production line.
(makes you wonder if they have any more from other years like that you never see).
a mate shot these images in mid noughties.
no surprises with black trim.

This is very close to the trim my car came with. Mine is a 73 2.0 that came with the "sport package" that included Fuchs 4-spoke wheels, front and rear sway bars, and center console; but black bumpers, black targa trim, no fog lights and no sail vinyl. Note that the door handles, windshield and window trim are still bright. My understanding is the sport package was offered after they dropped the appearance group from the base price sometime mid-73 model year and it does not appear to be common.

[wonkipop]

i found this image in my file of stuff i collected over the years.
can't remember source, too long ago.
never bothered to look at it closely before.
assumed it was another shot of red 4 above.

took a second look and thought again - a shot of piech 8 in first form? - a very early prototype test car.

looked again, its not piech 8 unless it was heavily modded again after this.
running 4 bolt vw wheels and has flattened front wheel arches.
but it does seem to have wide twin headlight pop up panels.
bumper has no grilles.

[wonkipop]

strangely porsche appear to hold an unmolested 74 1.8 in their collection.
looks like it came straight off the production line.
(makes you wonder if they have any more from other years like that you never see).
a mate shot these images in mid noughties.
no surprises with black trim.

This is very close to the trim my car came with. Mine is a 73 2.0 that came with the "sport package" that included Fuchs 4-spoke wheels, front and rear sway bars, and center console; but black bumpers, black targa trim, no fog lights and no sail vinyl. Note that the door handles, windshield and window trim are still bright. My understanding is the sport package was offered after they dropped the appearance group from the base price sometime mid-73 model year and it does not appear to be common.

and they seemed to do the opposite in 74, with 1.8s for USA market.
every 1.8 i ever looked at when i was buying 30+ years ago had both an appearance group and a sport package (ie sway bars). i never once came across a 1.8 like the silver one in the collection. i recall reading something suggesting you had to do a personal order to get a de-speced base price car, but anything in stock on the lots came with the lot?

[SirAndy]

i found this image in my file of stuff i collected over the years.
can't remember source, too long ago.
never bothered to look at it closely before.
assumed it was another shot of red 4 above.

took a second look and thought again - a shot of piech 8 in first form? - a very early prototype test car.

looked again, its not piech 8 unless it was heavily modded again after this.
running 4 bolt vw wheels and has flattened front wheel arches.
but it does seem to have wide twin headlight pop up panels.
bumper has no grilles.

Yes, that is 914.111 before it got the 908 treatment.
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[SirAndy]

windscreen cowl panels don't seem to have plastic panel seam joiners.

Early production fenders had a slightly different shape, especially around the seam area and as far as i can tell no seal.
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[wonkipop]

i found this image in my file of stuff i collected over the years.
can't remember source, too long ago.
never bothered to look at it closely before.
assumed it was another shot of red 4 above.

took a second look and thought again - a shot of piech 8 in first form? - a very early prototype test car.

looked again, its not piech 8 unless it was heavily modded again after this.
running 4 bolt vw wheels and has flattened front wheel arches.
but it does seem to have wide twin headlight pop up panels.
bumper has no grilles.

Yes, that is 914.111 before it got the 908 treatment.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

found this story sir andy, you probably already read it.
mechanic who built 914.111 is still alive.

says he also built (handbuilt?) the first two 914/4 prototypes.

https://www.porscheclubnews.com/prod/clubs/...4_914clausecker