O.K. so now that the boxster is gone and i am using the 914 regularly, i need to be able to lock the doors.
- when i first got the car and had the door panels apart, i lubed the mechanisms, and replaced the handles with used ones from somewhere else, put in my lock cylinders, but the driver's side lock cylinder was damaged by the p.o. who used too long of a screw to hold the handle in place and it went into the cylinder.
handles are not very nice and have considered getting brand new but are very expensive from what i can see.

- ideas on new, used refinished etc. i could just put new re-keyed locks, or get a new key with new lock cylinders that match but would be different than my ignition.

- maybe someone here has some nice ones laying around?

get some used handles, lube them well, switch your lock cylinder into the new ones or just rekey the new ones using the wafers from your old lock cylinder. Once you have the lock core apart, you'll see how easy it is to manipulate - even I can do it.

You need to strip the old lube from the door mechanism and apply new.
I took mine out and cleaned them in an ultrasonic cleaner

Just covering 40 yr old gunk with new gunk doesnt work well.

You can get in touch with ury914 here on this forum... He repairs doorhandles and does an excellent job.

On the driver's side i know that i need a new lock cylinder for sure.
On the passenger's side it may still be an issue with the assembly. I got a cleaned up assembly from Chris(SUNAB914) right after i bought the car 4 years ago, and installed that before putting thenew door panels in, but it may be they need better lube or alignment. I can lock, unlock from the inside, but the key on the outside will lock it but not unlock it.

Additional information-
Drivers side door can be locked from the inside and unlocked only if I pull the handle to open the door. It will not open from the outside apparently the small tab that unlocks the door does not fully unlock itunless that inside handle is pulled too. So iI guess this is a different issue than my cylinder that needs replaced as well

Now the passenger side

I can lock it from inside and outside.
-if locked from inside the key will not unlock the door.
- if I lock the door with the key it can unlock the door, just not if its been locked from the inside. Both doors close and open good, smooth etch no issue

Sounds like they just need cleaned and gone through...send them to Ury or tweet to have them redone.

I plan on sending all my locks to tweet to have him redo them and have a key that's not worn down so much it looks like a toothpick

be carefull when you clean the door lock mech. I did too good of a job and the spray lube didn't work that well and I had trouble getting the door to open.
I ended up removing them and soaking them in a pan of PB blaster for several hours.
locks never worked better, can lock and unlock both doors with the key and both handles open the door super easy.

Thanks!

Send them to me when you break off the mounting tab.
I didn't say "if" I said "when".