Are you able to reliably lock and unlock your ’67 with the key from the outside? Do you ever feel like you’re going to twist the key off when you use your door locks? If so, your guide pin in your locking mechanism is probably broken.
Fixing them is pretty simple, and worthwhile — the door handles on a ’67 Beetle are one-year-only, and while you find a few on eBay or TheSamba’s classifieds, it’s worth rebuilding yours – it’s only a couple of bucks.
For my first post here at 1967beetle.com, I thought I’d try doing something completely new: a video. Let me know what you think.
1967 Volkswagen Beetle Door Handle Guide Pin Repair from Marius Strom on Vimeo.
WOW !
I’m impressed. Great video.
Thanks, Mike — I was interested to see what the community thought about the video. I should have included in the original blog post that I collected a bunch of info on how to do this from TheSamba, but didn’t find one consistently good set of video/photographic walkthrough.. Hopefully this video will solve that for others.
Great job Marius. We’ll do more of these for sure as time goes on.
Great Video! Just what I needed too because I recently bought my first ’67 Bug a month ago, and can’t lock or unlock my doors from the outside…I’ve resorted to leaving my quarter window open and contorting my arm around just to open her up! I am definitely looking forward to giving this procedure a try!
See Marius, you already have fans! :)
Hey Marius….is it hard to remove the door handles from the door itself? What is the best way to do so? Newbies like me are always worried about those details! Lol.
Hi Mike – Sorry I left that part out of the video – and for whatever reason, the Bentley doesn’t cover the process either. It’s quite simple:
On the back edge of the door (along the B-pillar), you’ll see one large screw off by itself near the striker/latch mechanism. Tucked underneath the door-to-body weatherstrip near there is two screws mounted vertically – dig out the weatherstrip and unscrew those two screws. Tap the handle forward towards the front of the car, and it should pop right out.
If that doesn’t make sense, check out this thread on TheSamba: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=489235
Thanks Marius!!! I bought my 67 about a month ago and I can’t unlock Buddy (my bug) at all. Locks great, but doesn’t push the locker knob up high enough. This is a great fix. Pretty easy job, no special skills or tools needed. Thanks again for the video. -Louie
Hi Louie – You might be able to make do with just flipping the handles from one side to the other, but this is such an easy fix that it would be nearly criminal to not do it at the same time. Glad you enjoyed it, and let us know how it turns out!
Thanks for clarifying and validating that I didn’t ask an ignorant question! :) Your info rocks!!
There are no stupid questions… :)
Seriously, the only reason I knew how to drop the door handles off was because I’d done the same to my Vanagon a while back — and the Vanagon Bentley does talk about how to remove them. Funny to see that the process hasn’t changed in the 20+ years between building the Bug and my Vanagon!
Great job again Marius. If you’ve not read his story, you can here! http://1967beetle.com/marius-strom
Guys, this is fantastic! This site is a huge resource to all us ’67 owners. I’m so glad it exist. I like this better than TheSamba because it’s so focused. TheSamba is full of noise and opinions. Keep it up guys!
this is perfect. Unfortunately I can’t switch my handles around because only the drivers’ side has a key hole! I needed this video
Enjoy!