"60's" is a pretty broad range. There are several different doors and mechanisms for 60's models. I can't think of anything that will swap from a 70's door to an early 60's door.

 

ok I should narrow it down a bit the doors im getting are early 60s of arround 64ish i think, the doors I have with bits in are 1972 1200 doors.

 

1964 beetle doors have different size windows, different window mechanisms, different quarterlights, handles etc. I'd imagine a few of the screws and bolts might be interchangeable, but that's your lot.

 

your not wrong there!

Got the pair home and the first thing I noticed was the appeture and the fact it has 1 old manky quarterlight left in which is totally diff to the 70s one.

So really now what I need is pictures of:

- door pull mech
- window winder mech
- door latch/lock mech

so I can Identify them when I seem them on ebay etc as often people just advertise them a beetle lock mechanism, not what year the car it was off is.

Cheers

 

If you're fitting those doors to a late beetle, bear in mind the windows are physically smaller on your new doors... so the window lines won't even line up correctly. The doors have much thicker pillars, and a different overall shape.

You need doors built for '65 onwards cars to have the right window sizes... and '65/'66 doors are significantly harder to buy than the 70s ones...

 

If you're fitting those doors to a late beetle, bear in mind the windows are physically smaller on your new doors... so the window lines won't even line up correctly. The doors have much thicker pillars, and a different overall shape.

You need doors built for '65 onwards cars to have the right window sizes... and '65/'66 doors are significantly harder to buy than the 70s ones...

I noticed that to funnily enough, but how much difference I wasnt quite sure until they were offered up to the car. I looked at 65 cars and the 65 looks more like a 70s sized window appetures?

at this point I can either remodel the door tops or remodel the rear window openings, which at this rate i'll be remodeling the rear window opening too!

as you can tell I'm not affraid of the welding part of it, just trying to get the look right, most people will say its easier to get an early 60s car, the base car is a 72 thats free so cant really hurt to work on that!

 

If you want to do it 'right', you'd need to replace ALL the window apertures on the bodywork - rear window, rear side windows and the windscreen. Depends how far you want to go really... as not one body panel is exactly the same between '72 and (say) '64. Most are interchangeable, but have different pressings.

'65 on is the same window aperture, but then your car would only look like a '65/'66 model however much else you changed.

 

I guess the ultimate goal is to build a 'pre 67' like everyone else does, only do it a bit better! Its easy to change the wings and make it generally look 'pre 67' but theres a fair few real let downs, like I saw a nice car and thought late plate but looks so right till I got round the side and saw 70s door handles and mirrors! The rest looked pretty good!

The only reason I originally chose the idea of a 64 was because it seems to be the first year of the half moon number plate after the popes nose version. Then I got that numberplate light (as the noses seem to be going up in price) and my g/f said she preffered that hence why we said right model year is a 64 on.

I then seem to have opened a can of worms trying to get things for the most part right for a 64.

From what I can tell 64-66 all seem very similar but there seems to be a hell of a lot of year only parts!

I'm guessing it would be much easier if I had a set of 65 doors instead as I'm not sure I have the heart to start cutting these 64s up I have.

 

Good luck finding decent '65/'66 doors.

You'd be better off cutting the mechanisms from a pair of rotten '65/'66 doors into a later, solid door. Decent '65/'66 doors aren't cheap these days - more expensive than the correct doors for a '64.

If you want to make anything look pre '65, you really have to start with a pre '65 car. The parts through those years can be a bit of a minefield.

 

well I seem to be a sucker for punishment :lol:

I'll have to have a think what to do next I guess!