Saturday, June 16, 2007

NOS door locks

I've been looking for a pair of NOS door locks for a long time. These lock mechanisms take a lot of abuse over the years, and 45 years on most of them have loosened up too much to function properly. NOS right side locks are fairly easy to find, but the left ones are scarce and can be very expensive when they do turn up. I won an Australian eBay auction for a right side lock recently, and got a surprise when the package arrived:


Sometimes auction errors can work out in the buyer's favor. The Australian part label misidentified this as a right side lock when in fact it's a left one. A happy accident.

I was able to add a right side lock to a large order of NOS parts that Tom McCaughey arranged to have shipped from the Philippines. There was more than one OEM parts supplier for these locks, as is the case with many other VW parts, so my left lock was made by Bomoro (BuM) and the right is a Kiekert. These locks were universal for all Type 3s, including Type 34s, through the 1966 model year.



Also from Tom's Philippine order is this NOS Type 34 right side turn signal base. It has a little shelf wear but will look great installed on the Ghia.


Thanks again to Tom for coordinating the complicated overseas order.

2 comments:

T said...

I'm assuming that the left side door locks are rarer due to driver use/wear and tear—and were thus replaced more frequently.

Is this correct?

Scott said...

I think that's right, and it's also probably why when they do turn up now it's usually in RHD countries.