square doorhandles

[pascal knockaert]

Hi, does anyone know how to dismantle the lock and locktumbler of a square doorhandle?
Does anyone have a picture of a correct key for my 56 Porsche?
Thanks for your help!

[Steve Harrison]

If you are starting with a complete door handle you first have to drive out the wedge shaped steel piece. Then the plunger assembly will come out of the handle. Once the plunger assembly is free you get it apart by getting the cast aluminum "cap" off the end. It's the part with the long dingus sticking out of it. This can be tricky. You can sometimes get it off by just prying. You can see that it's held on by being 'staked', peened by the factory with a chisel type tool. Sometimes you have to resort to driving it off with a hammer and a drift of hardwood. If all you want to do is recore/rekey the cylinder you don't have to do this but if you want to rechrome the whole thing you have to. If all you want to do is get the core out you can get it out by unscrewing the teeny tiny set screw in the side of the cylinder. The core will come out then. Are you wanting to rechrome, or just change the tumblers for a rekey?

[Rick Albro]

Steve has some good advice, but I found that prying the end cap off may not be so easy. If you use a piece of 0.080" sheet metal cut into about .025" strip makes a very good drift that you can very carefully push the tangs out of the end cap. Put the Button part into a vise to support the lip of the end cap and use your piece of steel to push the tangs through. A block of wood works well but remember to work both tangs approximately the same so you don't destroy them. If you are going to send these into tony I would not take them apart so you don't lose any pieces. If you are going to take this project on yourself you may run into other challenges... unless you are lucky. Making replacement parts is not trivial. Steve is right what do you want to do rechrome, rekey are are you just curious? The best key chart is on Tony's web site, tony is the best source for the early keys...Other keys can be modified but they are not right.

[Steve Harrison]

Rick knows of what he speaks,... 8)
Check out those pictures closely. That'll tell ya how deep he's into the square door handle situation, haha.

[Brad Ripley]

I detect some stereolithography pieces in there -- maybe some future manufacturing is planned?

[pascal knockaert]

Thanks for the help!