1970-74 Camaro outside door handles.

[john Gialanella]

I know this was discussed last year, but I just want to clear something up. I have had for several years a pair of OER door handles. Members are saying that the reproduction door handles and even the later GM OEM handles do not fit into one of the holes in the door skin. I am sure it is the side that has the larger arm with the spring. I measured the length of the rivet that goes thru the spring and is riveted on one side, it is exactly one inch long. So does that mean that the original bolt or rivet was 15/16 inches long and would fit. If anybody has a used or NOS door handle, could you measure it.
Thanks John.

 

[suds788]

John I measured my original 6" door handles and and the spring side rivet measures aprox 15/16". I did install after markets handles that were shorter and didn't have any problems. I should mention though I have a repop door skin also so I don't know if that made a diff?

 

[john Gialanella]

suds788.
Thanks for responding and measuring the door Rivet. It seems you confirmed that the original door handles were 1/16 of an inch shorter than the repro's and even the later GM door handles that were 6 1/4 inch for the 1970-74 Camaro's.
John.

 

[Knucklehead]

This may be the thread you were referring to. As shown in the pictures in post #20 of that thread, it was not just the rivet (which WAS longer), but also the handle casting itself that was too long/big to match the holes in the OEM doors. I ended up both grinding down the rivet head and also slightly opening up the holes in the doors. https://nastyz28.com/threads/outside-door-handles-too-big.339204/page-2

 

[john Gialanella]

Knucklehead.
Thank you for that extra information. Wow you have to grind down two things to fit. I remember a couple of members said they used reproduction door handles and had no problem either they were lucky or had repro door skins. This was last year. Earlier today I came across a site that reproduces the colored insert for the handle, but the only color was yellow. How many Camaros had yellow exterior color, not many I would guess.
John.

 

[Knucklehead]

I will admit that I agonized for a long time before I committed to opening up the holes in those original, 50-year-old doors. We all complain about the fit of repro parts, but this is not the first time I have encountered genuine GM replacement parts that didn't fit perfectly. I have never seen any authoritative info about what/how many body parts were actually made by GM and what/how many by outside suppliers. It's certainly possible that something made by an outside firm met the GM spec but still didn't fit right.

 

[ronzz572]

Just a FYI on this subject. I actually had to open up my original doors for NOS outside door handles to fit. It seems like whatever we do to restore these cars. Curve balls are thrown at us.

 

[70lt1z28]

Also FWIW, I just installed my original restored handles the other day and while snug, slipped right in the original doors.

 

[john Gialanella]

I guess we have to realize, we do not own BMW's or Mercedes's Benz's. I mentioned yesterday That the Parts place is reproducing the colored inserts (Yellow), but i saw other colors too. So, in case you are restoring your original door handles you can get these inserts.
John.

 

[Knucklehead]

Still, one would think that the distance between two mounting screws would be one of the more important parameters on a specification.