It is kind of strange that no one has reproduced the brown handles but it
must have something to do with the type of plastic it has to be in order to
be brown.  The black plastic stuff will fade over time, but holds up much
better than the brown.  I am thinking maybe the plastic is based on
something organic that is breaking down in the sun but I am no expert by
far.  So in order to reproduce them in brown you might still need to use
that compound which is either expensive or tricky to work with, or maybe
both?  The crank handles were used on Rabbits, Jettas, etc. of the time
period so I am sure there are lots of folks beside Vanagon owners that
would love to have the crank handles in brown.  When I mentioned it to VW
Classic Parts a few years ago, when they stopped here on their tour of the
US, they looked at me like I was a crazy man.  :-)

There were also red, and blue window crank handles for the Rabbits.  Good
luck finding those out there and those two colors seem to suffer from the
same fade and crumble syndrome as the brown stuff.

Ken

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 11:57 AM, Spencer Allen <spencervw@aol.com> wrote:

> Thanks Ken. I may take you up on a couple of those handles if an OEM
> isn't found. Can't believe how scarce these seem to be.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: kenneth wilford (Van-Again) <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
> To: vanagon <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Mon, Apr 25, 2016 12:25 pm
> Subject: Re: Looking for a brown window crank
>
> Spencer, the brown plastic was garbage that crumbled over time with sun
> exposure and I am pretty sure it will never be made again. However you can
> buy a black window crank (we sell the for $5) then go to Home Depot and buy
> some paint that is for plastic, and paint them any color you want. I
> actually did this for some brown parts that I wanted to be black and it
> worked really well so I am sure that same can be done going from black to
> brown.
>
> Ken
>
> On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 1:21 PM, Spencer Allen <soxndubs1951@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Anyone have a BROWN widow crank they can part with. Mine just split
> apart.
> > pmail if you do. Thanks.
> > Spencer
> > 85 westy
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Thanks,
> Ken Wilford
> John 3:16
> www.vanagain.com
>

--
Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com