HI All, took off the door handles last night to see whats involved with putting in a door popper kit. does anyone have any experience with the ford doors and their mechanism? I looked at a post where a guy cut off stuff and welded stuff back on.. looked like a pain and a lot of work. is there a kit out there that will work for a 54 ford? what about new mechanisms? any out there?
Stunned, Its all a Lot of Work & Some Welding/Bodywork is Required ! I Used the Spal Remote Door Kit. It Has Everything You Need. You will Need to Remove your Latches & Remove the Locking Mechanism so they don't lock. I also Made My Actuator Lever longer for more leverage. (Close to Solenoid Stroke) Jim
Be sure to add a manual way to open the door. What if battery goes dead or you lose a power connection. I did my OT handle removal and attached the latch to the key lock. Put key in, turn, door pops.
I really dig the Lincoln door ****on or the Kendig s**** looking handles. Shaved handles look clean, but they just scream "mini truck" to me. I used to like them a lot though, weird how our tastes develop/change over the years.
edsel58a: question on the manual override for the doors? How did you hook that up? Also, did you leave the key lock and use that to open the door? I am not familiar with either of these changes. Please explain a bit more. This is new ground for me, although I have done the electric trunk but that won't work in my wagon.
I'd be afraid of getting locked out of my car. All it would have to do is happen once. So I get to admire it on the cars of others.
On my Ranchero, I left the key lock in the door and connected the rod from the key lock to the latch. For an over ride, a choke cable (or hood cable) to the latch, thru the door jamb, hidden in the fender well or under the hood. Be like releasing the hood.
a friend of mine put his release under the hood. it is tucked in tight along the fender well. Pretty slick and hidden (people know to check along the rockers and fenders of shaved cars for a release)
Good Morning All, Got the handles and the lock mechanisms off last night. had to take the handle and arm mechanism off to get to the screw that runs in the top inside of the door for the handle. I noticed that the pin that holds the long arm moves sideways to actuate the wheel for opening the door. couldn't you run the cable around that and mount your actuator? you could run another cable through that as well for a manual release?
I don't have pics of the actual mechanism, by I shaved the handles on my old '54 Mainline about 13 years ago. I left the lock cylinder in place and modified it so it could be locked with the key, and when unlocked with the key, a tab on the lock lever hit a micro switch wired to a relay, wired to a cheap speedway motors actuator that would open the door latch. I cut down a valve spring and used it as a door popper. I only did this on the drivers side, but I left the original lock cylinder on the p*** side. Got tired of worrying about leaving my vent window unlocked to get in, and didn't have the budget for a fancy setup. Worked great. This is my old Mainline, pic taken in 2003.
I really like these ****ons but after seeing the price of them, all I could think was 'HOLY SMOKES, I'M IN THE WRONG BUSINESS!'
I bought mine off that auction site and saved a little. However, they still weren't cheap. My 55 is going to be a mild custom and the road to customville hasn't been cheap.
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