Shaving Door Handles

I haven't settled on how to deal with the 55 F100 regarding the door handles/latches.

I'd like to shave the handles, but don't want to rely on "electronics" to open the doors.

Can some of you that have dealt with his "Mod" give me some ideas and insight?[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]
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I've heard of Hairy Glass but not hairy door handles. You could weld the doors shut, use a remote to lower the window and enter the car General Lee style. OK, maybe not.

Most I've seen use big 'ol solenoids. Based on my luck with cars, I would not trust that either! You can find them in Street Rodder. Alternately, what about one of those cars (can't thing of the model) that uses a handle in the trailing edge of the doors, flush with the surface. With care, you could reduce the handle gap to make it practically disappear.
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Believe it or not,my friend used Honda Accord handles on his 55 Ford.The radius is almost the same.They look real clean,all sunk in and all.[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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On 2004-02-25 00:54, RumpityRump wrote:
Believe it or not,my friend used Honda Accord handles on his 55 Ford.The radius is almost the same.They look real clean,all sunk in and all.[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

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Yea Larry do that! Then you'd have "detroit iron" on all of your vehicles! And you know me and darrell would be the last to tease you! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Jeff Given
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I was gonna say the same thing on the Honda handles. A guy here does them. I'm thinking about doing suicide doors on the '65... I had solenoids on my '52 Chevy &amp; they sure didn't last long but that was in the 70's.
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A buddy of mine has solenoids on his 41 Willys and the car looks great and he's only had an "issue" with them once. That ended up being a wiring problem, but he doesn't close the driver's side window (also power) anymore at shows.

There's got to be a way to rig it for an emergency besides tying a brick to the underside of the body for such an occasion[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_spin.gif[/img]

I like the pushbuttons I've seen a few trucks use, but the Honda handle idea or the old Beretta coupe handles in the door edges would be cool.

I love giving someone else a lot of work to do[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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Does anyone have experience with maybe actuating the door latch with the "Key"? or any variation on that.

I like the idea of the "flusher fitting" handles as well ... that thought had crossed my mind, but I haven't looked into it closely. I'll do some looking at the JunkYard to see what is available on that front.
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Wish my memory was better but I had a tour of a guy's creations in MD a few years ago and he had his doors rigged with a catch of some kind under the door. I just remember him saying to open them you had to stick your fingers in the gap there and pull a lever he had made up. Used something off the wall for the springs etc that weren't even from a car. You could probably figure something out like that. A door release at the bottom of the door and a spring setup at the hinge area to pop the door open a bit to enable you to get hold of it.

Deb

Most of the kits I've seen use an emergency button hidden on the car for a back up. That doesn't do any good if the car is totally dead or a wire gets busted off. One way would be to make sure the lever in the door is accessible with "slim Jim" type device. You could design it while your in the door doing the work so you know exactly the procedure when (if) you need it. As for a remote button I've seen cars that used a magnet actuated reed switch to add better security than a regular push button. Stu

There's a '56 Crew Cab F-350 custom running around these parts with '91 Buick Regal door handles on it. Slick, and it really cleans up the look of the door.

BTW, the guy took 2 '56 pickups, chopped the cab on both of 'em, grafted one part of one cab behind the other to make a 4-door '56. Then they set it all up to hang on a '00 F-350 PowerStroke diesel chassis (single rear wheel) and late-model interior, dash, etc for a really cool ride. I just wish I had half of the time/talent that it took to do that.