Technical Lincoln Door Button- Install How To!

I thought I would start this thread to share how I installed a pair of reproduction 46-48 Lincoln door buttons and made them work with bear claw door latches on my car. These are manufactured and sold by Logic Industries-an Alliance vendor right here on the HAMB.
If you havent seen these door buttons or cant remember what Lincoln door buttons look like,here are a couple pics from their website

 

I am waiting.

 

I had already shaved my door handles when I originally built the car-I was not a fan of electric doors and wanted something mechanical. When these parts arrive-I tell ya-they are like jewlery.
The trick is to get the in-out motion of the button to work with the up-down action required to operate the latch.
I originally thought I could make these work-The problem was-they take up too much room in the door

 

Ford doors are thin-so not a lot of room to work with,and the nice fancy aluminum pieces didnt have enough room to work-time for plan B.
B stands for 'Bicycle parts'

 

I used the small cables and hardware you can get at any bicycle shop-or steal them off those old bikes you have in your back shed.
I needed a way of controlling the cable-my buddy and I went through a couple proto types and came up with this:

 

The button fits through the bracket and the big nut that is supplied keeps everything nice and snug

 

Thanks for this I am about to tackle this exact same issue with the Logic buttons and this will save me a ton of time!

 

The cable will run from the inside of the door skin-down under the glass and back up to the latch-You have to have a way to hold the control cable housing-One end is held at the button bracket/actuator inside the skin.The other end is attached to length of 1/8" strap with a 90 degree bend . I rosette welded the strap/bracket on the inside of the door below the latch- the length really isnt that important-I made mine a little longer-just to add a little rigidity-

 

Ok-We have everything we need to put this together-time to make things pretty-We dont want things getting all rusty inside the door-so a little paint to clean the parts up a bit

 

The cable is inserted starting at the button end-The 'L' shaped lever gets pushed in when you push on the button from the outside. That causes the bottom of the 'L' to lift up-and pulls the cable

 

Now comes the most important part-cutting the hole in your door!
I can tell you how many times I measured-but it was alot. You have to make sure you have the hole where the button and actuator wont interfer with anything inside the door. The buttons come with gaskets to seal out water-But You also need to make sure everything is sitting flush with the door skin-
On the inside of my door there is a brace on the outer skin that runs behind the glass channel-I trimmed the button bracket back alittle on one side so it would sit flat against the door skin and not interfere with tis internal support.
(This should go without saying)Before you cut the hole-drill a small pilot hole first-maybe 1/8th inch-hold the bracket inside the door and make sure the pilot hole is in the middle of where the bracket is going to be located.
I used a regular drill bit for the pilot and a step drill to cut the hole-which is 1-1/4 inch diameter
Take your time and hang onto that drill tight!

 

Now we can put it all together-The door button is stainless steel-The hole is tight enough that you have to thread it through-make sure you thread through the bracket at the same time. You can see how close everything is to the glass-dont worry-you have enough room. I put the thick rubber gasket that is supplied between the bracket and the door skin-when you tighten things up-it will seal everything up. We also dont want to have to take the door apart to re-tighten this assembly-so I put a little puddle of red Loctite in the threads-make sure you have your cable run through the 'L' bracket BEFORE you tighten this big nut!down

 

This is what it looks like on the inside when you are done-The cable runs from the bracket below the glass and back up to the latch. The bear claw had a lever on it already with a hole drilled in it-I used a bicycle cable bolt and nut-with the hole drilled through it. Run the cable through the hole-pull it tight with pliers and tighten down the nut to keep the cable tight. You do need a return spring to put tension on the bear claw-that pulls the cable taught when the outside button is released-

 

Outside is clean and functional-
The assembly has some weight to it when installed and the buttons have a nice 'feel' to them

 

Nicely done and well explained. Thank you.

 

Nice job. I've been stewing about this one for a while. Thanks.

 

Way to go, making me consider changing my plans again. Love those Lincoln buttons. Great ideas here and well presented. Out of curiosity, did you use the stock inside handle actuator and if so, how did you transition from the flat actuator bar outside the inner door panel to the thin rod on the inner side?

 

I use a Volkswagen door handle on the inside-they are relatively thin and surface mount on the inside door skin- I just made a rod out of a coat hanger to connect the inside handle to the bear claw latch. If I was re- doing that part -I would likely use another cable setup


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Very nice. Did you need to calculate the ratio of the levers, or just get lucky?

 

I didnt actually calculate the ratio-but it is about 2:1- The horizontal part of the lever-where the cable is inserted has to be short enough that it doesnt interfere with the 'plunger' as it moves inward. The pic in post#5 gives you an idea of the 'ratio'.
What I did do was a couple 'dry runs' where I mocked up the assembly and just held it in my hand-connected the cable and tested it to make sure it would work. I did all the R&D work before I cut a hole or welded anything.

 

Ah, see that's where you and I differ

Nice work, thanks for posting it. I've been waffling about buying some of these for my '41, you might have convinced me.

 

Great tech, you made it look simple. Thanks!

 

1. what if the cable breaks? and both doors are locked?
2. does the door 'pop" open enough to get your hand inside to pull it open
3. great description and pics, the flat handle site left a whole bunch out on their installation.

 

Thats a great question Rick.
There isnt any residual 'tension' on the cable.
The bear claw only requires about 3/16th inch of travel to release.
The cables I used are stainless bicycle cables that are put under more stress actuating a brake caliper than what they are subjected to in this application.
By running the cable through a sleeve it is protected from chafing
I think it is highly unlikely that if I did break a cable-that both would fail at the same time-so I shouldnt get locked out.
I find when I pop the right door-I use my left thumb-(left door-right thumb)that puts your fingers over the edge of the door and it opens enough to get your fingers behind it. If the door was sticky-you could install a spring loaded door popper in the jamb to help the door open.

 

That 'clothes hanger link' that you resented using could be superseded with a Control Line model airplane link. (carbon fiber shaft with heavy ball links on the ends, adjustable length)
Fortunately for us, there is a limited amount of U.S. mfd. 'special interest' hardware still available!

 

great setup! i reworked a set of electric doors on my cousins 50 chevy and the bike cable they used had stretched so i reworked setup and used heavier stainless cable and that was 7 years ago!

 

Great tech. It really helps to be able to visualize the brackets.


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Outstanding. Simply outstanding.

It's an ingenious solution to a problem I have been asked about solving at least a dozen times.

Never occurred to me to use a control cable though. That's an elegant (and fairly cheap) solution to a pretty complex problem.

Well struck, sir.

 

Great tech, thanks for posting this.

 

Nice slick solution.