Hi H.A.M.B friends, I’m building a 1952 Chevy leadsled with Suicide doors. I have shaved the original door handles and at the moment don’t have a design for a new door opener. I am running bear latch locks and original handles inside. I want to make a cool hidden door opener, I saw a video of a side mirror that lifts and opens the door that seemed to work pretty cool. What other ideas are out there? Choppergrino
I have used a choke cable run to the fenderwell or the firewall before. Another real old time custom solution was Lincoln door buttons and an old valve spring on the door jam to pop the door open.
A magnetic hidden switch has worked well for me. On my 41 Willys P/U the magnetic switch was on the cab corner just a little above the top of the seat. Gary
I saw a lock cylinder with the little flap, instead of a key you moved the flap and pushed a button inside. It had a tunnel behind it deep enough you couldn't push it with your finger, the guy had a bull nose rod on his key chain. Not completely slick but very tidy
All pretty cool ideas so far. I have the bear latch mechanism installed on the door so the trigger to open the door will need to be on the door. I will write a “ How to” once I decide on a idea. Keep the ideas flowing!
I am guessing you are in Melbourne Australia due to the fact the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car. You require a physical handle on the outside in Australia correct, so electric switches are a no go? There is a killer Hudson that was built in Australia @hudson48 here on the HAMB that has slick push button style handles that blend into the sheet metal and are barely noticeable. Maybe contact him he may have some pictures.
Yes I am in Melbourne, Australia and yes I believe I will need some sort of handle on the outside. The Hudson sounds great, I will check it out. Thanks
My buddy and I are doing a 51 fleetline with suicide doors. We had the same thought as you about the locking mechanism. We ended up putting the mechanism in the door jam frame and the small latch in the front of the door. Done this way, we have added an emergency opener ( cable ) just inside the wheel well. With the mechanism in the door, you have to do a bunch to get an opener located somewhere out of site
Dave Kindig sells these handles that are flush mount You could easily attach a mirror base on top of them. It would have to be customized a bit to make it work but it would be cool.
Hell at that price just look for a set of 69 _ 72 Pontiac grand prix door handles and do a little altering. That's were kindig got the idea for his.
And factor in the fact that it would be about 30% more in Aus dollars plus shipping he would be darn near $1000 for door handles.
That looks great and sounds like it would work a treat! Kind of wished I had fitted the bear latch to the ‘A’ pillar and the striker to the door now. I may need to improvise the emergency cable through the door and ‘B’ pillar and pick it up under the car or rear wheel arch now.
Yeah the mirror base idea sounds like a great idea. I hadn’t really thought much of what type of mirrors I would run, but it’s probably good food for thought. Looks cool when you lift the mirror to open the door.
Use solenoids and a 2 channel of remote relay. [set on momentary to open each door] https://www.lightinthebox.com/p/12v...-remote-controller-dc14v-ac125v_p1636344.html Then wire in a couple of tiny micro-switches parallel to activate the doors without the remote and hide these [you can also add more for inside door buttons] If you're safety conscious , you can use a speedometer module so the doors cant be opened over 10mph [A T56 reverse lockout uses one to prevent "money shifting" into reverse] http://www.samocoind.com/T56MODULE.html I have an O/T C7 Corvette that is OEM with solenoid door handles. The only key needed is to unlock the hatch [when the battery is dead] and pull a cable to open the doors. It also has handles in the kick panels to open the doors if there is an accident.
Great ideas Kerrynzl, I was only talking to a guy this morning and thought maybe I could use a solenoid to open the latch activated by a micro switch. Reading your comments have just made me consider even better ideas. Thanks for the links and info!
I have a solenoid setup on a 65 Corvair. There is a mag switch in the base of the windshield and another push button switch inside the old gas door. There is also a dash mounted switch.............but no mechanical unlatch which does worry me some
Even GM had to consider that when they let the C7 corvette loose onto Joe Public which is why they have a cable pull system near the kick panels.
I went a little crazy when I discovered those remote relays. I wired up my trailer winch so I can steer my racecar onto the trailer while winching it. Then............. I needed to repair both my garage door openers which opened only from the wall mounted buttons These relays are 12v so I used a power pack from an old cordless phone, and wired the relays in parallel with the wall mounted buttons https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=369628 The only complaint is they work too good and I can trigger the doors accidentally while down the street.
I am almost positive that the reason @48hudson gave for doing his handles the way he did was that the law in Australia required a mechanical connection between the door handle and the latch and that electrically operated solenoids were not allowed. I may be out to lunch on this but it might be wise to find out before you get too deep into the solenoid thing.
Correct K13, as much as I would like to not have any mechanical cable on the doors at all I will have to comply to the Australian design standards what ever they may be. It’s been great reading everyone’s comments and examples on the forum. I will be sure to document the progress of my project for future reference should anybody require it
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