Hi, new member from the UK. Are there any folks that have made themselves hand controls for their car?
my father was injured and become wheelchair bound. he had hand controls that were made (I think) by an organization for the disabled. a stalk, column mounted, to be used by the left hand, pull down to brake, push forward to gas. he later bought a 57 Pontiac Super Chief with trips. the controls would not push far enough to engage the outer carbs, so he had a stick that he kept by his right side, switched driving hands and used the stick to mash'er on down. he did that a lot. that Poncho was fast. he used the same controls on about 7 cars. sorry, no pics
In the UK, speak to Bill Skeet in Kent. His Model A roadster had hand controls and was beautifully done, it wasn't immediately apparent what they were! Don't know much more about them. Bill's a great guy and as helpful as anything. My wife has just advised that Bill is on Facebook, in his own name. Chris
Over the years I’ve seen a handful of guys post there set ups. I believe a lot of the guys just built their own after looking at what’s commercially available. personally the stuff I’ve seen available was priced to the moon for what it was. I’d think any good hot rodder could take a look at a lot of reference photos and do a good job. you’d be surprised how many guys are cruising a custom with a cut down pool que.
There's a HAMBer who uses a wheelchair. He converted a mid-50's panel to hand controls & turned the rear doors into a ramp. Anybody remember his name?
I once checked out the hand controls of a friend's (no longer with us so I can't take any pics) fleet of cars, all of which had hand controls. These were all automatic transmissions, with 1 control mounted on the steering column, ,which had a motorcycle type throttle (cable operated) installed on a stalk which also operated the brake pedal arm, via an adjustable length rod . Everything was made from stock components, and the "normal" pedals could still be used anytime.
I know this looks like a pile of shit BUT it is hand controls for a '56 Chevy (trifive). Most hand controls for older cars ( maybe even modern cars), need to be custom fitted to driver & custom fitted to vehicle.
There used to be a company in the U.K. that made hand controls for Mini Metro's in the 1980's. Mainly for automatics. One lever controlled both brake and accelerator.
Two in UK https://www.jeffgosling.co.uk/products/hand-controls.php https://www.svoptions.co.uk/hand-controls
A friend of mine who had a job-site accident, had this same set-up in his El Camino. He was in a state of depression, he snapped right out of it the first time he grabbed the wheel and that motorcycle twist grip and push it down for braking. Simple, easy to make. Brought that man back to life.
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