We've talked about the snowball effect in the past and how it's found its way into my F-1 project. What started out as a simple six-month daily driver project has turned into a full blown two-year affair that's going to be a bit nicer than most daily drivers; at least any that I've ever owned. Although not what I had originally intended, I found my peace with the fact that the project was spiraling out of control, and have since embraced it wholeheartedly. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?!
Instead of trying to limit the number of unnecessary items thrown at the project, I went the opposite direction and have come up with a number of things that are not only unnecessary, but downright silly. But you know what, in the end, all these little detail items are what's going to set the truck apart from every other F-1 out there and make it that much more bitchin'. Sure, I could've left the stock dash, dropped a small-block Chevy under the hood and left the body untouched, but how is that either cool or fun?
This month, I'm tackling one of those aforementioned additions that seem completely ridiculous but are right at home given the project's theme and build style. Way back in the way back, when a guy would customize his truck, he oftentimes turned to other makes and models of the era, be it a truck or passenger car, and borrowed styling cues and parts. A dash from a Pontiac, an engine from a Chrysler, suspension from a Ford passenger car, these are only a few of the cues I took from various automobiles from the early '50s and have incorporated into the F-1. Add to that another in the shape of door handles from a '46-48 Lincoln which, technically, they're not really door handles per se, but pushbuttons.
Always wanting to add that one subtle little thing to the project to push it that much further, I was perusing eBay one day, just looking at stuff randomly, when I decided to see if I could find a set of the Lincoln buttons. Knowing that they can fetch as much as $300 for a pair of the buttons by themselves, I was surprised to see an auction for not only the exterior buttons, but the latch mechanisms and the even more rare interior mechanism and buttons. Not one to sit on a good find, I immediately bid the auction up until I was the highest bidder, and for a pretty decent price I might add.
The reason for doing this conversion, aside from the aforementioned coolness factor, is due to the fact that I've never much cared for the stock Ford door handles and their tendency to droop. I'm also not a fan of their protruding state, but am equally offended by the idea of shaving the handles completely. No, old trucks should have a little bit of bling in the form of polished stainless or chrome.
By the end of the week, I was seriously beginning to wonder why on Earth I agreed to take on such an undertaking as it seemed like it would never end. I did a dry run on the driver side to get everything sorted out before I shot any photos so that I could present the story in as concise and accurate a manner possible when it came time to do the passenger side. This made doing the passenger side slightly easier as I made a few templates for the latches that sped up the process and gave me a baseline to use a comparison when it came time to fitting everything into place. There were a few things that I didn't have the foresight to predict, one of them being the deletion of the door locks due to the Lincoln units having a separate mechanism. The stock Ford locks wouldn't work, so I decided to use the lock mechanism on the Lincoln latches, actuated by an AutoLoc power lock kit. The power lock kit will be wired in conjunction with the keyless ignition system and, using a keyfob, will lock/unlock the doors and activate/deactivate the ignition when the fob comes within a certain distance of the truck.
Anyways, enough yammering. Check out the photos and the accompanying captions. I'm really pleased with the results and the way the doors pop open with a push of a button is pretty darn cool!
