The Doors

THIRD EDIT: The Autoloc window operator on the driver's side FAILED.... after only three years of being on the road. I got a BALL'S operator, all metal, made in America and lifetime warranty. Go to page 3 to see what it took to get it installed....

SECOND EDITED UPDATE ! ! The Bear Claw door latches that I used took about 6 months to finally work. The Texas heat and a few times parked outside in the sun has finally caused the door gaskets and windlass to ease up enough so that about 50% of the time, they will open with the remote control. They don't work well with any pressure on them at ALL. Between the door gaskets and new vinyl windlass, the damned latches would not open the doors at all. Scroll down to see what I finally did to assure that the occupants could get out of the car by adding bicycle brake cables mechanically connected to the door handles.

Redoing the doors will be/is quite an undertaking, because, I'm removing the vent window and installing a single piece door window with electric operator, electric solenoid door locks, shaved outside surface, Bear Claw door latches, and a few other things...Be sure to scroll down to the short video showing the Bear Claw / Solenoid and the electric window systems operation.

Passenger side is complete except for the door handle. I have to duplicate the little stub extension for the driver's side before I attach the passenger's side. Had to also relocate the seat belt reel due to the back seat bottom not going as far back as I had planned on due to "puffy foam" around the bottom of the seat back and bottom. Lookin pretty good......
20170110 173255
Shavin' the door handles - removed the bear claw latch and covered the solenoid to avoid getting any "stuff" in their workings.
20151118 182042
A little body work required. Switch over to "Body Work" Gallery for more of this sort of stuff...
20151125 160728
10/18/2021---This is the Autoloc cable that stretched out and ceased to work.
20211019 150616
The driver's side electric window operator made by Autoloc (Chinese) failed, so I bought a BALL'S American made, lifetime warranty operator... Unfortunately, it is about 1/2" thicker than the Autoloc, so it won't fit like the first one did, so some surgery is going to be necessary on the door innards...
20211019 142955
Had to cut out all the "indentions" to get the glass mount to line up with the fuzzy window guides, you can see everywhere that the door had indentions, I had to cut it out to move the operator about 3/8" toward the inside of the door/car. The other smaller holes are so I can get to the fasteners when the window is up. Yeah, it's pretty ugly inside the door, but the door panels are beautiful!!!
20211019 180543
Starting to get things organized..Had to do some gingerly cutting around the bicycle cable that is the mechanical connector on the door handle to open the door from the inside without putting wear and tear on the solenoids...
20211019 181136
Getting closer...
20211019 181311
New supports for the motor and the rail were necessary. This is the support for one of the bolts on the motor.
20211020 125930
Close-up of the cuts to move the operator toward the inside of the door
20211020 141528
Bottom rail support... was able to use the same bracket as the old one..
20211020 141545
Two of the 4 bolts used to mount the motor.
20211020 141605
Another view of the upper motor mount bracket.
20211020 141620
While all was apart, decided to epoxy the door opener adapter covered in the early part of this gallery.
20211020 141650
For a '49 thru '51 Ford door, the rail should be cut down/shortened so that the full (Total) length of the rail is 19-1/2" long. The final location of this mounting bolt is determined by rolling the window all the way down so that the top of the glass is at or slightly below the lower sill.
20211020 141946
The bolt head just above the bottom of the rail is a long 1/4"/20 bolt to act as a bottom stop.
20211020 142050
Bolt hole for top mount of the rail is 4-3/4" from the "fuzzy" top to the center of the bolt. There are other measurements earlier on this gallery for more information.
20211020 142208
Lower bracket for motor mount.
20211020 125914
VIDEO!----Finished!
20211021 155721