The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk passenger side door lock

"Why is the door lock on the passenger side" is a question that is often asked by new members. The answer as to "why" is: it was dangerous to enter a vehicle on the driver's side (the road/traffic side).

Every so often I channel surf to TCM and I enjoy viewing old movies.

Check out the endings to the following movies:

- "Hud" - set in the 50s - at the end of the movie, the kid gets into his A-D truck in front of their country house by entering the passenger door (force of habit, for a city boy, I guess).

- "Suddenly" - set in the 50s - at the end of the movie, the young widow gets into her car (on a rural town street by entering the passenger door).

I never noticed these actions until recently.

I think it may have been Denny or Brad(?) that posted a link a while back which showed a lady getting in on the right side. It was a 1950 Chevy car I think. It was a GM film.

In the UK I can legally exit onto the sidewalk from the drivers side door so the lock argument is a relatively moot point here.
Although I still need to walk round onto the dangerous road to lock it!

Yep, good memory there old timer. It was one of the Jam Handy
1938 films that he made for Chevrolet that was posted to
youtube. In one scene it showed a middle aged woman parking
her new sedan and sliding over to exit on the curb side.

I'm fine with that, 'cept every time I'm out shopping in Old
Blue, the seat and floor on the curb side is always full of
bags, boxes, bars and Dunkum donuts that I have to climb
over to get out.
Denny G

Denny - Hilarious, and thanks for sharing the information. Things were definitely different back then and I suppose they'd have put their groceries in back and had no fear of someone stealing them and of course they wouldn't get blown out of the bed at 45 mph either, but today everything's under lock and key.

Plus on many of them you would have to slide past that floor shifter!

Ah, good point Rich. As I have do with both of mine Rich, I
forgot about climbing over the stick.

dg

The three speed on the column (after 1947) was not in the way of the "exit slide", and that transmission was standard equipment on light trucks, and it was the most common transmission on non heavy-work trucks (below 3800).

So, the exit-slide was not obstructed when you exited the truck (the family vehicle, in many families) in a village/city at "Sunday-go-to-meeting".

Do you suppose the three-on-the-tree on trucks was introduced to assist in that slide? That column-shifter equipment was certainly more expensive than the three-speed shifter on the box/transmission.

Could this be the reason us Gents developed the habit of sitting in the car while the other half goes in to do the shopping?

If you've ever had a guest passenger (male or female) in the
center seat with a floor shifter AD, you should know why they
went to a column shifter. To day they would put you in the
setual offender class of perversion.
dg

In the early days of the automobile (1915) some American vehicles were right hand drive and the left door was not even operable. They were likely more concerned of being hit by a horse and buggy than another car.

I can think of other reasons why guys choose to wait in the car while the fairer half shops.

Denny, you reminded me of something from my distant past. When I was in college I worked my way through school moving furniture/supplies/stages/etc and drove a 1971 C50 box truck on campus. We would routinely pile 4 guys in the cab so no one would have to ride with the cargo. It was the unspoken rule that one of the middle guys did all of the shifting for the driver. The driver enjoyed a semi-automatic transmission provided one the worker bees in the middle didn't sky out.

You know, we really should create a "tech tip" type article for this driver side lock question as it seems to reemerge every year or so.

I'm sure many a young 'un used that as an excuse to accidentally cop a feel when they were courting a young lady back in the day Denny.

I watched a show on ABC last night about the making of Snow White. One old film clip showed Walt Disney parking at the curb and sliding across the seat to exit on the passenger side. I suppose in that time it was just the way it was done, entering and exiting on the passenger side. If that's where you enter and exit that's where the lock goes. I don't have any data to back it up but I've always thought the habit of using the passenger side started because most roads in the early automobile years were dirt & often muddy. Using the passenger side allowed entry & exit from the sidewalk, bypassing the muddy road. The safety angle likely had a lot to do with it as well.

Maybe I'm naive but I like to think these vehicles were from a time when it wasn't deemed necessary to lock everything up like Fort Knox in the first place.....
For the first year I had my truck on the road here I never even locked it until I sussed out how to!

Have to differ with you this time John. all those old trucks had
"locks", if it weren't a worry, they wouldn't have had locks at
all.

dg

I just bought an original 1952 Suburban. The driver's side door doesn't lock. I am assuming that to lock it, you move the interior door handle in a counter-clockwise direction. The passenger side has a lock cylinder.

So my question: What is wrong with the driver's side door lock - why won't it lock when actuated internally?

Thank you - Lisa

Lisa, with the door shut and the handle pushed forward the door should be locked. (Handle should be pointed down so you pull aft to open it.) With the door open it won't go into lock position.

The inside lock on the passenger door works the same way. The outside lock is a separate mechanism and blocks the button from being pushed.

jock,

" . . .from a time when it wasn't deemed necessary to lock everything up like Fort Knox . . . "

A pikar is a time honored "trade".

I do not lock my truck, except in motel parking lots (at truck shows) and at store parking lots.

If you go back to the beginning many cars and trucks had the drivers door fixed by in place, so everyone had to enter via the passenger side. I believe the right side lock was just carried over until it ended for good in the late 50's...

Mike B

Thank you - I tried it, still doesn't work - what is the next thing to check - Thank you so much!!!

Lisa

The VERY late 50's! My '59 F-350 still has it.

I do now Tim,it's astonishing that when I leave my truck unattended at shows I return to find the door handles have been tried as evidenced by them being down from horizontal,they don't always spring back.
I can't get my head round the mentality of people who think it's OK to open your vehicle and have a nosey round.
In fact I've even had a guy slapping the hood and fenders (heavily) saying "they don't make them like this anymore"
Luckily for him I didn't return the 'compliment'...on his face!
It really grinds my gears......

JB50,

You should take a fire engine to a show...people think it's public domain, adults and kids alike. They climb all over it turning all of the valve knobs and trying the lights and siren. I tell the parents they wouldn't let their kids climb on a Corvette, why is it OK to climb on a truck???

Mike B

I can imagine Mike....

Last summer I witnessed a fella actually lift his two brats over the locked door into a Mustang convertible which had it's top down,they were standing all over the spotless leather seats,pushing all the switches and sounding the horn.
I politely reminded him that it was someones pride and joy,his reaction was beyond belief,he more or less told me to (bug) off they were only kids having fun??

It makes me despair!

It usually makes me go to to jail. My vehicle, or a perfect stranger's, no matter.
"I hate rude behavior in a man. I won't tolerate it."
- Capt. Woodrow T. Call - Lonesome Dove
Carl

As one born in the 30's and around during the "lock in the right door handle" era I can tell you one big reason for this---MUD. Since many streets in small towns were unpaved you pulled to the curb, slid across the seat, and then you and your nice shoes and clothes got out onto the paved sidewalk.

My story on idiots around old trucks. We had a customer that lives on a back road and since our shop is on a main highway he asked if he could park it there with a For Sale sign on it. It is a very nice 54 or 55.1. About the third day it was there I came out of the paint booth and as I was walking toward the shop I looked toward the front and saw a young woman sitting on top of the truck and her male friend flitting around with a camera snapping pictures. They just couldn't understand why I was so upset about an "Old Truck". I called to Kory, 6' 5" 280 pounds, to come out and walk around on top of their new Prius. Through their pleading and begging I could see the light was starting to shine through.

I'm 6'4" and the wrong side of 230...now you've got me thinking....

This has gotten way off topic.