The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors AD: Pushbutton doors on pulldown cab?

AD trucks: Can you use the later doors with the pushbutton handle (52-53) on an earlier cab with the turndown handle (47-51)? I assume a striker change is required. Anything else I should know?

I have seen it done, but I think more often guys want the earlier doors on the later cabs.

yes you can but as you mentioned, use the correct striker plate with the handle.....and be patient when re-aligning doors. They can be a booger.

That's what I've seen too - lots of info on putting older doors (no wind wing) on newer cabs.

Okay, here is the definitive answer (or at least ONE answer) to my own question, can you use late AD push button style doors (52-54) on an early cab originally equipped with turn down handles (47-51)? Answer: NO.

Not without modification, that is. The respective latches and strikers are not compatible. I didn't want to hack up the door jambs on my pristine cab, so I chose to modify the strikers instead - after all, they're easily replaceable. I ended up with hybrid striker using the center section from a late cab joined to the mounting tabs of an early cab. Seems to work great - door closes and latches fully.

Pic 1: Early striker, late striker, hybrid striker tacked together for trial fit
Pic 2: Late striker, hybrid striker for comparison
Pic 2: Finished hybrid striker ready for installation

Don't you just love it when "it can't be done" and then you go ahead and do it anyway? A nice write up for the tech tip dept would be well received for those that would love to do it........just saying!

I was too dumb to know it couldn't be done, and too cheap to buy another set of doors ;-)

Modified the passenger side striker today. The door now closes and latches for the first time in decades!

Miraclepieco....I am very encouraged by your work on this. I have been searching for 2 years on way to retrofit this...Any suggestions or ideas on how to do this would be awesome

Interesting work, thanks for sharing.

I was having the same problem with my truck. I used a 1950 cab to replace the original (bad) 1953 cab, and I could not get the latches to work properly. After finding this post I went out to the shop and made the modification on one of the doors. Luckily I had enough of both types of striker plates to try one and still have a full set in case it didn't work.

It worked out well enough, although I'm going to do things a little differently for the second plate. But the door now opens and closes properly. Two things I found out while doing this:
1. Be sure to cut off enough of the new style plate that you have some up and down adjustment room. I didn't, and grinding down the back side of the plate after welding it together is a real chore.
2. Be sure to set the front edges of the plate in the correct position so there is room to move it in and out for aligning the door.

Now that I have one working I'm going to do the latch for the other door, then go back and modify the one I did first.

It sure would be nice if someone offered these for sale. There have to be quite a few people in this situation.

Tim

Today I got out to the shop and built the passenger side latch. It went much better, and worked out perfectly. Taking out more of the new style latch and using more of the old style gave me enough room for some adjustment. Now that I have one side working well I;m going to redo the drivers side. Lucky that I have enough ot both styles to work with.

Tim

Went out today and redid the drivers side latch. Both doors work perfectly now, close tightly, open easily. Finding this fix was freat!

Tim

Thanks, glad it worked for you too!

I’ve been doing a full body off on a 51 half ton for 6 years now...about 90% mechanically complete thanks to many of the threads found on this website...still have tons of body work to go though...I had been searching the web for about two years on an easy fix for these and did not want to get rid of my 52’ doors. 51’ cab is complete except for striker plates and this should get me on the road. It would be interesting to know if you guys just eyed balled it or what your measurements were on it...us milienials need all the help we can get...

When I did the strikers for my doors, I just lined up the old striker with the new striker and drew a line with a marker on the new one where I wanted the cut. After it was cut I lined it up with the old striker and drew a line on that, then cut the piece I was going to weld on a bit long. I kept one striker uncut to use as sort of a pattern, and carefully ground off the piece until it was the right length.

The two things I found out were that 1) cut as much as possible off the center of the new striker, and use as much as possible of the top and bottom of the old striker, so as to leave enough room for adjustment up and down. And 2) keep the face of the striker as flat as possible. The first time I tried, the top part ended up slightly tilted, which made it difficult to line up.

Also, I ended up trying to do as much of the welding on the front face, because I found out it was difficult to get in to grind off on the back side.

Good luck!

Tim