The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Door locks

I just brought home my first vintage and trying to understand its workings. Just first basic things first is locking her up! How!? Right now she has a locking core on the passenger side, but its just from the outside, no interior lock knobs (which i don't think they ever had anyways). The driver side doesn't have a core on the handle. Is there a way to lock these trucks up or was it just not a problem to leave the truck unlocked when you ran in to town back in '53? :-)

Thanks guys

This has been the subject of many discussions.

The easiest way is to lock the drivers door from the inside and slide over to the passenger side,exit and lock it from there.

There are many theories on this,ranging from legal/safety issues to good old fashioned courtesy!
Then again,it's maybe just these trucks come from a time when you could leave your truck/home,business etc, un-locked without worrying about it!

You decide........

On my '40, there is only an interior thumb-turn lock on Drivers door. Need to exit from passenger side and use key to lock her up.

I just went through this on my 54. What I did was put the one with the lock on the drivers side no problem. On the pass side I needed to cut of about a 1/2 inch off the plunger shaft so that it matched the length of the keyed side and it worked fine.

At this point I'd cut a trap door and climb out! Excuse my ignorance with the next few questions... All there is inside the door is the handle to turn and open. No buttons, knobs, plunge shafts, etc... Is there a certain way to turn the handles to lock it up? Thanks guys

The inside lock only works with the door closed. push the handle forward, locked. The passenger door has the potential to end up double locked, one by the internals and two by the key which only locks the push button on the outer door handle. You can find a matched set of outside locks from the sponsor vendors fairly cheap. I think I got mine from LMC.

It seems that it slips out and doesn't quite lock up. Sounds like the best way to do it is just get two lock core'd handles. I'll give lmc a check and go from there. Thanks guys!