BOSS LADY
May 21, 2025
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THE AUTO BUILDER
Featured
Snake-Bitten
What Do You Do When You Want the Power and Performance of a Dodge Viper but Need the Utility and Space of a Quad-Cab Pickup? Well, you can buy a Dodge Viper and you can buy a Dodge Ram pickup, or you could buy a Dodge Ram SRT-10. The Ram SRT-10 is a limited-edition pickup that Dodge built as a regular cab from 2004 to 2006 and in a Quad Cab from 2005 to 2006. These trucks appear to be the result of some aggressive engineering, combining the racing pedigree of the Viper with a pickup truck, resulting in outstanding performance—and it works!
THE OTHER ’55
It’s a ’55 with a small-block Chevy, but Lamar Cline’s two-door sedan is no 210! But with a Chevy engine, transmission, rearend and a Cadilllac interior, this ’55 is almost a GM product anyway.
REDEEMING THE FORGOTTEN Y-BLOCK
When Ford introduced its Y-block engine in 1954, it labeled the engine the worthy successor to the venerable Flathead. The Flathead gained a loyal following of hot rodders and racers, but the big Cadillac overhead-valve V-8 and Oldsmobile’s Rocket 88 were stealing Ford’s thunder in terms of power, so something had to be done, and Ford decided to respond. The answer was a clean-sheet V-8 design, featuring overhead valves and improved cooling compared to the old Flathead. It was dubbed the “Y-block” because of the way it looked and because of its deep skirt and tall cylinder heads.
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GET IT HANDLED
How to Install ’69 Pontiac Grand Prix Door Handles in a ’56 Ford F-100
Author
Warren Boughn
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Before the advent of the “smoothie look,” people were slicking down the lines of their cars and trucks in numerous ways, and shaving door handles was one of the more popular mods. Today the trend is to fit later-model door handles rather than no door handles at all. This still provides a simple way to clean up your vehicle with very little effort, yet retains the convenience of manually opening the door. If you have the patience, talent and imagination, you can borrow the parts from a donor car or truck and fit them to your own project, thereby achieving a cool, smooth look that will be unique to your vehicle.
Not all people like to worry about electrical entry system malfunctions or dead batteries, forcing one to resort to a hidden mechanical release to get into a parked vehicle. Many would rather retain the 100-percent mechanical advantage, thus providing a certain peace of mind.
We’ve come across a nice door handle modification, which includes the installation of 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix outside door handles on ’53-’56 Ford F-100s. The installation is a straightforward, clean and simple swap. You retain the outside door locks and inside door handles, as they do not interfere with the new Grand Prix handles. How cool is that?
The only thing you need to modify is the door strikers, which is very minor, and you’ll have to fill in the old door handle holes. Follow along as we watch the folks at Precision Street Rods & Machines show us how it was done in the good old days. The process takes less than a day to perform, minus the paintwork, of course, making this a modification that almost anyone can do.
Here’s a look at the stock F-100 door handle and lock. As you can clearly see, the handle protrudes from the door quite a bit.
First we removed the outside door handles. There are two mounting points that secure each handle to the door, one inside the door and the other at the door’s edge by the rubber seal.
With the handle gone, we can see the latch assembly and how it functions. This is the linkage arm that the door handle plunger pushes against to open the door. The Pontiac door handle works on the same principle. That’s what makes it a logical choice.
Here’s a look at the ’69 Pontiac Grand Prix door handle we’re going to be installing.
Before we install the new door handles, we’re going to fill in the old handle holes. This process starts by grinding the metal surfaces clean.
We made a filler plug for the larger door handle hole. A magnet was used to temporarily hold it in place while we tack welded the plug to the door.
The magnet was removed and the welding began. We cooled the welds with water to cut down on the warping.
The welds were then ground smooth.
These are the door handle mounting buckets. The top bucket is what they looked like before we modified them to fit the F-100 doors. Basically the angle was removed from the one end and made straight.
This is how the door handle and bucket join together. There is a lip on the outside handle to prevent it from falling through the door. This sandwiches the door when the bucket is installed from the rear with two 1/4-inch bolts.
The door handle location was marked on the door with masking tape. The door handle opening measures
3/4-inch high by 8-1/2 inches long. We came in 1-5/8 inches from the door’s edge and again at 10-1/8 inches for our vertical cut lines. We measured up from the top of the key lock hole 3-5/8 inches and again at 4-3/8 inches for our horizontal cut lines.
We drilled a 1/2-inch hole at either end of the door handle template so our pneumatic saw blade had a starting and a stopping point.
Here’s a look at the door handles in the open and closed positions. Note how the plunger works on the top one that’s in the open position.
The Grand Prix door is thinner than the F-100 door is. Therefore, we needed to space the plunger outward accordingly. We did this by tack welding a small piece of metal to the latch arm.
Now it’s time to install the new door handles. Don’t you think the Grand Prix door handles give the door a more sleek and graceful look?
ARTICLE SOURCES
Precision Street Rods & Machines
19158 Roscoe Blvd.
Northridge, CA 91324
818/886-5018
