Door Lock Buttons

[Andydodge]

Theres a nice 1940 Dodge 4dr sedan on US ebay at present & was just taking a look and noticed that it has interior door lock buttons on at least the rear doors......can't see a pic of the front doors, anyway, I'd never noticed this on any pics I'd seen of US 40 Dodges before and was wondering if this was the 1st year for this feature and did US Plymouths have this?. Don't have a pic showing my Oz 1940 Dodges' rear door interior but as my Oz 1940 Dodge is Plymouth based and uses Oz sourced door locks without the interior lock button, you just move the inside handle up to lock the door, I've not seen the interior locks on 40 models before.....so when did they start in the USA?.......thanks andyd

[P-12 Tommy]

Shel's right. Should be the same as your Plymouth knobs. Here's some pics of mine. Is this what you wanted?

Tom

[40phil41]

Andy,

FWIW, both my '40 and '41 Dodges have the rear door lock buttons. I have a photo of a Canadian '39 Plymouth that appears not to have them. [The front doors of both of mine have the pull up on handle locking design with an exterior door lock only on the front pass. side door.]

Phil

Edited November 4, 2010 by 40phil41

[desoto1939]

My 1939 Desoto 4 door sedan has lock knobs on all four doors.

BAck in the 30 - 40s the outside door lock was always onthe passenger fron door. It was and is still illegal to exit a parked car when you are paralled parked on the street. This was to prevent the drive from opening the door into oncoming traffic and causing an accident or or possibkly being killed by the other car.

The driver locked all the inside doors except the fron passenger door then slide across the front seat and then locked the car while standing on the pavement.

Take notice to all of the old cars that you see at a car show. I do not know when they went to putting locks on both the front doors. Someone might beable to provide that info.

Rich HArtung

desoto1939@aol.com

[Andydodge]

Thanks guys, some interesting info there......am not sure whether the post WW2 Oz mopars up to 48 had the lock buttons as they used the same bodies etc as my 40, which does not have the lock buttons, the door locks were made by a company in Melbourne called Linard and use a 1/2 round female spline on the door lock with a similar 1/2 round male spline on the inside handle.......not the 3/8 square that the US mopars have. Also the outside key lock is on the Australian passenger side, ie, the US drivers side for probably the same reason you mentioned Rich. Funny thing is that until I bought my 41 Plymouth Coupe which is a Sth African built car I had never seen the US style door locks and handles, but it has them which has made it easy to get replacements....... even things like the 1/4 vent rubbers on my Oz built 40 Dodge are modified VW Beetle rubbers as the US 1/4 vents pivot in a different spot and the nice 1/4 vent rubbers that I got 20yrs ago for over $100 Aust didn't fit.........lol......I couldn't bring myself to cut them up so they sat on the shelf till I was able to use them on the 41 Plymouth.......karma.......lol......andyd

[B-Watson]

The rear door lock knobs were used through 1956 and replaced for 1957 by a lever on the door panel. The knobs returned on the B body 1962 Plymouth, Dart and Polara 500, for rear and, for the first time, front doors. Chrysler, Dodge 880, Valiant, and Dart (A body) adopted front and rear buttons for 1963.

Starting in 1941 the front doors were locked from the inside by pushing the handle forward. Which is why 1941 to 1956 front door handles (except 1955-56 Imperials) were mounted pointing straight down. I have seen many 1941-56 Plymouths, Dodges, DeSotos and Chryslers with the front door handles mounted sideways, like they were some kind of Ford product.

1957 and up front door handles were mounted with the base at the bottom and the handle angled to 2 o'clock on the driver's door and 10 o'clock on the passenger's door.

The neatest thing about Mopar front door locks was the fact you could not lock the front doors when they were open and then close the door. The front doors would automatically unlock thus preventing you from locking your keys in the car. Not sure when Chrysler adopted that feature, but 1970 was the last year it was offered.

Bill

Toronto, ON