'65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

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SteveCanup
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by SteveCanup »

unibody madness wrote:My son wants to know,,,
If Japan drier is used do we still use the hardener or will it react to the drier?
Good question. I don't remember if I used the two together in a batch of paint...or not. I know that I have used the hardener in rustoleum with good results. If I recall, and again I am not an expert on paint products by any means, the hardener will accelerate the drying time and help the paint to have durability...thus, I would say, just use hardener.
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Blanger
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

snoracer wrote: I also have a 1947 Ford 2 door sedan that used to belong to my wife's great grandfather. We bought it when they auctioned off the farm. It truly is a barn find, or in this case, a chicken coop find. Great grandpa converted his chicken coop into a garage and that's where the 47 was kept. It only had 13,000 miles on it, but it was full of dents and bullet holes, and had very worn and faded paint - real patina. Great grandpa was 92, and didn't drive very well - hence the dents. The bullet holes came from kids shooting their guns at the old chicken coop, not knowing what was inside. Birds had made a nest on the roof, and pooped all over it. My son and I got it running and we drove it to the Minnesota street rods back to the fifties event complete with all of that Patina, poop included.
Tim,

That's really cool, 13000 miles on a 1947, I'd bet that was a lot of short trips for all of it's life that Great Grandpa drove the car, I'll bet the people at the car show didn't know what to think...lol

Jon
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Final Assembly ( part 8 )

Paint and more paint......

Well the exterior paint is finished, took most of Saturday and Sunday with masking and cure time to get the rest painted but it's done....

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While my wife was masking I finished the front running lights and turn signals....

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Then after the cab was painted and she was masking off for the bed I installed the windshield wiper pivots back through the cowl and got them tightened down...

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I also wanted to get the defroster ducts installed before the windshield goes back in (hopefully next week), if any of you folks have never had these out the part that fits to the dash is made of cardboard or some sort of pressed board, they are the kind of thing that the less you handle them the better off you are. Of course ours are in bad shape and one of the hoses was coming apart, I thought I could tape the hose up and reuse them but they were just too brittle and started falling apart the more I handled them.

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So I got the idea to go out and look in the '62 step side cab to see if they were any better shape, to my surprise someone had modified the vents that go through the dash by adding a piece of thin steel pipe to the inside and put new hoses on the vents that run to the heater box, they were in really good shape...

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I took them apart, sanded the vents and primed them, then gave them a coat of paint....problem solved. (on this truck) lol

The hoses that connect to the heater box were a tad large and I had to use hose clamps at the heater box which is fine no worries about them falling off and not defrosting the windshield.

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Tomorrow we'll get back to the wiring and do the rear of the truck..

Jon
SteveCanup
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by SteveCanup »

That looks fantastic! I love the two colors together. I wish that I could paint with rattle cans and it look like that. I always get overlap 'lines' in the paint no matter what I do. Are you planning some 'door art' like the '62?
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unibody madness
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by unibody madness »

if your cardboard vents are still useable and ,you have the parts that broke off, slowly put them back together with super glue checking shape as you go. then just give the whole thing a good soaking in the super glue. kind of like fiberglassing the whole thing.
Turk build thread at:
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Blanger
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

SteveCanup wrote:That looks fantastic! I love the two colors together. I wish that I could paint with rattle cans and it look like that. I always get overlap 'lines' in the paint no matter what I do. Are you planning some 'door art' like the '62?
Steve,

Like always the pictures look better than real life, not that it looks bad because it does look really good, on of the secrets my wife says to rattle can painting is first to use one of those handles that hold the can and has a trigger to release the paint, it gives you more control and its easier to stay at a even distance from the body, then a light coat and let that flash over for about 15 min, then a heaver finish coat and of course let that flash over for about 30 min before removing the tape.

Yeah, should get the same door art as the '62 uni, it will get a different phone # the number on the uni was my grandparents phone when I was a kid, this one will get my parents phone number...lol

Jon
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

unibody madness wrote:if your cardboard vents are still useable and ,you have the parts that broke off, slowly put them back together with super glue checking shape as you go. then just give the whole thing a good soaking in the super glue. kind of like fiberglassing the whole thing.
John....

Thanks, I'll give that a try to salvage the old vents.

Jon
snoracer
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by snoracer »

[quote on of the secrets my wife says to rattle can painting is first to use one of those handles that hold the can and has a trigger to release the paint][/quote]

Steve - I agree with Jon's wife. I use those handles a lot. They work great. It's easy to get nice even coverage with no streaks. Another nice thing is that the nozzle doesn't seem to drip as much as when using just your finger. Must have something to do with the position of your finger on top of the nozzle deflecting the spray slightly. Your finger stays clean too. I bought my handle at Menards, but Home Depot or Lowes should have them also, maybe even Walmart.
Tim,
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by shipwrecked »

A year ago I coated my defroster ducts with PC Rot terminator I bought at a home improvement store for like $10.00. My duct pieces (the pressed cardboard) are hard as a rock the next day. A year later they are still rock hard.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/PC-Products-PC ... gIX1fD_BwE


I took this photo last January

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The months may change, but I am always APRIL
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Truck has been home in CA,OR,WA,NJ,VA since it's birth in San Jose Jan63
Blanger
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

shipwrecked wrote:A year ago I coated my defroster ducts with PC Rot terminator I bought at a home improvement store for like $10.00. My duct pieces (the pressed cardboard) are hard as a rock the next day. A year later they are still rock hard.
Great tip April, thanks for sharing.

Jon
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Final Assembly (part 9)

On to more wiring.....

One of the things I wanted to reuse was the Roadmaster headlight switch, since we are reusing so much of the Roadmaster in this build it just makes sense to adapt it to the slicks dash.

The problem is that when it was mounted in the RM it used a hollow plastic nut to mount it to the RMs plastic dash, while removing it from the RM the nut of course broke leaving the threaded part in the light switch, it was easy enough to get that backed out of the switch but I was going to need a nut similar to what holds the slick headlight switch in the dash for the RM switch.

Luckily GM uses a common thread for lots of years (over 20 it appears) on all its headlight switches that use a pull to activate them, but no auto part store sold the nut, in fact no one but restoration companies like OER even reproduce the part, yes I could have made a trip to the local salvage yard and got one, but it was a $6 part to order and we had other things to order anyway.

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So I have a nut and it fits the headlight switch, but the round slotted part is too big a diameter to fit the slicks headlight switch chrome trim, so I grind the chrome trim ring flat to get rid of the raised portion that the nut is suppose to fit in without removing the "lights" text on the trim and assemble it in the dash...it works. The pull is kinda' large and long but isn't that bad looking sticking out of the slicks dash, no way you will confuse it for any other switch on the dash in the dark...lol

With that complete it was a waiting game for UPS on Monday to deliver the rear tail light buckets, we used tail lights from a '67 truck since they have the backup light in the same housing (thank you Ryanjay11 for the info), we already had the correct lenses that came on the truck. UPS shows up around 10AM and I get started making pigtails for the rear lights that I can feed through opening in the bed on each side.

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With the pigtails made I could drop the lights in their openings in the bed and start wiring them up....

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I had a problem with one of the sockets in the new lights, it had one of the brass terminals that is soldered to the wire (bulb contact) that popped off and I had to re-solder it to the wire, it took me awhile to figure out why the bulb didn't work, nothing like having to trouble shoot brand new parts.

I like to make all my wire connections under the truck instead of inside the opening for the tail light buckets, it's one of those preference things, it could be done either way and there is more than enough room inside the openings, it might even be easier later if you had to trouble shoot a problem if the connections were in the tail light openings but since I solder all my connections it's doubtful that it'll every be a problem.

The RM had 3 rear tail lights on each side and one back up light per side, so I removed the extra sockets and terminated the wire ends with heat shrink, I can at a later date tap these connections to add a harness for trailer lighting, there was a trailer wiring connection on the RM that I removed because they had used the Scotch-Lok taps to add the harness, those things work for a very limited amount of time and I didn't want electrical issues cropping up from the harness, if we buy a trailer I'll add a lighting harness at that point and solder all the connections.

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I'm going to change the subject (go off topic) for a minute (I'll tie it back to the build..lol)

You folks ever do side work for extra money?

I have done a lot of different things over the years as a side job to earn extra money for things, being a mechanic I could have easily just done work on neighbors vehicles but didn't really want all the hassle that goes along with doing that type of work at home, any of you who have, know exactly what I mean.

One of the things I use to do which will seem really odd to you folks was that I built custom computer systems for businesses and individuals, this was in the early nineties when everyone wanted a computer, they were high priced, and not a lot of people knew much about them.

I'm a old fart and had been messing with computers since their inception and have been on the internet since the BBS days when you used a phone modem to connect to bulletin boards, it might be hard to imagine but there was no WWW back then, it hadn't been invented yet... lol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system

When computers got common and everyone had a family expert (mostly kids) I gave that up, the cost of a new computer had fallen to well below $500 and building custom PCs became a market that lots of people were doing which equals slim profits.

So another thing I use to do was rebuild arcade equipment, specifically up-right video games like Pac-Man or Donkey Kong , but also pinball machines, and pinball machines was another untapped market for the home-gamer, lots of people wanted them but no one knew how to fix them....so I've always been a pinball addict and there is nothing better than owning your own machine. I would up just focusing on pinball's, got hooked up with a couple auction houses that sold only arcade equipment, bought a box truck and started going to auctions.... without giving you a boring history of pinballs I'll just say that there are 3 classes of pins based on when they were made, the early traditional pins are called EMs for electrical/mechanical, the second class is the early solid state kinda' semi-computerized, and the 3rd class is full on computerized which would be your modern pinball machine.

(I'm getting to the point....gotta' have the ground work though..lol)

So I totally by-passed the old EM machines, I've worked on them but they are a royal pain in the ass to get running if anyone who hasn't a clue has been there before you, I jumped right into the solid state machines, they were cheap to buy (a couple hundred dollars) almost never worked, but all had common problems that were fixable and you could flip the machine into the home market for $500-$750 depending on the title, but where it really got interesting was the computerized pins, these if popular machines like the Adams Family or Indiana Jones were used until they broke then either sold at auction or repaired and returned out on the route to make more money. I did these as a side job until that market dried up about 7 years ago after Bally got bought by Williams and then Williams went bankrupt. Today pins like the Adams Family sell for almost double or more then what they cost brand new. ($4k vs $8-10K for a really nice machine)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ADDAMS-FAMILY- ... 2584955455

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Ok I'm there now....... it's on these machines that to sell them in a lot of cases they had to have the playfield rebuilt, new rubbers, a good cleaning, replace lots of lights, the playfield was always a full color graphic that was coated with a layer of Mylar to protect the graphic from the pin ball rolling around on top of it. In cleaning this Mylar coating I came across a company named Novus that makes polish for plastics....

https://www.novuspolish.com/

Best plastic polish on the market.....

A example....

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This is one application of the polish on the tail light lenses.....

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That was using the #3 polish for heavy scratches, I have the #2 and #1 polish also the #1 can be used on plastic windshields to remove scratches or just about any polycarbonate clear material, works like a charm.

The pictures don't really do it justice, they look way better.

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At the end of the day Monday we had to put the truck back on the dollys and move it over into a corner of the shop so the wife can do a couple jobs this week in the shop.

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Sorry for the long story but I thought some of you might enjoy it...and I've done other things to make side money like selling on eBay also, I was at one time a power seller...lol

Jon
SteveCanup
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by SteveCanup »

That last pic of the truck sitting in the corner....made me drool.....(lol...man, it looks good!)
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Blanger
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

SteveCanup wrote:That last pic of the truck sitting in the corner....made me drool.....(lol...man, it looks good!)
Thank you Steve, the wife clear coated the dash yesterday, now she is torn about the rest of the truck...... to age it or clear coat it...lol

If you clear coat it then your putting it in a position where you will want to protect it (paint-wise), while it looks nice right now and clear coating it would extend that look, in the end it is just a rattle can paint job, it's not going to last even clear coated but a few years, and that kinda' defeats what we set out to do. Again it's not my truck so all I have is limited input, but I do agree the color combination is perfect, it looks really good. I'm all for the interior looking as good as possible, the exterior not so much, we set out just to give it two cohesive colors that mimicked a factory two tone paint job and in that regard it was very successful.

Jon
snoracer
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by snoracer »

In cleaning this Mylar coating I came across a company named Novus that makes polish for plastics....

Have you tried that Novus polish on headlight lenses ? My 2000 super duty headlights are really yellowed and not very bright. I've tried some of the name brand headlight specific polishes with only limited success.
Tim,
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

snoracer wrote:
Have you tried that Novus polish on headlight lenses ? My 2000 super duty headlights are really yellowed and not very bright. I've tried some of the name brand headlight specific polishes with only limited success.
Tim,

I have not, but I'm sure it would work as long as the discoloration is on the exterior of the lens, what we do here at work is use buffing compound for paint (to get rid of nubs in clear coat) and a electric buffer and pad, then clear coat the lens with clear coat from a spray bomb, it works well and lasts a few years. The problem is that some composite headlights not only deteriorate on the outside but the larger lenses also do on the inside especially if moisture can enter the housing....nothing you can do but replace those...well you can take a hot knife and cut the lens off the housing, polish it and super glue it back together but that's a lot of work for a limited reward. I have also seen people use 1500 or 2000 grit wet sand paper first then buff those scratches out with rubbing compound and clear coat them.

Hope that helps....

Jon
snoracer
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by snoracer »

Thanks for the tips Jon. Wet sanding was going to be the last resort for me, and if that didn't work ... replace.
Tim,
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

Final assembly (part 10)

Glass install...

So Saturday morning the glass guy shows up with his helper (36 years experience between the two of them, so they say), I explain to them about the rear glass needing to be installed and they attack that first, they put the gasket on it and start installing it from the outside, I'm watching them thinking hey that is wrong it goes in from the inside but let them go (if they break it it's on them), they get the window in backwards and keep looking at it scratching their heads...lol So I tell them it goes in from the inside (the internet sez so), they are not believing me, so I get them to go out and look at the '62 back window...... they take it out, turn it around, and install it from the inside, it looks great, no harm, no foul. lol

Then they do the front, 15 min later it is installed, again looks great.

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It's funny, and I really appreciate the input from you guys (Steve, April, and Tim) on the way to install the glass, I wouldn't have accepted the rear window the way it was in backwards but the info you guys shared helped me make a convincing argument that it wasn't right, and I know this isn't something these guys do everyday or much less very often at all so I'll excuse them getting it wrong and commend them for making it right with a little persuasion and of course they learned that the internet isn't always just opinion.

With the glass in I could install the antenna and the wiper arms.

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I filled in the rest of the day converting the window regulators to accept the power window motors and making pigtails for the wiring.

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Sunday we installed the doors back on the cab which is where I'll pick this up tomorrow.

Jon
Last edited by Blanger on February 13, 2018, 10:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
SteveCanup
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by SteveCanup »

Can't wait the see the finished truck!

Concerning the rear window...when I did mine, I was going to install it from the outside :wink: . I got on here and thoroughly read about it in the "Hints and Tricks" section. That really helped (and lots, and lots of great info there.) I needed April here to help with the back window (and then go install her hood hinges, lol). I don't know what I did wrong, but it was a royal pain to get the gasket over the pinch weld at the corners. Anyway, good story to show that even the 'experts' can get it wrong.

Give feedback on the power windows...real life as to how they function. I have that on my list of 'upgrades' for later on. Uncle Skip has a great article about how to do that.
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Blanger
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by Blanger »

SteveCanup wrote:Anyway, good story to show that even the 'experts' can get it wrong.
Steve, in their defense they might have done a few front windshields with rubber gaskets but I really don't think they had ever done a rear glass, the helper had done a newer Ford truck that I guess does go in from the rear....not really sure, but it did turn out fine in the end. They wanted $270 for all of it and we just gave them $300, the wife will get that back because the glass guy wants stripes put on his Mustang....lol
SteveCanup wrote:Give feedback on the power windows...real life as to how they function. I have that on my list of 'upgrades' for later on. Uncle Skip has a great article about how to do that.
The power windows are a luxury item, the window motors themselves are cheap enough (less than $100 for both), the regulator modifications are easy and can be done in just a few minuets per regulator, the motors actually fit in the door really well but on both of the trucks I had to use longer bolts at the top because the motor holds the regulator about a 1/4" further away from the inside of the door (But they are just standard 1/4-20 bolts).

The real cost comes into play in how you actuate them.... the GM power window switches are expensive ($40 ea) and the wiring pigtail for the switch is another $40 ea, I couldn't really find a good location in the uni to mount the switch in the door so I put them in the console, granted I could have went to a salvage yard and got the switches and pigtails for cheap (prolly $10-$20) but the switches would have been used with a unknown amount of life left in them. The thing is each window could be actuated with a DPDT (double pole, double throw)(center off) momentary switch which would chop the price down to about $100 total for power windows, which makes it a no brainer you just need a way to supply 12v that you can reverse the polarity for up/down.

In the uni I probably have over $300 invested in the power windows, but I bought a drivers side switch ($60) (and pigtail ($60) that controls both windows at the same time that we will use in the '65 so you can either add that to the uni or add it to the '65, the '65 will only get this switch on the drivers door and no switch in the passenger side door. Since a previous owner of the '65 was brain dead and cut a hole in the door and bracing for speakers (not in the removable panel but beside it in the actual door) I have access on the drivers door to install the dual power window switch in a good location that wasn't accessible without cutting that speaker hole...lol (hope that makes sense, I'll post a picture when I do the switch or speakers and you'll see)

The Roadmaster actually had the correct pigtails in the door wiring that I'll cut out of that harness (already removed from the wiring) so when I get to the step side (flair side) build I'll have pigtails for the wiring of those. One thing that the power windows do is remove that hand crank handle that of course leaves a hole in the door, but they also are tighter in operation, all of the hand cranks I removed had slop in the gears so there was a amount of travel in the handle before the window started moving in either direction, the gear on the window motor is slightly larger so it takes up that slop and makes it all tight.

To me......the conversion is well worth doing for several different reasons, first it's easy, second it sounds hard, third slicks didn't originally come with power windows, and fourth it's custom, power windows is one of the things on the uni that impresses people the most and was one of the easiest things to do, it is a pain to get the regulator/motor back in the door, it does fit tight in the area it has to occupy, you do have to run wiring and have a pinout if you use the GM switches to figure out which pin does what (it's not evident just by looking at the switch) but if none of that intimidates you (or anyone else reading this) then just do it! You'll be happy that you did.

One other thing.....you know in the summer and you roll down the drivers window to get air, with power windows you can roll down the passenger window without crawling across the seat and cranking that window up or down, might seem trivial but it is a added convenience that I appreciate.

Hope that answers your questions, if not just ask.

Jon
snoracer
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Re: '65 F100 SWB - yes another Crown Vic swap

Post by snoracer »

One other thing.....you know in the summer and you roll down the drivers window to get air, with power windows you can roll down the passenger window without crawling across the seat and cranking that window up or down, might seem trivial but it is a added convenience that I appreciate.
In my case, since I'm not as nimble as I once was, this is a very desirable option. It sucks getting old.

Here's a link to another cool switch option. I've seen this on a few street rods: https://www.ebay.com/itm/DOOR-HANDLE-PO ... 2818453433
These are available in square or splined shaft.
Tim,
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