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WTF are Slam-and-Lock Door Locks?

1975Jimmy

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Alright guys here is a fun one - I just came across this ad from 1973 that says the squarebody had new door hardware vs the 67-72 trucks that lets you "Slam-and-Lock automatically"... What could they have possibly meant by that? If you whop the door real good, does it lock the door?

Check out the ad in question below:

cd8a038a1fac6f9bd323a84e6a567a22.jpg
 
The older doors had to be locked from the outside after the door was closed
Oh wow! That is interesting. I didn’t know you couldnt lock the old ones by just pushing the lock down and then closing the door. The things us square owners take for granted.
 
The older doors had to be locked from the outside after the door was closed

Yep.....If you pushed the lock down and then shut the door, the lock would pop back up. Kind of a way to make sure you didn't lock your keys inside. You had to use your key to manually lock the door from the outside after you shut it.

Man, if that don't bring back some good ole memories.
 
I actually liked those. My first car was a 62 Chevy, it was the same
 
Yeah, I vaguely remember the older type doors. What I do remember is after they changed, it was real common for folks to lock their keys in the car.
I do know that that type door was the cause for me to put my hand down a male strangers front pants pocket.
First and last time.
Told this story here before.
Standing in my apartment parking lot one morning about to go up to my apartment. Suddenly I heard a man screaming. Looked across the way, and a guy was standing next to his car, facing it and screaming at the top of his lungs.
I ran over, and he had gotten distracted as he closed the driver door. Just as he slammed it, he realized he needed something out of the car, and tried to stop the door from closing.
Stuck his hand in there, and it slammed closed and locked! I think it was only on the first latch, but it was latched.
I tried to open it, and it was locked.
Of course, the key was in the front pocket that he could not reach easily with the other hand.

I actually did not think about it until later. Got the key, unlocked the door, and drove him to the doctor. I got a friend to come get me and drive me back.
I don't think I ever saw him again. Good thing, not sure we could have looked each other in the eye........
 
I was on a mad hunt for a modification for those striker/lock/cam gear set ups. I really don’t like them on my ‘68. Rather not have them.
 
The other way the GM cars locked like our 57's was that you pushed the lock down on the inside and then held the button in on the outside as you shut the door and it would lock. Forgot to push the button in on the handle and the lock popped back up again.
 
Yep, I’ve tried that too. Looking at the mechanism there’s really no way around it. Cutting, filing, or grinding anything seems to ruin it.
 
Lie # 1 on the advertisement :

"Larger body panels,fewer seams--bad news for corrosion"..

I drove a '73 K10 a girl's father bought new,took her to the drive in in her dad's truck in 1976 ,as he didn't want his daughter riding in my '56 chevy pickup,he said "I don't want her dying in that old heap"...

His truck had extensive rear quarter rot in less than 2 years,one side so bad the tail lamp fell out,all the screws had nothing to screw into already!..the rockers were punky and ready to blow thru too..

I recall seeing a photo in a truck magazine a few years later showing the basement of a GM assembly plant--it was flooded and the huge rolls of steel they had on large shafts that was fed upstairs to the presses for making the body panels,were lying in pools of rusty water about half way up the rolls..they still used that steel,after sandblasting the rust off it..that is probably why so many early square bodies rotted so badly and quickly..
 
I always thought more steel was being imported and it just came to use more prone to rusting. Seems those middle year 70s had more issues than the 60s and 80s. That comes from a dry CA native. Just seems like it, though my experience is limited, so I may have just seen all the bad ones lol
 

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