1980/81 sliding door lock project

Hey all,

My 1980, Elain, still had the original sliding locks on the inside of the door - both were broken, of course.  Being new to the Bullnose scene I hadn't realized that they were impossible to find but I saw lots on converting to the post style.  Well, I build metal 3D printing machines and sensors for a living so decided to go another route, namely reverse engineering them and making some nice new metal units that bolt together rather than relying on some crappy plastic weld thing.  

Just for a refresher in case you don't have the sliding locks, here's the backside of the original part with the broken plastic tabs:


The machines I make use a process called laser powder bed fusion, we essentially take a software representation of a part, slice it into layers, and weld the entire thing one very thin layer at a time by melting (and welding) powderized metal.  In this case I used a relatively pedestrian Aluminum alloy.  Anyway, using a handy set of digital calipers and a CAD package I reverse engineered the original part.  I'm making new sliders and a new bezel.  The metal spring that holds in the door from the original part will be reused, except I'll wobble out the holes to put 8/32 bolts through.  

Here are the parts as they come out of the LPBF machine


The company logo on there are some friends of mine, no real connection to the project.  I did a little bead blasting next to remove loose aluminum powder and clean the parts up a little.  Here is how they look right now.  Notice the little Ford spelled out on the slider.  




On this last picture, below, you can see I've modified the back of the bezel and put holes in for the 8/32 bolts


There is a little bit of deformation on the bezels because I had a slight oversight when designing the manufacturing process, you can see the warping towards the top of the bezels in the above picture.  That's something I could easily prevent if I build them again.  Anyway, this is a fresh project and you're looking at the current state of the parts.  I plan to update the thread as I remove the parts from the build plate and get them installed.  I hope you enjoy

That is really cool!  I like that!

Have you thought about selling them?  I plan to use slide locks on Dad's truck.  

Very cool!

Wow, that's very impressive! I second Gary!

Well done! Those look really good.

It's so cool to see the common problems with these trucks finally being addressed after all of these years.

Great work!

Awesome.
Took me forever to find two used ones on eBay.

Thanks guys.  I didn't get much done today but did get them off the build plate.  The little aluminum pillars break off really easy so they won't be a problem really. Still, I wish I changed the angle I built the sliders at a little bit so there were no columns on the front face that people will see... now I'll have to carefully polish that area, adding some time to the project for sure.  Basically, this manufacturing process doesn't like doing too steep of an overhang, the limit is typically near 40 degrees.  I built these at 55 degrees, if I backed that off to 45 I probably could have avoided the pillars on the front side of the sliders. Learning more for next time, I guess.  

I would love to help you guys do these for your trucks!  The only problem is the manufacturing process is so dang expensive.  These parts took about 14 hours to build and typically guys will charge near $25 per hour, plus Argon usage and material (Argon plus material will probably be around $80).  The best way to save money is to combine multiple orders onto a single build process.  That 14 hours may go to something like 18 so you definitely get some savings.  I have a machine with a 10 inch square plate that uses a copper alloy for rocket engines, I could probably fit 4 or 5 orders on it if y'all don't mind copper (I for one think that would be awesome).  I also have some NIckel-contaminated copper powder that should build fine, but isn't useful for any critical aerospace jobs, so it should be close to free.  

If we can get a group together then let me know what embedded logos or lettering you want and where you want it.  We can remove NAMPros and put anything... anywhere, because I made the design.  

**EDIT** I just remembered the copper builds about 25% faster too, so that knocks the cost down some.  

Thanks for that offer, but I think those are out of my league.  But it is good to know it can be done.  

Wow, those are nice!  Great work.

There's got to be a market for those, I'm sure there are people out there who'd like durable sliders on their trucks.  I'm still nursing my originals along (the drivers side got JB Welded a couple years ago and is doing fine, the passenger side is original and intact), but if they ever break beyond repair I'll be looking you up.  I definitely would NOT want to go to vertical pulls.

Yeah it's pricey!  I might be able to make some of these for you guys here and there.  Every once in a while we have to do a test build on a machine for calibration of the machine, or a sensor test, etc.  It's entirely possible I could put these on during a test.  I didn't mention that the first time because I definitely cannot guarantee it.  

Today was a big day for the sliders, I finished cleaning them up and installed the passenger side, the driver side will only take another 20 minutes, so I'm essentially done.  First thing was cleaning up the parts after removing the columns (support structure for fabrication).  Here is one slider cleaned up, and one that is not.  


And cleaning up the sliding surface on the bezel


After cleaning up all 4 parts, and hitting then with a wire wheel, I clear coated them to keep them from dulling over time (hopefully)


Tapping the bolt holes on the bezel...


Then wobbled out the spring/backplate from the original lock, and bolted it together


And here it is installed on Elain


I'm really happy with how it looks.  My only concern is that it might rattle, but if it does I'll add some plastic between the slider and bezel to fix it up.  

Great job!

That is really cool!  But, being metal it should be able to withstand 400F, right?  That being the case the parts could be powder coated.  And certainly we could hit them with SEM Color Coat to make them match the interior.

You know, I hadn't even thought of that. I've never powder coating anything, that could be interesting.  I'll have to think on it, I think on one hand it's cool to have it stand out since it's obviously unique, but on the other hand it shouldn't stand out in a bad way.

I've powder coated thousands of things, but there's no way I know of to have a powder that matches the colors Ford used on the interiors, unless it is black.  And even then there are lots of "blacks".  But SEM Color Coat is said to work on metal.  So you could match it that way.

Very nice. Price wise they would be too much for me but they would look great in my truck. Congrats.

Nice job and look great installed in your truck.
My truck had nothing for either door so don't even know what they look like other than on the web.

They are also out of my price range and being LMC no longer has them and if they did they may have the same issues as the factory ones.
I think I am going with the door top push / pull but keep my latch so they work backwards.
Oh I also need to replace the door panels and why the door lock change.
Dave ----

ps they would look great left alum on red door panels

In your case we would have to figure out a solution to hold it in the door panel since I reused the backing plate from the original.  

I realized as I reviewed the thread that I didn't post a good closeup of the assembled part, so here is one.  

We can probably come up with backing plates.  But the rest of it is usually broken, if not missing.

Can you do it in plastic for less cost?

Oh yeah, plastic is easy.  It would cost about $1 in material and then whatever one wants to charge in machine time.  Since it isn't really a business for me I wouldn't need much, if anything.  

I have a 3D printer for plastic sitting on the desk here near the computer.  I'll print one sometime this week and post pictures.  The inexpensive plastic machines don't have the same resolution as the laser machines (metal or plastic), but I bet it's still better than a broken lock :)