I got to work disassembling the crusty barn door handle from the NY Travelall a few weeks ago. The first step was to soak the whole thing in some Evaporust, as the entire thing was seized up completely. After a couple of days I was able to see bare metal again, and with some light tapping I got the retaining ring off the back, revealing a spring-loaded piston (the element that makes contact with the latch mechanism). This needed some soaking as well. When that was ready, it just took a few taps with a hammer to release the collar to free up the rod inside. Next I had to get the lock cylinder out. This took some judicious use of a drill, and once I had destroyed the pins, I was able to back it out and clean everything up.
It turns out that the original cylinders I saved from the red truck will work with this assembly, so I spent some time fitting the lock into the barrel and getting the mechanism to work.
I’m stumped by one very important thing: The lock will stay in the barrel when it’s locked, but when it’s open, the cylinder falls out of the mechanism. This reminds me of my initial attempts to make the new cylinders work in the doors, but there’s no mechanical stop to keep the barrel in the cylinder here.
I pulled the lockset out of the red truck and got things disassembled to the point where the lock cylinder is still in the handle; I’m nervous about drilling it out for some reason. I did bust out my old lock picks to see if I could bump the tumblers, but after about fifteen minutes working on it I was only able to clear a bunch of dirt out of the cylinder. So I’m going to work up my courage and drill it out this weekend to see if I can get the spare lockset to work. Doing some research, I was quoted $90 to rekey the cylinder by a local locksmith, while a second set of new locks keyed to the same number is less than half that, shipped. So there are options; I just need to wait on the next paycheck.
And, speaking of paychecks, I started developing an idea for a cupholder, something the original truck never shipped with. This is a simple piece of metal with two cup cutouts, bent to sit directly in front of the bench. It will mount to the crossbar underneath so it’ll move forwards and backwards as the seat is adjusted. I put together a cardboard template and knocked it together in Illustrator to have the design quoted at Sendcutsend. It’s only about $35 to have it cut and bent, and I can handle the rest of the assembly myself: I’ll weld a thin lip around the bottom edge for extra strength, and a vertical support underneath to keep it from bending. Then it can get a coat of the interior gray and some clearcoat.