Why passenger front door locks? Regarding 1937 LaSALLE

[1937 LaSalle coupe]

Just reading my 1937 Cad-LaS Shop Manual and found out that the manaul says the frt. passenger door has the locking cylinder in the handle. Why wouldn't GM want the locking handle on the driver side? This would be more convienent for the driver. The person who owned my LaSALLE swapped the handles and I now have the locking handle on the driver side. I might be looking to find another locking handle and will have it rekeyed so I can get into the coupe on either side. Does anyone have any comments?.... Thanks.... John Lehman CLC #26365...

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

G'day John,

My take on the matter is that for safety, the vehicle should be accessed to, or departed from, from the side that is not in direct contact with the passing vehicles when parked on the street.

Remember back in those days, with bench seats, it is easy to slide across to the Passenger Side to alight the vehicle.   Safer than stepping out into the line of passing traffic.

When unlocking the car, especially when preparing to carry passengers, it is a matter of courtesy for the driver to open the doors for the passengers, and what better way to do it than from the footpath, and then hold the doors for them at the same time.

Bruce.

[Wayne Womble 12210]

And back in that day, and before, even in buggy times, the common side of entry and exit was the RH side. Stepping out on the side walk was much better than stepping in the muddy street or worse on a horse biscuit.

[John Washburn CLC 1067 Sadly deceased.]

I agree,

Seems not many roads were paved outside the city, and even in the city life was tough. So getting in on the right hand side was safer.

No mud was thrown in your face, water hit the other side, etc.

the johnny

[Bob Hoffmann CLC#96]

I'm not sure when that idea of RH exiting went out of favor. It wasn't soon enough in my opinion. It might have been 1938 for Cad & LaSalle. This subject was extensively discussed on this board sometime ago. Of course there is the classic scene in "Psycho" where Martin Balsam slides across the seat & exits right for no apparent reason. That's the last time he does it!
HTH, Bob

[Doug Houston]

All of this is kinda interesting. The 38-60S had separate locks on both front doors. By that, I mean that the locks were in the doors, and not in the handles. That could have been the beginning of the separate lock cylinders.

  I think, but  I might need to research, that the '39 bodies on all GM cars had the lock cylinder in the door, too.

On the formal cars, with the divider windows, the occupants of the front compartment did not have accss to the rear compartment. The front compartment locked with the ignition key, and the rear compartment had a locking handle, with the compartment key (Trunk, glove box).

Now, you needed to be careful if your car was a convertible with leather seats. You could slide across the seat, and right out onto the street.

[harvey b]

Hi All,on my 38 9033,imperial sedan with divider window it has a lock on the drivers door,none aone the drivers rear door,a lock on the pass side rear door none on the pass front side door,the keys are different for front to back?,maybe it was lockout for the chauffer?,my car is original and i have no reason to beleive it was ever changed,the trunk key is different also,the ignition key has been changed so i dont know where that fits into it all?,has a aftermarket key switch in the dash,would this have been the same key as the trunk or door locks?,hate to hijack a thread but it will at least be kept going. Harvey B

Harvey Bowness
Frenchfort PEI

[Mike Simmons 938]

Doug-  The 1939 and 1940 series 75 and 90 retain the lock cylnders in the door handles= both front doors I believe. I would guess the large series in 1938 would be the same. I just checked the authenticity manual- apparently seven passenger cars also had locking pass-side rear doors.
The smaller series 39-50 and 61 utilize two locks in the front doors, as do the corresponding 1940-50,52,and 62.  think the 60S is the same, at least from 1939. Mike Simmons

[Doug Houston]

MIKE:  Yep, I think that the 38-60S must have been the first one to have the separate lock cylinders on both front doors.

The 41-6019SF that I have, and bought in 1956, had the lock arrangement as I mentioned above. Ignition and front door only with the special-head 60S key. (The blank was the same as on all other GM keys of those days, but the 60S only had a door-ignition key with a special head). The compartment key opened the trunk, the glove box, and the RH rear door. The window is controlled from the rear compartment only, with no controls whatsoever in the front compartment.

The 75 and 90 cars from those same years did have a different key arrangement than the 60S, it appears. My 38-90 is a "Town Sedan" (38-9039) with no divider window, so the ignition and compartment keys work as on other GM cars.