door locks & turn signals
There were two types of locks and mechanisms for these trucks: Sliders and pin style. And there were two different turn signal lenses: clear and amber. The 1980 & 81 trucks used sliders and took a different latch assembly, as shown below. But, in the early part of 1981 Ford went back to the pin style that had been used for many years. And at about the same time the clear lenses went to amber. And this page is to try and document when that happened.
The illustration above seems to say that the changeover on the locks was in March of '81. However, the changeover apparently wasn't as clean as that. I'm doing a poll on Ford Trucks Enthusiasts that has determined that there were trucks made after 3/81 that had slider locks. Here are the current results of the poll, with the yellow cells indicating items that don't agree with the information in the parts catalog for when the changeover was made.
The illustration above seems to say that the changeover on the locks was in March of '81. However, the changeover apparently wasn't as clean as that. I'm doing a poll on Ford Trucks Enthusiasts that has determined that there were trucks made after 3/81 that had slider locks. Here are the current results of the poll, with the yellow cells indicating items that don't agree with the information in the parts catalog for when the changeover was made.
Note that FuzzFace2 said of his truck that was made in 11/80 "It has been repainted and looks like it may of had some front end damage as the first bolt in cross member is bent up and the front bumper was only held on with 2 bolts, 1 each side not the 4 it should of had. Motor is not the one the truck came with from what I can tell. The trany has also been out as someone did not put the upper frame braces back in. So I guess they could of been changed out? It did have amber bulbs not painted yellow ones so was done right if changed. .... Please do make a note that my truck could have been (most likely) been changed over the years." So, I turned the cell for it orange and added that note.
From all of this I think we can make several observations:
Anyway, if you have a 1981 Ford truck, please contact me and tell me what type of locks (and turn signal lenses too) yours has, and include a picture of your Certification label on the door jamb so I can see when and where it was made.
From all of this I think we can make several observations:
- The dates in the catalog are not exact.
- The turn signals changed much earlier than 12/80 in most plants. In fact, from what we can tell only Twin Cities and Norfolk used clear lenses for '81 trucks, although it is too early to say that with any certainty.
- The two trucks we know of which were produced in the Twin Cities plant in 09 of 1980 are separated by 442 trucks in the production, so apparently that plant changed to amber lenses in September somewhere between those two trucks
- The door locks changed fairly close to 03/81 in most plants, but not in all of them.
- Kansas City produced trucks in 03/81 with slide locks, but by 04/81 had gone to pins.
- Twin Cities was still using slide locks as late as 07/81.
Anyway, if you have a 1981 Ford truck, please contact me and tell me what type of locks (and turn signal lenses too) yours has, and include a picture of your Certification label on the door jamb so I can see when and where it was made.