All looking to add power door locks to my 68 442 and want to place the switches in the correct place on the doors to look stock. Does anyone have a picture of a 442 or Cutlass interior door card with factory door locks or know where they would be located?

 

There is no "correct" location. Power locks were not offered on the 1968 442s. RPO A93 was first available on the 1969 model year cars.

From the SPECS booklets. 1968 top, 1969 bottom.

 

Good to know Joe. I didn't realize that.

If you are wanting to add power locks then I would use the same location as a 69.

 

69 shows A93 n.a. with W30. That tells me 69 A car had vacuum operated power locks same as BCE car.

Why, oh why, would you want to subject yourself to installing all those miles of vacuum hose?!😩😖😬🤯

I found a 69 Toronado junker with power locks and thought cool! Then I realized what had to be done to pull them out of the junker and then to install them in mine. I said, ain't that much trouble to reach across the car to lock the passenger door!

 

I am pretty sure 69's were not vacuum. I could swear my 69 Toronado with power locks were definitely power. Same for a loaded 69 442 that friends of mine looked at. Power locks seats antenna etc. I swear those also were power not vacuum.

I passed on a 60 Cadillac four door in the late eighties because all the power accessories were vacuum. I looked at all those vacuum lines going into the driver's door and thought oh hell no.

 

You are correct, Glenn. The 1969 power lock system was vacuum operated, as shown in the 1969 Fisher Body Manual.

 

And half the time, when you unlock for a companion, it won't have vacuum anyway.

 

Well there you go.

 

I have done power door lock conversions (electric) on a couple of A body’s, it’s not bad.

The 70-77 cars used big heavy electric actuators, they had separate windings for lock and unlock features, with each winding grounded thru the case

On my car, I used G body actuators and fabricated the metal rods to adapt the newer parts to the older door latch. The G body actuators lock and unlock by reversing polarity, and require a relay. I used a door lock relay from a much later model GM car/truck, they seem to hold up much better.

I did the door lock conversion about 25 years ago, other than the original relay failing it has works flawlessly. There is no way in hell I would bother installing the original style vacuum setup.

 

I’m late to the thread, but have vacuum door locks in my ‘66 big cars. The system is pretty robust, but does leak down since the diaphragms and hoses are now 50 years+ old. What’s interesting is that the 98 convertible leaks down in maybe 30 minutes, but the Starfire stays vacuum pumped for a day or sometimes more.

If I recall the mechanical parts of the systems were looted from junked Cadillacs from 65-66. That’s the place to find these now rare parts.

Solenoids are probably more reliable in the end, but I’ve found the vacuum lines and design to be very useful. One of my little summer projects is to see if I can trace out exactly which parts of the 98 vacuum system are causing the quick leak down and remediate them.

Anyone know where you can get replacement hoses? Hah!

Cheers
Chris