To Shave or Not to Shave... That tis the question!

[91Pusstang]

Alright ladies & gentlemen... I've done a few different searches and have not seen exactly what I'm looking for...

I'm thinking about shaving all of my door handles, rear hatch handle, glass button, and rear wiper too!

What are your opinions and experience with this? (Please understand that this is not just for looks alone, I have already had a Yukon broken into under the door handle with a screwdriver... I want to remove this point of entry from a thief...)

Do they make a kit that will operate 5 solenoids off of 1 remote? (4 doors & 1 rear hatch) The glass opening will be actuated from a button inside the truck

 

[07Burb]

Can be done (of course) but I've heard from many that having all handles shaved on a vehicle that you plan to DD is a huge pain. I'd find it easier to just move to a better neighborhood
@Young28 would have some first hand knowledge on the headaches this modification causes.

 

[Young28]

I wouldnt do it again. I didnt drive my truck daily but i never felt comfortable leaving the doors shut without a window down. Even with all the safe guards in place it still didnt sit easy with me. They make metal plates that goes behind the handle to help theft. Look into that at first.
Just my opinion

 

[Mister H12]

1. Thieves want it, they'll get it. AND! If you manage to make it where its too much trouble for them to steal your stuff, they'll most likely just smash your kon to shit just because they're out there doing stupid shit with their lives.
2. Shaved door handles on a DD is asking for trouble. Rear hatch and wiper are no problem and several on here have done it.

 

[91Pusstang]

The neighborhood isn't bad but I'm west of Atlanta and sometimes when you go around town, there are worthless POS's that need their fix...

Why were you so paranoid @Young28 ? Why is it such a huge pain/asking for trouble?

I've been reading on other threads about it being a PITA but, no one explains why it is a PITA...

 

[Young28]

Poppers not popping. I had new ones worked fine for a couple days then bam stopped working. Replaced did the same thing. Finally got some different ones they seem to do better the time i used them. Its just the uncertainty of it.

At my then girlfriends house went inside to talk with her and her parents. Come back out to leave none of the doors worked. Rear hatch didn't either. Only thing that worked was the glass. She had to climb through to open the door from the inside.

After that i never trusted them. For a show vehicle it makes the truck look great. But for constant usage i wouldnt trust it.

 

[91Pusstang]

But don't you think with better parts it would be good for a dd?

I mean look at the new vettes and such that have the pressure pads that pop the doors open and the fords that have the foot sensor for the rear gates?!

 

[hoss08]

Even the best poppers out there aren't going to be as reliable as an actual handle. Not sure about the Vettes but my G37S has pads on the door handles to lock and unlock the car but it still has a handle. No handles at all bother me for this main scenario that could change your mind. What happens if you leave a dome light on or something and you kill the battery? (pouring down rain and freezing) How are you going to get in your truck? God forbid its an emergency or something but odds are you aren't going to be getting in that truck very fast. Or even worse, you have an accident or something happens to you behind the wheel how is someone going to get you out of that truck if you aren't capable? The average Joe isn't going to know where the hell your door handles went and even if he did he wont have a remote to pop them. If those would be thieves were worth a shit they'd have popped your lock with a slim jim faster than the AAA guy could get his out. If they are resorting to trying to pry off handles then they would have no problem throwing a brick through your window. They do make things called Jimmy Jammers and those make it VERY difficult to pop locks from inside the door. Hell get an alarm, a good one put in by a GOOD installer. If you still don't feel safe with those 2 things then LoJac the truck. Shaved door handles really isn't the best solution for this problem from both a financial and reliability standpoint. All that shaving will require a bunch of body work and paint work. The amount you'd spend going the shaved route is going to cost 2-3x that of a good 2 way alarm and LoJac. You can even get an alarm that will connect to your smart phone anywhere in the country and you'll know the minute someone does this again. IMO if those guys really want that truck of yours bad enough they'll get it, handles or no handles. Its circumstances like that is what LoJac is for.

 

[Young28]

What hoss said. Hell even if you dont leave a dome light on and your battery just goes bad. The equipment i had was top notch. Top notch stuff still has problems.

At the end of the day do what you want to do. I am just giving you my opinion on why not to do it.

 

[4WDTRK]

That's it, I'M SHAVING!

 

[91Pusstang]

LOL @4WDTRK

It looks so much better! I just don't want to "cut off my nose to spite my face" or make more problems than the looks are worth.

I do not know which way I'm going to go but I'm going to repaint my truck during/after the turbo build and I figured that I should go ahead and do the shaved doors/rear hatch for looks, theft deterrent, and uniqueness.

I like to be different so that someone at a car show doesn't have the same ride as me... but I do not want to walk over $100 to pick up a penny...

Just looking for opinions! And I appreciate what's already came so far!

I cannot believe no one is happy with their shaved ride!

@Young28 did you not have the emergency pull string? I have 2 buddies with shaved doors and they have emergency pull strings that allow them to open the door if the battery dies (which it has before on them)
You simply hide the cable very good so that it cannot be seen without really knowing where it is and you do not have to worry about battery failures and such... Plus, if your battery is dead, you cannot drive it until you get a jump! LOL

 

[4WDTRK]

I think the look is really cool. If your pockets are deep enough why not? Like anything else, if you have the time and $$ go for it! [emoji4]

 

[guy from norcal]

Back in the day, my toyota truck had shaved handles. I put in a cable that ran from door handle to the inner plastic behind fender as a fail safe when the poppers didn't pop.

 

[Young28]

I just realized something that never set it in..we have to put fail safes in place in case the popper doesnt pop...that just shows why its a bad idea...now that i think about it lol.

 

[07Burb]

Can't be too hard for a thief to find that backup push button popper

 

[91Pusstang]

Has anyone seen anything like this before?

http://www.eastwood.com/blog/eastwood-chatter/pile-house-shaving-handles/

It's Eastwood's Project Truck... Check out the Shaved door handles they have done. I'm awaiting the next article to see what they used. Any incite on what hardware may have been used for hardware. This seems better than completely shaved.

 

[KEVIN GARRETT]

and just FYI. if this is going to be your DD and you do shave the door handle's remember that they are NOT LEGAL and the police can pull you for not having at a min. the driver handle on the car. some states are worse than others in that in my show days i know of 2 guys that had their trucks impounded immediately on the side of the road for not having handles.

 

[adventurenali92]

But don't you think with better parts it would be good for a dd?

I mean look at the new vettes and such that have the pressure pads that pop the doors open and the fords that have the foot sensor for the rear gates?!

From a detailing standpoint the foot sensors in the new fords suck. I was detailing one the other day just standing in front of the tailgate drying the car off. My foot wasn't even directly under the sensor but it activated the tailgate Damn tailgate just popped open from the sensor and the Damn tailgate almost hit me in the face because I was leaning down drying the bumper. It was irritating.