Making a decision on the accelerator / gas pedal

 Some years ago when I had Dorothy, my 1954 Ford F100, I opted for a Lokar pedal at great expense.

It was a fiddly thing to install, but in the end it actually worked okay, although it really wasn't designed to suit the type of floor that the F100 has. That is, the angle of the firewall didn't suit it terribly well, and I had to add spacers to bring the pedal up off the floor. The reason for this is the trajectory of the bar that goes underneath it. The way it is designed, as you press the pedal, it pushes the opposing rod in the other direction, thus when connected to a throttle cable, pulls on the throttle linkage and off you go. The problem I found was that there wasn't enough distance between the pedal and the floor. I mean, it worked, but took a bit of extra ingenuity. 

Of course, the other thing was the cost of this item. Lokar stuff is quite pricey, but there is no denying the quality of the product. These days chinese crap dominates the market. Cheap knock offs of professionally made products are available at a fraction of the cost, and it is disgusting, and offensive in the extreme to know the genuine companies are being blatantly ripped off of their patents and not to mention their hard work in producing and researching these products.

So, I ignored all this and bought a cheap Chinese knock off pedal for about one quarter of the price of the Lokar brand. I know, call me a traitor. But the good news is, I am selling it off anyway and going back to try something different. Something more original perhaps.

And the reason is, I never liked the great big rectangular hole you have to chop into your firewall to accommodate the swing of the bar. I could put rubber pieces there to reduce the gap, but it still looks pretty ordinary all the same. 

I'm tossing up between a couple of options. 

I have these spare pedals that Garry added to the truck when I bought it. There were two more sets of pedals but I have turfed these out, and in hindsight, one of them might have been the genuine deal. 

Here are two options I have to work with short of buying a new pedal arrangement. The one on the right is interesting as it has a spring loaded swivel already fixtured. The one on the right looks more like an original piece. I think either of these two would work fine. The left one would take a bit more fiddling about to fit it, but I like how it sits high up on the firewall. Both these pedals would require a hole drilled into the firewall to allow the cable to pass through and some kind of a clevis fitted through the hole to facilitate the movement of the cable. I think it would look a lot neater from outside and work just as well, it's just not as pretty as the new fake Lokar pedal I bought.

The other option I was thinking of was forking out another sixty bucks on this thing you see below:

Here we have what is most likely another quality brand name knock-off.  Perhaps Lokar make an identical one, but I haven't checked, and I am sure it is probably very expensive. But, we've been through all that. If I am ignorant of the fact as to whether this is a fake Lokar, then it doesn't quite hurt as much. That is, I don't feel quite so bad about it. Am I making any sense? Nup. Okay. Here is the one I'm also contemplating.

   

I love the billet look, and I don't care whether it suits the vintage look of the truck, as I already have a stunning stainless steel steering column, so it will compliment the look of the cabin. 

I have to confess the only reason I would buy this over using either one above is purely for cosmetic reasons. I mean, look at this thing! How nice is it? Whether it breaks apart while I am driving and kills me is totally irrelevant. It is gorgeous! And only sixty bucks!  Christ, what's the problem?