So onto the door latches....
I have already made the door cards - leaving about 2-3mm gap around the edge to allow for the leather......always feels wrong leaving gaps - normal you are trying to avoid them (and actually getting them).....so Im sure this will be an exercise in how to get no gap where you want one!
So a delivery from S&J resulted in all the parts arriving.
I then marked the locations of the latch holes on the door with masking tape - then took the tape off and stuck it on the door card to transfer the holes into the (hopefully correct) location.
This worked well apart from the fact that I thought I felt a hole where there wasn't one resulting in the 'spare' hole you see in the pic! doh....never mind it won't be seen.
After attaching it with P38 for a few days I went back and all good -the door shuts fine.
So I tried slamming the door and still fine -although there was a lot of force required to overcome the latch - I guess it is new.....
....So much force in fact that on the third attempt the whole fucking lot fell off...! Bastard!
So now understanding the force required a new approach was required. The P38 stuck the plate but it didn't completely surround it which it would need to to give it strength - also I think I will also bolt of screw into it to give it added strength.....another job to do a few times - yay!
So after the annoying failed attempt I called Jon at Ak and asked his advice - he said that if you want to slam the door shut I would need to place blocks of wood between the body and the metal to 'link' the two together to give it strength. So whilst I could just be careful it really not in my nature and sods law will mean that the passenger will not know to latch the door carefully so on with the wood etc....
I have tried P40 on one side and P38 on the other - nothing like consistency - this was simply due to what i had left but will also act as a test to see which is best.
I expect them both to be ok but we will see!
So After waiting a few days for the door to set all seems good - I can slam it and it doesn't budge....so hopefully success this time.......a week or some father on and it is still good so looks promising.
The Drivers door obviously set at an angle as when bolted in tight the angle of the plate pushed the door out....so this all had to come out and be done again - I DIDNT MIND DOING IT ALL AGAIN AT ALL.
Anyhoo both doors now on an latching again....
By the way - the nuts for the door striker are 5/16 UNF - took me ages to find the bloody thread size!
So I measured up where the bonnet latches needed to be - slightly odd that they need to go through the double skin part of the bonnet - but after looking at other blogs pics etc this seem to be what everyone does so out the drill came.
More to follow when I have taken some pics!
So They are now all fitted but because the bonnet has the strengthening beams in the hole goes straight through them - this wasn't an issue as you can keep t nice and central - but then when you put the cams on it interferes so i had to widen the hole and now it looks a mess!
I looked at the AK ones at the stoneleigh show and they place theirs more inboard on the flat section so maybe i would have been better doing that - but I like the position and I have now done brackets etc for them to secure against (body on its own will not last agains the metal cam) so decided to stay with it but tidy the holes to the best I can.
In the end they don't look too bad and should look better when painted....if that day ever comes!
No comments:
Post a Comment