I ran into a guy in Colorado yesterday who just bought a 54 Mainline 2 dr. 3 months ago. He's a newbie to cl***ics and has some issues he needs help with. First are the infamous hood hinges. I found lots of the old threads I remembered on them, including the source for the new hd hinges. I'll p*** them along to him when he contacts me. One problem is his driver's door latch. I took a look at it trying to figure stuff out as it's unlike the '57's. His door alignment is off slightly, but not bad at all, so I don't think it's the hinges but I did tell him how to rebuild. The issue that I could see was the starwheel on the door is under the catch on the doorjamb by 3/16 or so, so the starwheel is not engaging at all. My question is: does the door latch itself have adjustment so the starwheel could be raised? I told him how to adjust the catch on the jamb, but not sure they'd be enough movement there. There is also the possibility a catch from a different car was installed, so it would be great if one of you '54 owners could post a pic of a correct catch so I could compare to what I saw. He's not real big on computers, but I did give him some info on joining here.
Hey Texas57, I scrounged up a door latch and catch to help you figure this out. The starwheel does sit below the catch on the jamb, and there’s no way to adjust anything on the door latch itself. If your friend’s alignment is off I’m thinking he’ll have to play with the catch on the jamb to fix it.
Thanks Pattycake! Hopefully he'll be calling me soon. I don't have his number, but he has mine and was going to find out about an upcoming show at the Pikes Peak international raceway and text it to me. I looked at his car for a while, but being unfamiliar to me, I wasn't sure what I was looking at. I am almost positive his did not have that oval guide that guides and retains the catch up against the catch. It's so clear now with the pics you posted! Thanks again. alignment question..........are these set up like the '57s where the guide is actually suppose to lift the door 1/16 or so into the catch? That way the door weight is on the components preventing bouncing up and down. On '57s, you actually align the door 1/16 low, and it "lifts" into the catch as it is closed.
I don’t know the answer to that but what you describe makes sense. It’s the kind of thing I’ll have to figure out when I get to that point on my project one day.
When I looked at it, the door was pretty closely aligned...........less than 1/8 off heightwise at the jamb. I closed the door within 3/4" of an inch or so so I could look in, and the starwheel was 1/4" below the bottom of the tooth on the catch. I pushed it in slowly trying to feel for a lift mechanism, and could not feel anything. The door went all the way flush without the latch catching. I wasn't looking for that oval boss, so I don't know for sure it's missing, but that's the only thing that makes sense at this point with me not able to look at the car again.
The Jalopy Journal
