Has anyone upgraded these. I am constantly adjusting them and can't seem to get them adjusted right. I have done an internet search but haven't found anything? Maybe i just need new rollers? Any advise?
Hi my name is Charles, I have a 55 Victoria and had the same problem. I replaced my original latches with bear claw latches. They work great. It does take a little fabrication and some welding but they are a much safer latch. I have two 54 fords and have use latches from a 80's Plymouth Horizion this work really well but are getting harder to find. Hope this help you out.
Are you referring to the plate on the post ? If that is it and they keep coming loose ,, there are shims the have a rough sides to then so the will stay in place . Have you replaced them yet ? They can be bought for Macs , Carpenter and places like that . Now if you don't care about it being original , you can change over to the bear claw style like someone mention . They are much saver but you will have to cut up the door to weld the latch in . That is the big drawback so you might just want to replace the piece behind the plate and even replace the bolts . If the bolts are coming loose then put some Red threat locker on them . They will stay tight then . Jim
I've tried new screws, I think I'm gonna just go with the bearclaws....it's my wife's car....so I cant keep having the doors pop open. I will put photos when i do it. Thanks for all the imput. Daniel
umm, i guess that means you want to keep her around. i know a few guys that would like for there wife to fall out . oh wait thats just my mother inlaw, lol.
Ha ha yeah she "understands" my car obsession... She used to think I was lookin' at other women but realized that I was checking out cars...lol
OK now I see the problem ! Didn't know your wife was driving the car and the doors keeps popping open ! Yes , replace them with the Bear claws NOW ! That is super dangerous ! I had that happen to me when I was a teen riding in my best friends 58 Plymouth . We were riding along drinking a cold beer then then he was making a left hand turn and the damn door popped open on me while I was leaning on it . That was a little scary and the worst thing was I lost my beer ! Seriously I was very lucky I didn't fall out on the street . After that , I NEVER leaned on a door from an older car again ! I still remember my parents always telling me to NEVER lean on the car door and never knew why , until it happened to me one day ! Jim
When we got pulled over for the the tires being to wide , I use to give my beer to my friend and when the cop came up to ***** us out the cop would say how come you have 2 beers ? His reply was he had 2 hands . Then the cop would give us an inspection ticket for the tires being out past the side of the car . So we would change the tires and go across the street and have the inspector sign the ticket then put the big tires back on and down the road we went ! Those were the good Ole days for sure . Driving down the road , drinking cold beers , chasing the girls , smoking a cigarette or drag racing down that special back road . Then back for more beer and spend $5 for almost a full tank of gas and I used Sunoco 260 "100" octane ! That was .39 a gallon back in 1972 ! The 97 octane was 2 cents cheaper a gallon but we all used the Sunoco 260 all the time . Made the car run a whole lot better too ! Jim
I grew up in california, so i drove VW Bugs...took em to metal shop(which I think does not exhist anymore in HS) and cut the springs to lower it. When we go fix it tickets... we would hammer skate board wheels in the springs and get it signed off. Now my neighbors complain my headers on my Caddy are too loud. I can hardly here their Prius over them.
My one brother in law was my friend before he met my sisters , anyway he had a 1969 VW that we did a few things to under the trunk and ran open headers all the time . Had an Edelbrock intake with Weber's . Couldn't close the engine cover all the way . Changed the shifter and got GM adapters for the rear wheels . We had G70x14" wide Firestone polys on the rear . I also changed the trans axel to the better close ratio one the had the better gears in it for pulling a lot better in 3rd & 4th gears . Put the bigger pistons and cylinder heads on it too . Even used Sunoco 260 at the drag track or when we went out to do some street racing and loved to pick on sbc ! It was allot faster than most people thought it would be ! Did love to surprise them ! The only real problem we had was in the winter time . The gas would freeze up at the outside of the carbs in cold weather due to the way the intake and cards were set up . Had a ton of fun in that bug ! Jim
Ha ha Jim....it's almost like we were brothers. I ran dual DelToros. I had a buddy thet had a 350 nova, He hated me cuz my little Bug would smoke him. Oh i wish i was 19 again.
Yea those were the good times and like I have said before , They will never be like that again . The 60's & 70's was a very special time in the car industry and we were lucky enough to have lived through that time to enjoy all the speed and hi performance cars we had for just a few hundred dollars ! I have Pontiac's with 389 & 6 pks , Chevelle with big and small blocks with 4 speeds , BB Fords , BB Dodges . My favorite car was my 69 Dodge Super Bee , Yellow w/black stripe and black interior ! She was a beast on the street and won many races too . We did well with the VW as well because it was a VW and many people didn't know you could get performance parts for them ! They learned very fast when they lost to a BUG ! Even with a small 4 cyl. the headers w/the "tube" we had still sounded way better than the ones the tuners have today ! I wonder why there is such a big difference . If they had the mufflers we had on our Bugs , they surely would sound a hell of a lot better than they do today ! At least we can still have our cars and memories ! Jim
Allot of times when the door closes the striker keeps sliding back . Need bolts and the plates that go behind the striker plate that has like bumps in it so it will help for the striker plate not to move . would also replace all the screws too . My doors closed very easily but I have since removed all the door handles and locks for that real clean smooth look . I will probably install Bear Claws on the 2 front doors so I won't have to worry about loosing my wife out the p***enger side door . My wife is worth a hell of a lot more than a set of Bear Claws ! Jim
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