thought i would do something useful with my time and post up some recent progress on the chevy. I wanted a shaved trunk on the chevy, so decided on using a hood release catch as a remote means to open the trunk I happened to have one in the shed:- the complete mechanism including the cable, striker and catch itself all came from one donor here's what the trunk looked like with it's handle first job was to knock up a frame to support the catch, which would be located on the boot floor. i used 1 inch angle iron, simply because i had a load of off cuts kicking about the garage. The extension on the left hand side in the first pic is to accomodate the catch return spring (just visible). Note at this stage that I was planning on keeping the "secondary" catch (the one you have to reach under the hood to get with your fingers) then I tacked it into the trunk, and levelled it up measured the height from the trunk floor to the rear of the bracket, and then took it out again. I cleaned up the trunk floor where I would be welding, and also cut an odd shaped hole in the floor . I'll come back to that later. next job was to make the legs of the frame that would join the bracket and mount it off the trunk floor, again using 1inch angle and tacked it into place so far so good. moving onto the cable, I realised that it wasn't long enough to have it mounted in the passenger compartment so i knocked up a bracket to mount it out of site up under the back bumper I then drilled a hole in the trunk floor for the cable to pass thru, fittted a grommet and turned my attention back to the catch itself. I mentioned the odd shaped hole in the floor. The cable release is sited so that it can be reached easily, but i wanted a back up in case the cable failed. This catch lends itself to a back up quite easily, as all i need to do was extend the release lever down thru the odd shaped hole and make it long enough that i could reach it while flat on my back with my right arm under the car. I am both skint and tight, so I had a rummage to see what I could utilise for this unseen back up lever and found this an old dynamo adjustment bracket. my first idea was to simply weld it onto the release lever but this made it impossible to get the catch mechanism out of it's bracket, so plan B, bolt it on instead. it is held by the same bolt which secures the release cable to the release lever it wasn't quite long enough, so i extended it by 6 inches with some more 1 inch angle. here it is from underneath right, emergency back up sorted, lets move on to the main event. offered up the catch and climbed in to check that it cleared the trunk lid, which it didn't quick trim and bend, and it did! and yes, i was in the boot of my own car taking pictures. the things we do, eh? the next time i get kidnapped, at least i will know what to expect so, catch sorted, time for the striker. pretty easy, fit the striker into the catch, close the trunk, and mark the trunk lid where it touched. no pics of that bit for some reason, but it became apparent that the secondary release (the finger under the lip bit) wasn't going to work, so I trimmed it off flush with the grinder. here is the stricker tacked into place on the trunk and here it is with a support bracket to stop it bending the plan is to box it in and make it easier on the eye, but the important thing is that it works as it should so, next up seam weld in the catch mount bracket, and a lick of rattle can black to keep the rust at bay fit the catch and grease it up and then weld and smooth the trunk lid I have done the bondo work on the trunk lid now, and have made the plates to box in the stricker and tidy that up. All in all, it works a treat, smoothed the trunk as planned, I have an emergency back up, the job took about 8 hours (not including the body work) and best of all cost me next to f**k all.
The Jalopy Journal
