We just shipped a pallet full to them to Mid-Fifty today. Great group to do business with. You will have to make a cut in your door, per the instructions. You just don't want to butt weld the plate in. It is better to overlap weld the plate on top. This way everything lines up as it should. And has the correct spacing. These doors are tight enough.

 

The internal paws are case hardened. The lock lever is not. I misunderstood the piece you were referring to on the phone.

 

HUH? This may work fine for the latch manufacturer but it isn't so great for those of us who want a clean/professional job that only a butt weld can provide. I personally find it hard to believe that the thickness of a piece of 16 ga metal is going to impact the operation of this latch. IF IT DOES then this fact should have been presented in the instructions in BOLD letters.

I ALWAYS butt weld my installations and have yet to have a problem...

 

Thanks Charlie!


I measured mine and it is overlapping the track nearly 3/16"......... I mean it isn't even close. I could shave 1/16 off of the latch itself if that was my problem.


I don't know what is going on.


DO YOU HAVE ANY PICTURES OF YOURS WITH THE TRACK INSTALLED? THROUGH THE LITTLE WINDOW HOLE WOULD BE NICE!

 

Very nice work Chuck. I don't believe I will want to ever park my 40 next to yours, or my 53 F100 close to any of yours.

 

Charlie, that picture looks awesome! You do wonderful work. You can overlap weld the plates and float the "step" out with filler and achieve a very professional look. Over the last 8 years that we have been producing these kits, many people have done so. It is true that on most trucks, moving that plate will not make any difference, however on some it does. I have a beautiful untouched 53 F100 in our shop with 50,000 original miles. If you measure the jamb to jamb door gap, there is a difference of 1/4" between the passenger side and drivers side. My point is, there was little consistency with a lot of these older vehicles. Again, you seem like you are getting along fine with doing it the way you are doing it and I am glad it is working out well for you. We just do not encourage anyone to deviate from the instructions as they were written based on the way the kit was supposed to be installed. This kit is not intended to be welded in. It is marketed as a bolt on kit. If the end user chooses to weld our kit in that is great, and we will provide as much help as we can, but we don't mention it in the instructions because it is not the intention for the kit.

 

Travis,

DISCLAIMER!! You NEVER "shave" ANY amount of the latch itself.

Your lock is overlapping the window channel by 3/16" then something has definitely occurred during installation. You said to me yourself that you find nothing but good things said about our kit. We have sold well over 1000 of these exact kits in the last 8 years and I can honestly say (I take EVERY tech call) I have not dealt with a single issue of the lock not working because it is against the track. With that said, there is a first time for everything and we are willing to work with you to resolve your issue. You have all of my contact information.

Also, you mentioned in an email that you were told by one of our techs that it is ok to butt weld. As I stated, I take every tech call that comes in to our offices and since the first kit we made in 2008, we have had people ask us if it is ok to weld our kits in and our answer has always been the same. You should install the kit per the instructions, and overlap weld the plate on the door.

Ironically at the time I am typing this I got a phone call from a customer that wants to weld in a kit on a 56 F100. I told him to overlap weld it. I also told him about the issue that you are having with the lock and he said if he were to move the latch even a 1/16" closer it would interfere with the lock on one side of his, but the other side he has plenty of room. As many of you know, this is just part of building an old vehicle.

 

I should have said lock lever, didn't mean the actual latch.

I am going to "redesign" the lock lever and have it CNC cut, and then bend so it steps around the track. It will also make installing the lock actuators easier.

I'll send you the CAD files, and you can cut me in for ohhh about 8%, Deal?

HAHA

 

We appreciate the offer, but I think we will have to pass.

 

This is exactly the way that I was anticipating "welding in", not "welding on" the plate. I like the ideas behind this door latch hardware, and I can appreciate the design effort...and that over 1,000 have been sold...However, IMHO the plate bolted, or welded, on top of the door skin looks closer to Pep Boys than Professional.

I appreciate the manufacturer and their efforts, but my feedback would be to consider a modification that WOULD accommodate a true 'weld in' (butt weld) installation. Surely 1/16th-1/8th of an inch can be created someplace in the design?

 

Will you let me know how much to get an extra set cut for me?
I agree with you that way this installation looks the best is through a butt weld.

 

Our kit is designed to bolt in. It is not designed to weld in. If a customer wishes to weld our kit in, they may do so. It has been done numerous times by our customers with great results. With that said, the majority of our customers wanted a bolt on kit that required no welding. Also, as you can see, as demonstrated by CharlieLed, several of our customers have butt welded the kit in with no problem. I have even had customers tell me that they have discarded the installation plate and installed the latch inside the door after cutting and drilling their own holes. Each person has their own skill set and their own abilities when it comes to installing anything on their projects. Our product was designed to help the average person install latches in their vehicle without a lot of fabrication skills. The flip side to that is that our customers that do have higher than average skill sets tend to want to do a little more with their installation and they usually do fine.

 

What is the purpose of the rectangular opening that is left open? How are most people covering it and when would I need to access it?

 

That was an access hole in case something were to go wrong with the latch. It is covered by the stock interior panel. If the latch were to bind up, you could pop the inside panel off and get to the latch. This was done in the beginning because our first latch kits were a bit of a Frankenstein type setup using another companies latches. After we started manufacturing our own latches, the quality went up, and there was no need for that access hole. Our latch kits now do not have that hole in the plate.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I always wondered about that.
I did order your latches from Mid Fifties yesterday....apparently they had a computer drive fail (saw their post in this forum)...checked on my order and it's not in their system so I will have to call them tomorrow and get my order going again.

Really looking forward to getting a reliable door latch system installed.
If you were to but a number to it, how often do you think butt welding the plate in results in the clearance issues that was originally brought up?