The doors on my 55 F350 did not stay shut tight. I was tired of them rattling and letting cold and noise in. I thought I would need to buy new latches. I thought there was a lot of play in the star latches. Then I checked the new latch on my 54, same amount of play. Then I remembered the old adage, start simple and start cheap. The teeth on both striker plates were worn.

i dug into my NOS stuff and found two new striker plates and put them on. After I adjusted them I shut the door and it stayed shut tight. Same with the other side. ��

Now it looks like I'll have to get the paint off the bolt heads.

 

Dab a little silver paint on the bolt heads and call it a day...

 

Looks good abe. I'm sure that you noticed that you are missing a star washer on the right plate?

 

Thanks. But No, that is an optical illusion. There are no star washers in the picture of the old striker plates. What you see are the lack of paint where the star washers were when the PO painted the door jamb with out bothering to take off the striker plates. You'll see in the picture of the drivers side installed plate there are three washers.

 

Yes, I see that now