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March 12, 2022
Hatch Latch
GT6 cars had a locking latch mechanism for the boot hatch door.
I've been patiently waiting for warmer garage weather, and the latch was
one of the few parts left in the untouched parts box, so I retrieved it
and brought it to the shop. It was pretty dirty, but appeared to
be mostly all there. The handle turned OK, but I didn't know where
the key was, so I didn't know if the lock worked.
The handle/lock operates the latch through a square shaft. The
latch mechanism itself seemed to be fine. There was just one patch of
rust on the housing.
The square drive shaft was pinned into the chromed handle. A pin also retained the lock tumbler.
I was a little baffled for a while as to how the lock would prevent the
handle from turning. I finally explored that square recess in the
handle, and extracted that little square bolt. It was seized in there
pretty good. A little nub on the back of the tumbler fits into the
notch in the bolt, and extends or retracts it.
I searched and found the ignition key, just to see if it would fit the
tumbler. The key seemed to fit, but some of the pins in the
tumbler were very sticky. After freeing up all the pins, I was
amazed to find that the key actually aligned all the pins, so it should
work in this lock. I guess this was the way the cars came from the
factory.
On the latch body, I struggled mightily against the urge to open it up
for a good cleaning and inspection. If the action of the device
hadn't been so perfect, I probably would have cracked it open. One
issue for me was the unique way the case was fastened together.
It looked like swaged holes on the flat back plate were staked on the
front, holding the two parts together. I wasn't sure I could
duplicate that effectively. I sort of wimped out on this one.
I used a chelate to remove the rust patch on the latch body.
Chelates don't bother the good zinc plating, just the corrosion.
This of course left an area of bare steel (top corner in the pic) that
would begin to rust immediately with any moisture or humidity.
A little time in the plating tank put a fresh coat of zinc on, and then a chromate treatment made it look pretty original.
I plated a couple of the other steel parts, and it was ready to go back together.
Related to the latch is the plastic striker plate, which mounts to the
body. Mine was busted, due to a little excessive force involving
some seized fasteners during disassembly.
Not to worry--"replacements" are easy to get. I put
"replacements" in quotes because it wasn't exactly a direct
replacement. The fastener holes and counterbores were both too
small for the #10 screws that need to hold the part to the car.
Not a difficult fix, but an irritation all the same.
Thnere is also a metal guide mounted to the hatch that mates with the striker.
So now, I'll bag it and tag it, and put it on the shelf.
I realized that there was probably supposed to be some sort of gasket
between that chrome ring and the painted hatch, and, checking some parts
blow-ups, sure enough, there was. It's on order.
I enjoy these low-stress, low-risk little projects once in a
while. There wasn't really much cost--just a few bucks for the
striker, some consumables, and a few quiet hours in the shop.
Comments to Ed at elhollin1@yahoo.com
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