Yea, I hate ta do this but I have to go to the catalog. Who has a bearclaw latch with safety catch for suicide doors. It has to be 2 inches or less in width since the doors aren't thick at that point. Dave
--
Life's too short to drive an ughly car!
Massachusetts Safety Inspecter for KKOA
www.geocities.com/stupidbaker57/custom_green

Ball`s rod and kustom. Also Juliano`s
--
WPoC

I was told to move the latch and striker plate down something like an inch which will give you a bit more working room. Even with his, It will be a tight fit. I used a set of double latch bear claws as supplied to commercial trucks. They have the double action, clamping from both the top and bottom. The doors close and latch like a dream. The heavier springs in these latch down just hard enough to sort of pull the door inward as it is closed. Also when unlatching the door sort of does a little pop when opening. There is absolutely NO slamming to close garbage as usually associated with the original Ford latches & doors. I just wish I had gone the bear claw route on my '33 pickup--even with rebuilt originals, there is that extra push (slam!) to get it to close. The '34 sedan just takes enough of a slight nudge and "whump" she closes W/O any effort! You'll love it and it is worth the extra work to install, especially when dealing with suicide doors! Fact is I often ask people to open & close the door so they can see how neat they work. Good luck.
--
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is KING!

Cool Fred, I've purchased cars by the way doors closed. If it had a solid unrestricted swing and latched solidly upon contact with the striker I knew the car was well built. If it was a sedan or coupe and didn't close due to compartment air pressure this was another sign that it was well built. Open the window and close the door and hear that confirming thunk with little efford would be the final determining factor in many cases. Of course it wasn't the ONLY reason I might of purchased the car in the first place, there were a number of cars that didn't have doors mounted when I bought them but, I'm sure you know what i'm talking about.
--


Emil
GCi
http://groups.msn.com/randomrodders
Drive it!
46 Ford Sedan
37 Packard Super 8

Dave,they make two sizes of bearclaw style latch's. Large and small. I used the small ones on SKR8PN because of a lack of space.
--
A wise monkey,never monkey's with another monkey's monkey.

In replacing stock latches, do the bear-claw style latches also replace the need to have the wedges or guides that the original manufacturer would place around the inside door perimeter? If not, what have you all used in place of these guides?

I had no need for the wedge's,AFTER I replaced the hinges AND suicided the doors:)
--
A wise monkey,never monkey's with another monkey's monkey.

I'm still in the build up stage of my 37 roadster but I decided a while back to convert to bear claw latches. There are a few reasons I did this. First was safety. In an open car the doors do jump a bit, and I have seen doors fly open on old cars with original latches. Secondly, was when I took out the dove tails they were worn out, indicating that the bouncing had been happening quite a lot. Thirdly, was rattles..I hate them. The problems to convert over were unseen, so I will share my experience. First, I installed the latches in the original position....which was the meatier part of the door. This meant that the latch pin had to go where the original latch block was. Now this is recessed into the pillar by about 3/8" . The latch pins supplied ended up being too short. There is not much room for error and spacing out the pin meant less thread to hold onto.( I added a bit of flat bar to strengthen that area up before I started the conversion, so that meant less useable thread to start with ) I done some measurements and had a friend's son, who is a tool maker, fabricate up some new pins in stainless steel. He even made the allen key recess like the original pins...pretty clever stuff.
With problem solved, I moved on, but now I'm stuck with another problem of how to actuate them with the original handles. I need to make up some sort of spring return that slips over the handle shafts with the capability of attaching a link bar to the bear claws. The other problem is the room between the handle and latches is extremely tight and operate in the opposite direction that I need. I may have to go solenoid and micro switches. So these are the pit falls I have encountered, but I still don't regret doing it.

Just a side note. That "kathunk" sound of a well closing door is nice to hear and I have gone to great lengths to make sure the top of the doors make contact with the pillar at the same time as the bottom. I heard of a trick that some rodder mentioned on some forum...I would love to give him the credit but I can't recall who it was..so whoever it was...thanks. Here it is. There is a diagonal brace that goes from top corner of the door to the bottom.If you move this brace, either by twisting or bending, the whole door will twist. This is a bit extreme and not fine enough for my liking so what's the solution? You cut a section out of the brace and weld in one of those turn buckles...they are the things that they use to tention up wire fences. By turng the centre section in either direction, you move the ends inward or outward. I welded the turn buckle ends to flat 1" plate, then welded the plates to the brace. This gave a bit more strength in all direction. The end result is perfect alignment top and bottom of the door, just with a slight twist of the buckle. Once its right, just drop on a few drops of lock tight The door trim will hide the evidence.

see ya
--
see ya
Pep