Shut that door
On our recent summer road trip to Scotland, we had a small incident where the passenger cab door flew open when we thought it was shut! Fortunately, it happened when we were going slowly around a corner as we were stopping for fuel so no-on fell out! The door lock had always been a bit tricky to shut/lock. On closer inspection, you could see that the cab door strike plate was quite badly worn and showing its age.
well-worn original VW strike plateSo whist the bus was in for some winterisation work at Resto Classics, this was added to the list of things to do! I had managed to source a pair of used genuine original VW cab door strike plates, but the work was a bit more involved than just replacing the striker plate, especially on the driver’s side!
not the prettiest ‘fix’, but it worked and lasted a good few years!Not pretty!
Bizarrely I had not really noticed the driver’s side ‘repair’ initially, I guess as the cab door lock worked (albeit a bit hit and miss lock operation at times), I never really cast my eyes that way – doh! OK, so not one of the prettiest repair in the world, but it had been in place for a good few years before my ownership. Unsure what caused the issue in the first place, but sometimes out of necessity or availability of suitable parts, a repair was fashioned out of what was had at the time, and it had certainly stood the test of time!
previous ‘fix’ removed so the repair area can be worked onTime to remove the previous repair bar and get to work! It was time to get the striker plate area more appropriately repaired, and give the second original striker plate some solid metal to screw onto!
a custom tristar captive nut was made and caged in placeRestricted repair
Trying to keep any repair work localised as much as possible, Phil at Resto Classics had a cunning plan! He fashioned a custom tristar captive nut, which was then held in place by a cage arrangement at the back of the repair piece to be welded in place. This way the minimum amount of the solid original metal surrounding the repair area would need to be disturbed.
new repair section welded and grafted into placeSolid strike plate
Once the new section was welded in, the welds could be ground back and the area treated with red oxide primer (a reasonable colour match) and then given a quick protective coat of clear coat to seal the primer.
localised repair complete with a replacement original VW strike plate fittedThe handles and lock mechanisms were given a tweak and grease up, and suddenly I have cab doors that both lock and close with very little effort at all! 🙂
