Evan, I see you have a restoration shop. So I'm having a little problem understanding
your definition of a 'restoration'. Which I thought was the process of repairing the
degraded aspect of an automobile or truck with the purpose of returning it to an overall
"authentic" condition.
By cutting away parts of a pristine door and adding a completely different design of
door latch it would seem to me that it should then be referred to as a custom job, not a
‘restored’ vehicle.
Not to say that there aren't cases where the doors did fly open, where the original door
latches were worn out or they were maladjusted or the door simply wasn't closed
completely in the first place. Also people have been known to bump the handle with
their knee or hook it with their sleeve releasing the door latch.
I grew up on Chevy cars and trucks, getting my first one in the late 50's and owning
many more over the years. My full time work was at Chevrolet dealerships from '59
through the mid 60's at which time my uncle called me. It’s now 57 years later and I’m
still owning Chevy’s and I've never seen the doors fly open on a Chevy Car or Truck of
any vintage unless one of the previous conditions were present or occurred.
Do door lock wear after 65 years of use? Of course they do. Are they difficult for the
average person to repair? Of course they are. From the reports I’ve heard about the
stock appearing aftermarket replacement locks, they’re not quite up to snuff either. I’ve
got a pair somewhere here in the barn that I’ve never had occasion to use and they look
at first glance just like the original ones. I haven’t had a chance to evaluate them so I
can’t comment on how they fit or operate. But all that still isn’t a good enough reason to
modify a perfectly good door with a completely new design.
Just for those that are thinking of 'customizing' your doors or ‘up-grading’ or
‘personalizing' or 'modifying' or whatever you choose to call it, I've been hearing of
problems with the way the straight 'bolt-in' 'Bear Claws' are a little less than perfect also.
Specifically alignment problems with the handles after cutting away the back end of the
door.
A large number of the so called 'bolt-in' kits or products on the market require
modification or adaption which in many cases, the average guy simply isn't equipped to
tackle. If I were 'customizing' my truck I would ask around a bunch before I cut my
perfectly good doors apart leaving no path to turn back from. A couple thousand ‘Bear
Claws’ sold over the last few years compared to millions upon millions of GM latches
designed and installed at GM plants over the decades does not necessarily make it a
well proven design in my book.
And that’s just my take on the subject.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
