When I did the strikers for my doors, I just lined up the old striker with the new striker and drew a line with a marker on the new one where I wanted the cut. After it was cut I lined it up with the old striker and drew a line on that, then cut the piece I was going to weld on a bit long. I kept one striker uncut to use as sort of a pattern, and carefully ground off the piece until it was the right length.
The two things I found out were that 1) cut as much as possible off the center of the new striker, and use as much as possible of the top and bottom of the old striker, so as to leave enough room for adjustment up and down. And 2) keep the face of the striker as flat as possible. The first time I tried, the top part ended up slightly tilted, which made it difficult to line up.
Also, I ended up trying to do as much of the welding on the front face, because I found out it was difficult to get in to grind off on the back side.
Good luck!
Tim
I am currently digging back in to a 1953 3800 (one ton) with a nine foot bed. I've owned it since 1979, and drove it until 1982 (or so). My wife got me involved in restoring it back in 2002, got the body removed and the frame redone, then things came up. Now I am retired and starting again. If anyone is interested I have photos on Imagur (
https://timwhiteblues.imgur.com/ ). I live way back in the woods in the Ozarks on 40 acres at the end of a 2 1/2 mile private road.
Tim
