After rebuilding the hinges and rehanging the doors I needed to fab the latch bolt area on the cab. I cutout the area local to the latch bolt and took the opportunity to go ahead a shoot some cavity rust treatment in the inner panel. I then used some tape to make pattern for the new cover plate out of 1/8 thick hot rolled steel. The plate ended up being a large flat plate with a smaller contoured edge welded to it to close it out properly.
I shot the back of the plate assembly with some weld thru primer and tacked it into place. I was able to close the door and reach inside it to mark the center of the latch bolt onto the plate assembly with the door correctly positioned. I then made some marks around the perimeter of the plate assembly so I could realign it to the cab once I had it completed. With it removed, I drilled a hole that matched the boss diameter on floating cage nut and welded the cage nut into place on the backside of the plate assembly and sprayed the cage nut with primer.
Then I realigned the completed plate assembly using the marks I had made earlier and welded it into place. Next the welds were ground down a little bit and the area was sprayed with some primer and the latch bolt was installed. The door latched worked properly but the RH door is dragging a bit against the washer on the latch bolt so I will need to address that issue. Next up will be to start getting the door gaps dialed in and it looks like I will need to install the drip rail after all.
1949 Chevy Panel Truck A Project Journal I'm old but I make up for it by being immature.
