One of the most satisfying accomplishments I have had was fixing a very badly worn and corroded door latch on my 50. I totally disassembled it, including removing the parts that were welded on or peened in place. I then replaced worn away metal with a TIG welder, using a good passenger side latch as a reference. It was amazing how much metal was missing. Most of the damage to these latches is caused by misaligned doors due to worn hinges causing them to crash into the striker plate causing broken welds, bent metal and severe wearing away of metal. A misaligned door is also a problem in getting a good latch to work properly.
