The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Striker Plate Spacers.

Does anyone know where I can purchase door striker plate spacers for a 1954 Chevy 3600 long box?
Or does anyone have a picture with dimensions so I can attempt to make them?
Thanks in advance.

Ken

Kenny,

I looked around for those spacers and could not find them either. They may be out there but they seem to be hidden. Someone may come along and help. I made mine from aluminum stock. Not hard to do. Just use the striker plate as your templet.
Have fun.

Mark

This is from Woodys web site

Not your year truck but you can get an idea and he give a short description at the bottom of the pic.

...Woodys link...

Here is a picture of the factory shims. I will look through my bits and pieces to see if I still have some to measure up for you.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/8129483247/in/set-72157631868452754

I made spacers out of another striker plate from a junkyard. Now, before I'm booed for converting a usable part into fancy washers, the junkyard later crushed all its cars and trucks when the scrap steel price was at its maximum. There were at one time 31 ADs there.

Hi Kenny,

Here are dimensions from my 55 first series striker shims. Thickness 0.170 inch. Width 0.810 inch. Length 1.420 inch. Sorry about the silly units of measure. I am definitely metrically challenged.

If you scroll back a few photos on Brad's Flikr site you can see one side of the shims is serrated horizontally. The other side is serrated in the center 1/2 inch in the vertical plane to match up with indexing ridges. Anything else just ask.

Brad, the NOS stuff you come up with is just amazing.

Thank you all for the replies.
Eileen that is what I read in the shop manual here the spacer is serrated.
http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1954truck/54ctsm0113.html
btw I have lived in Canada all my life and I to am "metrically challenged" lol
Did you use a micrometer to get these measurements?
Would it be fair to say
the thickness is 1/6 of an inch?
the width is 7/8 of an inch?
the length is 1 and 2/5 of an inch?
Sorry I am trying to convert these to fractions of an inch or as close as I can.
Thanks again for the replies.

Ken

Hi Ken,

Thank you for your understanding words. I am a woodworker mostly, so fractions of an inch are my preferred measurement too.

I am using a Harbor Freight dial caliper. Add that to the fact this is not a very precisely made part. Here is what I get. The thickness is 11/64th inch or just a bit under 3/16th inch. The width is 13/16th inch. The length is 1-27/64th or just a bit under 1-7/16th inch.

Eileen, that will do just fine.
Is the spacer serrated in the center of both sides with the side away from the striker plate being the vertical and the side facing the striker plate horizontal?
Thanks again.

Ken

Give Jim Carters a try. They have a huge boneyard full of old parts available.

Jeff

Yes, that orientation is correct. The door pillar has the vertical ridge and the back side of the strike plate has a horizontal ridge. But, the horizontal serrations cover the entire side. This photo Brad posted looks a lot like the shims on my truck.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/8129436365/in/set-72157631868452754/
The vertical serrations are the ones that only cover the center 9/16th inch.

Since it sounds like you are getting the doors in tip top working order do you already know about this little shim kit?
http://www.dreamershotrods.com/search.aspx?find=Door+latch+shims
It did wonders for me. I think they are available from most of the usual vendors. I only give you the Dreamer's link since they are local and familiar to me.

Best of luck to you.

The dimensions given have nothing to do with the metric system. They are in decimal inch, U.S. of A., SAE numbers. You simply converted/approximated them to fraction, U.S. of A., SAE numbers. I'm sure that the designers would have picked fairly standard dimensions. The size is probably 3/16 thk material, 13/16 wide and 1 7/16 long, as you said.

Thanks for the reply rustednuts.
That was one of the first spots I checked, I have bought quite a few parts through Jim Carters, a really good place to deal with.
I also have checked LMC another good place as well but no luck there either.

Ken

I bought a set of those from Jim Carter. They worked great for about 3 cycles before they were bent out of shape and would no longer stay on the latch.

I recommend NOT making them but hunting down originals for the reason that not only are they serrated to bite and stay put they are made of hardened steel so that the serrations stay there and don't get crushed allowing slippage.

Also inches multiplied by 25.4 = millimeters so:

11/64" (.172") = 4.37 mm

13/16" (.812") = 20.63 mm

1 27/64" (1.422") = 36.11 mm

Thanks for clearing that up bartamos.
Very good point Curt B, I may have to continue the hunt then.
Thanks to everyone for replying.

Ken