I mentioned before that I was going to use modified Aerocatches for door catches. As standard Aerocatches can only be opened from the outside. this is fine for a bonnet catch, but for a door not all that useful. Jon has modified his such that they can be opened from both inside and out, but in all honesty I couldnt remember what he had said to do, so I had to do it from scratch.
As standard the catch works by going over centre, thus holding the handle down inside the body. There is also a latch to stop the handle from opening, which is hand as for this modification the catch annot go overcentre. If the catch goes overcentre the catch become impossible to open from the inside, what with limited space.
Once the arm was removed, you can see how the catch goes overcentre.
So I drilled a new arm pivot point to stop it going overcentre, and then trimmed the old pivot point off. I had to actually trim a little more off as the arm just touched this which stopped the catch closing fully!
The arm was then replaced. You can see at this angle that it will not go overcentre and so the spring will open the catch, rather than holding it closed.
I then marked out the door. I wanted the catches as far out on the door as possible, the thinking being it will hold it all in line a little better, but who knows.
Cut the hole and then marked out the mounting holes
and here we have the finished drivers door.
Tags: Bodywork
