My Willys 3A and 3B Community

3A, 3B, DJ Technical Knowledge Base => "Original"-- Technical Questions, Answers, Observations => Topic started by: SteveW on September 13, 2013, 08:58:05 PM

Title: Hard top door latch repair
Post by: SteveW on September 13, 2013, 08:58:05 PM

Some of you live where hard tops are useful, down here it's like an Easy Bake oven so when I bought my 2nd 3a it had a pitiful aluminum top and only decent thing was the latches. One didn't work and the other just barely did so I decided to see what it would take to fix them. Here is interior and it's easy to get apart just look for and drill out the spot welds.
(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/P1010538.JPG)

(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/P10105391.JPG)

The flat spring was broken and that would be typical of wear/water and rust over time.

After cleaning everything a coil spring would be better so I got a steel rivet from Ace Hardware and drilled a hole in body and up into the latch.

(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/P1010574.JPG)

I thought 2 springs would give more force than 1 but it doesn't work that way so disregard the pic but remember 1 spring goes over the rivet shaft and this keeps spring from kicking out. You have to play with length to allow it to compress yet push the latch up enough. I got the springs from Ace also

(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/P10105751.JPG)

Here is the body reassembled and a coat of Ospho on it. I didn't take it to bare metal as I was going to sell it and let buyer decide what to do.

(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/P1010576.JPG)

You can see where I migged the rivet head and ground it flush and also where the 2 holes that the spot welds were drilled out are and they were welded closed

All done and I put some powdered graphite inside to slick it up and it works like a champ

(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/P1010577.JPG)

Polished the chrome and except for the bolts/nuts for attachment to the top it's done

(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/P10105781.JPG)

(http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/medium/P10105791.JPG)

Not sure what my top was but company that made the latches is in Chicago and still in business and a couple people said they looked like same latches on Sears tops. I imagine it was a generic latch. Probably about 4 bucks in parts

Title: Re: Hard top door latch repair
Post by: 1955CJ-5 on September 13, 2013, 10:50:26 PM

That's neat...I have a hard top but it's been so long since I looked at it I don't even remember what kind of latches it has...