The Doors
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This is a picture of the original hinge screws/bolts. I got them ALL (32 of them) out fairly easily using the tool that is in the next picture. BUT the bottom two inside nuts on the back seemed to be just held in place and bolted rather than spot welded to the post. Got them out anyway. Will make a "welded nut plate" to replace the "loose nuts".
Learned something AGAIN from "The H.A.M.B." website, where lots of hotrodders and old men post and discuss their cars. This one was relative to the fact that early Ford door hinge screws/bolts generally WILL NOT come out with conventional tools. But if one grinds down an impact hammer (pneumatic) flat "scraper" blade to "half a philips" shape, and stand on the impact hammer while turning the blade with vise-grips or channel locks, like MAGIC, the dang thing will unscrew NEARLY every time !
New passenger's side hinges installed and nearly ready to put back on the car. The two straps on the door are the brackets to install/hold the bottom section of the door gaskets in place. I spray painted the inside of the door with gloss black Rustoleum so that the glue on sound deadening will stick. Done that before, and it works. Kinda purdy..............................HINT: Install the door gasket strap on the bottom of the door (I used 3M body black double sided tape) between the door and the rail and also between the rail and the gasket and install the bottom door gasket. Wash the door gasket surfaces so it will stick, otherwise it won't stick very well to the rail. Bend the tabs back down over the edge of the gasket. LOTS easier than laying on your back trying to get things to work out from the floor.
Bear Claw door latch retrofitted into the door. Had to mount as far out near the outside surface as possible to clear the window guide rail, which is not installed in this picture. It's in the next picture. The four extra holes with screws/bolts are fake just to dress up the jamb a bit.
Had to install the new Bear Claw door latch near the outside of the door because the window channel is too close to the inside surface of the door and the latch would not fit closer to the inside of the door. Removed the "door lock" mechanism on the door latch because it's not necessary with "key fob" door opener. Will mount a "fake" door lock knob just for grins. You can see how close the window guide rail is to the bear claw latch and near the top and to the left of the guide rail you can see the edge of the solenoid pull wire that is just behind the rail.
Fabricated bracket to be mounted inside the door with the push button switch to be depressed when interior door opening handle is raised. The momentary switch (from O'Reilly's) will activate the "door opening" solenoid through the MPC PK-A1 PC3 (via Amazon) electronic door opening module. You can use a "low amp" switch because the relays to trigger the solenoids are built into the control module. Mechanical linkage is impractical because the latch is on the opposite side of the window glass/channel which is very close to the rear door jamb. I ultimately had to trim off some of the backside of this bracket to assure that it would not interfere with the window glass.
Right side door. This should be easier, since I got the dimensions worked out on the left side door already. This is the panel that comes with the Bear Claw latches, but is useless for Shoebox installation, except for using part of it to weld in the "bolt" part of the latch. Took the key points from the first door to mark out the cuts. This first marking is incorrect, but I caught myself before doing any cutting of the door.
To get the angles correct, the door is set so the inside surface is at a 10 degree angle, then the vertical scratch mark is to be vertical., and goes on the edge of the little slot on the upper left. By the way, these first markings are wrong. So I more carefully plotted new scribe lines in the next few pictures.
Initial fit looks fine with holes located. Hint: if you use the opposite side latch assembly, you can turn it upside down and mark the third hole on the right. They are not in a straight line with each other. I actually pounded a punch through the third hole from the rear of the panel and drilled it out where the dimple was.
Back to the driver's side door...Got the latch bar located on the door (position has to be pretty much EXACT) jamb and ready to weld in plus a filler piece toward the inside. Black marking is trim line for the mounting plate to conform to curve of door. The mounting plate has a captured large "nut" on the back that moves within a housing that you can see past the edge of the plate on the right side. I had to cut a square hole out of the rear of the old latch area for the plate to sit flat on the face.
I decided to use the screw holes and screws to get the placement correct rather than spot weld it. If you look at the washer on the bolt, I had to adjust the bolt at the extent of it's movement (little crack showing on upper right) to get the latch to engage properly. That shows that I need to mount the plate a little lower and to the left (outside).
The pull rod for the Bear Claw has to have a couple of offsets to get around the back side of the window guide rail. UPDATE: this was redesigned to be much more straight and relocated the solenoid from the edge of the door to the left about 4 or 5 inches so that the pulling force is perpendicular to the pull lever. See following pictures.
UPDATE: These extensions trying to get more leverage on the bear claw latch still is not sufficient to open the doors due to the force required to trip the latch, SOOO see the next page regarding addition of a manual unlatch scheme using bicycle brake cable and additional brackets. ORIGINAL TEXT: This is the first try at getting those DAMNED Bear Claw door latches to work. This is a fabricated extension to the pivot lever to double the leverage to unlock the doors. Still did not work, so I made another one over twice as long to quadruple the lever arm length to multiply the leverage to unlock the door and it finally worked. See the next picture.
