Got tired of fighting to remove the door lock ***** on my '66 anytime I needed the door panel off for any reason, so I modified the door lock **** to eliminate the problem of trying to find and remove the "C" clip retainer that holds the **** onto the shaft.




Installed a small 8-32 set screw on the bottom side of the lock, nearly unnoticeable from a sitting position from either door, you have to get down low to see it, and even then I don't think it looks too much out of place.




I drilled the hole on an angle such that the set screw enters into the space just behind the serrated portion of the lock shaft, the same space that the locking clip snaps into. It really doesn't need to bear on the shaft, just enter the space such that the **** won't fall off the shaft, and a little blue threadlocker holds the screw in place. I can now have a door panel off the car in 15 minutes or less using the Lysle tool to remove the "C" clips on the vent and window cranks, and removing the set screw from the lock ****.


Thanks to Tom, Sky 65 for supplying a set of lock *****! Not everybody's cup of tea, but a doable job should you wish to go that route. Tom also suggested an alternative to drilling by starting from the rear of the raised turning flange. This would place the set screw at the rear of the ****, and would only be visible when the door was opened. I believe drilling from that direction would also be easier than from the curved face as I did.

Just wanted to post this in case anybody else has the problems that I have in removing these *****. One **** used to take me 2-3 times as long as the rest of the door fasteners together . . . . not anymore!

 

Very trick and a real time saver. Thanks for the details! D

 

Thanks much! I can go into more detail and have more photos should anyone need more info.

 

Pretty innovative Ron.
Nice work

 

Nice work. That is always the hard one to get off on C2's.

 

Very innovative. Thanks.

 

Thanks for the kind comments guys! I also considered using one of the small high strength magnets to hold the **** in place, but that reduces the amount of engagement on the shaft by about 1/8" or so and the **** then also feels a bit wobbly on the shaft. I thought about milling the inside of the **** by 1/8" or so to let it fully seat, but just checking by eye it appears that milling to that depth could stand a good chance of breaking through the curved side of the ****. The **** itself is non-magnetic, but a small spot of Gorilla glue or similar on the back side of the magnet would hold it in place. The ***** really don't need a lot to keep them in place, I believe they'd almost stay on without a clip. This was just another thought, and I may try and pursue it a bit further at some point . . . .

 

Ron, I'm tired of spending an hour to take off one of those *****. I'd really like to do this on my C2.It'll help keep my blood pressure down the next time I remove a door panel. I'd really appreciate a little more detail particularly drilling the hole and installing the set screw.

Tom

 

One more pic, here's a sketch I tried to make to help me lay out what I needed to do. It's nearly to scale, the 30 degree solid line is what I was hoping for but I believe I wound up nearer the dashed line in my drilling effort. The 0.415 to 0.420 dimension is roughly the depth of the hole in the ****, and the 0.210 dimension is from the back side of the slot for the clip to the rear face of the ****. For the 8-32 thread size I used for the set screw, the tap size recommended is a #7 drill. I don't own any numbered drills so I always size to the nearest 64th that will get me there. In this case, a #7 drill is 0.2010 inches in diameter, and the closest for me to that is a 13/64th, which is 0.203125 inches. That makes it only 0.002125 over, works well enough here in cotton country!



I thought while I was here I might as well add the 8-32 setscrew that I made as well. I planned on using a socket head set screw, but after checking a couple of parts places and a couple of machine shops, the best I could find was 1/2 inch length screws. I needed a 5/8 to 3/4 inch length screw, but they're pretty uncommon in a small town. So, I proceeded to modify a common 8-32 flat head screw. to my specs. Put a couple of nuts on the screw to hold it in a vise without damaging the threads and proceed to use a hacksaw to deepen the groove in the flathead screw down into the body of the screw threads, only about 1/16" or so. Then, removing the screw from the vise I proceeded to grind off the flat head portion leaving only the screw shaft with a slot for a small screwdriver. My 3/4" flathead screw produced a 5/8" slotted head setscrew. Turns out it was just right for one ****, just a bit long (you want the screw completely inside the **** when finished), but a couple of short trips to the grinder cured that.






Hope this is a bit of help to some who've inquired . . . . . . .

Ron

 

Tom

Sent you a PM!
Ron

 

That's how I did mine. 8 mm x 3 mm rare earth magnets (because I had some in stock and they worked). I used an 8mm center cutting end mill on my milling machine. I went down 3 mm on my old lock **** as a test and crazy glued it in place. Turns out my new door panels are a little thick in that area and they didn't want to stay put. So on my new ***** I went down 1.5 mm, glued them in, and it works like a charm.


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Hey buns, great to know that the magnets will work as well, great pics! The 8 mm diameter x 3 mm thick magnets were what I was experimenting with as well. But, just visually inspecting it appeared to me that one would be dangerously close to cutting through the **** with a 3 mm depth cut for 8 mm diameter magnets. The flange on the **** measures about 6 mm thick and I didn't want to risk cutting through. Further, I had lost access to all of my machine shop tools including lathes, bead blast cabinets, milling machines, band saws, and other similar items too numerous to mention when my cousin retired last month and sold his machine shop to another local fellow! So, I went ahead with the set screw method.

Turns out my repro door panels are also too thick in that area, along with the location for the lock **** being mislocated such that I had to actually trim around the outer edge of the **** to even make installation of the **** possible on my door panel. You can see the mislocation in my picture above. The **** location was the only item significantly off on these panels, I'm sure that 40 years later manufacturers have gotten better in their reproductions. But, countersinking the **** into the panel makes access to the "C" clip[ even more of a challenge . . . . .

In my opinion, either the set screw method or the magnets beat the factory "C" clips . . . .

Ron

PS: One other tip for folks removing the lock ***** . . . . even after removal of the "C" clip, set screw, or in trying to pull the **** off if it has a magnet, it can be a bit difficult to remove from the shaft since there's no easy way to hold onto the **** and wiggle and pull sometimes. What may help you out a lot is to take a 2-3" length of duct tape or packing tape with a good tack strength and fold it with each free end stuck to each side of the flanged part of the lock ****. You can even place a nail or similar item at the center of the loop the tape makes before attaching the ends to the **** to give yourself a bit of a handle to assist in removing any stubborn ones. It's worked for me a couple of times, removes a bit of the frustration if the **** doesn't want to readily come free .