Bear Claws it is!

I was dreading the job of possibly replacing the OEM door latches with aftermarket bear claw latches, but I had to do something since NOS or good used parts are so rare and expensive. I didn’t think I could satisfactorily rebuild the stock parts myself, and if I was able to find someone to rebuild them I suspected the price would be astronomical, so economics was a compelling consideration.


The stock latches in both cars were in terrible shape. The star wheels were badly worn and after cleaning and lubricating only one latch functioned at all. The rest worked intermittently, and one jammed to the point of having to occasionally pry it open. I finally decided to try the modern latches, and to first use the parts car door to experiment. If the idea proved impractical, at least I wouldn’t damage any project car parts in the process.


Since the passenger door skin on the parts car had already been cut open to access the jammed stock latch, I decided that it would be a good place to start.


After removing all the unused original parts from the door and jamb, I marked where the door had to be cut and drilled to install the latch. Instead of using a Dremel tool to make precise cuts, I relied on my trusty DeWalt saw and a couple of hand files to make an acceptable opening…acceptable, not neat! The temperature was 96F, so there was no time to waste making the beat-up old door look nice!  Minutes later the latch was in place.

Then I held the door closed, and through the hole in the skin, I marked the latch pin location on the jamb. In another five minutes I had drilled a hole and temporarily installed the pin, using a thick washer as a temporary shim on one side.  All in all, it took about forty-five minutes to strip parts off the old door and install the new latch.

The door now opens and closes better than it ever did, even when new! I located the new latch lower for two reasons. First, when centered it pulls the door closed more evenly. Second, there is no way to hide the latch claws where they would not be visible from inside the car. When they are mounted lower, they will be less obvious from the front seats and from outside the car.

My wife was released by her surgeon to resume light activities, so my caretaker duties are not quite so time consuming. Hopefully I can spend more time on the Plymouth.


I received the grease seals to replace the splitting and crumbling Chinese crap. As is the usual case in our modern shopping methods, the price for eight seals was less than nine dollars, and the shipping cost was nearly eleven dollars! The small bag of parts could have been shipped in an envelope, but they chose a box that could have contained a few hundred seals!