Re: KPack's 1954 Panama

Posted by DavidPackard On 2024/5/31 17:48:37

Kevin
In the years just before ’54 the door latches were electroplated with cad, or such. I would expect a cad plating on all pieces except the wave washer. To aid the production process, the spring was likely completely covered with a specific color paint . . . only to identify one spring design from another. I had quite a few 22nd / 23rd series latches and the amount of rust was manageable. If you use a paint stripper stay away from really caustic stuff that might strip-off the plating. Your blue paint is quite new isn’t it? Perhaps a soak in lacquer thinner is all you need. If you find a rubber bumper limiting the bell crank travel I would remove before soaking.
I believe the door hardware, such as latch & screws, window regulator, and striker were installed after the body/door left the paint shop, that is, the hardware was not painted.
There is a tight radius bend at the end of the button actuated bell crank. It’s the feature that rotates the latching cam away from the pawl wheel. Look for cracks there. Earlier latches tended to crack in the tight radius bends. It appears in the photo that HH56 supplied that the later latch design does not have the single point failure feature that defeats the entire latch operation . . . that’s a good thing. The springs do have a finite life.
If you find any patent numbers please send along so I might do a search for details.
dp