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The Saturday night car show posse was on their 'A' game on yesterday!

The consensus is that drilling one ? inch hole through the INNER SKIN of the door ( special emphasis on inner skin ), and continuing through latch side plate will allow a rod, or screw driver, to press, or pry, directly on the pawl group, and thus unlatch the door. The location of the hole will be referenced from the 'fifth' screw hole location. See attached artwork.

I will consider modifying my NOS convertible latch to test feasibility of this idea. This modification should not damage the latch in any way. The inner surface of latch housing will however need to be deburred thoroughly so the locking bar can pass smoothly over the hole. I good job for one of those very small Dremel tool bits.

I also have found a sedan driver's side latch from a seller in Minnesota (the internet is wonderful thing). That item should be here Wednesday. Assuming that latch has a salvageable master pawl it may become a donor, or a direct replacement if it's in acceptable shape. It is also a candidate for the drilling operation.

If this whole mess works perhaps adding a hole and nickel plated grommet to the door panel, especially if the front seat hides it, would make life easier if this ever happens again . . . it depends on how much trouble it is getting the door panel off with the door closed.

dp

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Interesting idea and hope it works. Is the door panel still on and you will drill thru that or is the panel able to be removed with the door closed?

HH56; No 'on car' activity as yet.
I still want to disassemble the passenger's side to educate myself on what's going on, especially the exact location of the door panel clips. I would also like to try to move the inner handle linkage to get that mess out of the way presuming drilling operation is going to be done, or at least see if the linkage can be moved enough to drill the door. I would also like to investigate that rectangular hole just above the area where the hole/oval needs to go (see figure 19).

I've looked at the convertible's latch some more and think the oval hole has a lot going for it. If only the 'tab' (the part that either the outer or inner handle ultimately presses on) has broken (see BDeB photos) then a piece of metal (screw driver) slipped through the upper limit of the oval can take the place of the 'tab', then maybe one of the handles can be used to open the door. While the handle is being moved the screw driver will follow the handle lever downward, maybe, I might have to use the handle levers as a fulcrum. If the 'coordination' tab has broken (or the above doesn't work) then I think entering the 'oval' low to push the pawls along is the right plan. There's not a lot of room in that direction . . . a bit of the cover housing (BDeB photos have the housing cover removed) may have to go, but not a lot. It all depends if the gear will disengage the striker before the gear 'free-wheels'. Space is at a premium if 'free-wheeling' must happen, not so much if the striker disengages early.

With respect to the door panels: I think the interior was redone circa 2000 with period correct looking fabric. I would hate to lose a door panel. If it is lost then the replacement will surely have a feature that allows me to exercise the 'oval' hole and screw driver trick to open the door without messing with the door panel. In the Model A world there are escutcheons for slide locks, which are quite plain in design and Nickel plated. I'll check those out for potential use in the 'Deluxe Eight Touring Sedan'. To fix the trunk latch in this car I already have an acorn nut and tab washer from a Model A rumble seat, so a few more Model A parts won't bother me. I think the front seat back will help hide any trim piece I might add to the door panel. I'm sure I would not be able to tell by looking at it whether a 'tab' was about to break in next 5 years . . . that's one of the reasons I was keen on buying the passenger's side NOS unit.

I'll up-date this thread as additional information is available. Is there a degree available from 'Packard U' with emphasis on door latches?

dp

If there is some of the door fabric left over or a hidden 1 or 2" scrap you could cut off from somewhere and it is not terribly heavy material, maybe you could order a cover button kit from Amazon or your wife could pick one up at a fabric store and make you a fabric covered button. That might be a fairly inconspicuous option to cover a hole in the panel.

It took a little longer than I would have ever expected, but the door problem has been resolved. The scheme to drill an access hole through the door skin and into the latch works quite well. After measuring the clearance between the door panel and the rest of the car, especially along the lower edge, I concluded that there might be a higher risk of damage trying to remove the door panel with the door closed than the damage resulting from drilling the access hole.
I have attached a PDF file that describes the first phase of this activity . . . that will be followed-up with files containing more details on the actual repair of a latch.
Thanks for everyone's help.
dp

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Congratulations on finding a workable solution to this tricky problem !

Here's an essay discussing the door latch design. I've also included the 1940 patent that covers/protects most of the 22nd and 23rd series latch details.

Next up is a bit of 'hands-on' repair of a latch.

dp

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