While it's true that our cherished classic trucks were built when things were meant to last there's a limit to the service life of any mechanical part. As an example, can you guess how many times the doors of your truck have been opened and closed? If you have to slam the doors to get them to stay shut, or yank on them to get in, you know what we mean about service life—the latches are history.
A popular method to replace worn, unsafe door latches is to update with bear jaw or rotary jaw latches (the difference is bear jaws normally have two jaws that capture the latch pin, the rotary has one). And while both designs are significantly better than the originals, the difficulties with such swaps has always been that installing universal versions of either often requires a considerable amount of surgery on the doors and getting the original inner and outer door handles to work is difficult at best—but all those issues have been addressed by the Altman Easy Latch kit from Trique Manufacturing.
From its humble beginning in a barn with a small CNC machine, Trique Manufacturing has grown considerably and now offers a line of quality American-made products, including Altman Easy Latch kits. Developed by Terry Altman, who wanted to install rotary latches in his award-winning truck without the need to weld on or repaint his truck's freshly finished doors, kits are now available for 1947 to 1966 Chevy and 1940 to 1956 Ford trucks.
Altman Easy Latch kits are vehicle specific and include contoured plates that allow rotary latches to simply bolt in place. While trimming of the doors is necessary, the design of the latch mounting plates is such that the installation can easily be done on finished trucks; the only paintwork required would be to shoot the mounting plates to match the doors. But that's not all—not only do the Altman Easy Latch kits simplify installation, they are also designed to work with the exterior handles, interior handles, and the exterior door lock cylinders of the specified vehicles. (While the latches can be locked from the outside, the Altman Easy Latch can't be locked on the inside by pushing the handle forward as with the originals. Electric locks or manual levers can be added.)
On the subject of service life, all the Altman latch components are zinc plated to fight corrosion and the internal claws are case hardened and black oxide coated. Each kit comes with everything necessary for installation: Latch plates, vehicle-specific rotary claw latches, templates, hardware, striker plates, stainless steel striker bolts, detailed instructions, and no welding is required. The Altman kit really is the Trique way to replace worn-out door latches.
01 The Altman Easy Latch kit from Trique Manufacturing includes everything to install rotary door latches. In this case we're working with a 1956 Chevy pickup, but all other kits install in a similar manner. Latches are available for stock or shaved outside handles.
02 This is the stock Chevy door latch that has served well past its useful life. Note the linkage leading to the inside handle.
03 Typical of original striker plates, this example is on a 1964 Chevy. New plates and pins come in the Altman kit.
04 With the window in the up position the interior door handle, window crank, armrest, interior door plate, door latch, and the exterior door handle are removed.
05 Using the supplied dimensions a marker is used to lay out the area to be removed.
06 The tool of choice to remove the necessary material is a small cutoff wheel. This operation requires care to prevent slicing into the window channel.
07 A file is used to clean up the rough edges of the cut that are just waiting to snag an unsuspecting finger.
08 Using the dimensions in the instructions, marks are made on the interior doorplate to position the supplied template.
09 The template is folded on the pre-marked line then positioned between the lines.
10 As can be seen here the cuts on the doorplate wraps around the rear edge and intersects the opening for the stock latch.
11 Once again the cutoff wheel is called into action to make an opening in the doorplate for the latch and its mount.
12 The opening on the doorplate looks large but it will be completely covered by the Altman latch mount.
13 Trique offers two panel options to dress the doorplate—short for trucks not using the factory interior panel, and a long overlay (shown) for stock panels.
14 To use the long panel the two raised surfaces on the interior doorplate must be flattened with a hammer and dolly.
15 With the new insert panel in place the holes for eight retaining screws are center punched.
16 After drilling the insert is attached to the doorplate. The insert can be painted or upholstered.
17 This photo shows how the insert wraps around the doorplate and covers the hole cut earlier.
18 One of the things making the Altman kit unique is this release lever on the latch that is activated by the original door handle.
19 The new rotary latch attaches to the supplied insert (long or short) with the supplied button-head screws.
20 A slight bend, the strap connecting the door handle to the latch is necessary to keep it from getting hung up during operation.
21 The strap is attached to the new latch with the supplied 10-32 capscrew and locking nut; as this is a pivot point it can't be over-tightened and must be free to move.
22 This is jaw of the rotary latch that captures the pin in the door. Sturdy and safe, this design is found on many OEM applications.
23 The old striker assembly is removed and replaced with the new bracket and pin.
24 With the door handle in place the swap is undetectable—that is until you feel solid operation of the new latch in operation.
