DOORS SEEM TO OPEN FOR ME

Greetings!

I tackled a different problem today on the '51 Chevy; how to repair the driver's door relay. The spring had broken a long time ago and although the door handle would open the door from the inside, the handle wouldn't spring back to the closed position. The possibility exists for the driver's door to open by itself at any time. This could be dangerous! 

I checked last night on several websites, trying to locate a new replacement without any success. I would have to repair the old one or try to make something else work. In my experience, it's impossible to weld the spring back together. It's made of spring steel and if it's welded, it will just flex at the weld point and not perform as intended.

I mentioned in my last post that I had a spare relay from my wife's '54 Chevy pickup. It was brand new but the manufacturer made it incorrectly and it wouldn't work on the '54. I compared the two and learned that the biggest obstacle would be the longer shaft on the new one. I didn't want it to put the door handle smack in the driver's rib cage. 

I started by grinding out the rivet holding the actuator arm onto the relay. It was too short and was a flat strap instead of a skinny rod. Then I cut away the entire tab area leaving just the mechanism itself. 

I was thinking that if I could cut away enough of the tabs, the body of the relay might just set deeply enough into the recessed door panel to hide some of the long shaft. Then I measured and cut the original actuator strap to make mounting tabs.

But instead of welding them to the back panel of the relay like the original, I would weld them to the front, so it would force the relay closer to the door panel. 

I test fit the mechanism several times and learned that the new relay 'trigger' lever in the top center of the mechanism was too far from the door jamb for the stock rod to reach. As a remedy, I took a 1/4" rod and chucked it up in my lathe to drill out the center.

I only used an inch or so in length but drilled all the way through. Then, I cut the stock relay rod and inserted one end into the 1/4" rod and welded it securely. Then I bolted the whole assembly together to determine how deeply to insert the other end of the relay rod in the other end. After welding it securely, I removed it and deburred the welds so it wouldn't hang up on the upholstered panel later. All that was left was a live volunteer to test it.

Of course, if it didn't work, the volunteer would have to spend the balance of his life living inside a 1951 Chevrolet business coupe. I decided to make the daring test myself; a human Guinea pig. Needless to say, it worked perfectly and I was able to free myself and move onto something else. 

My wife says that the odd shaped raised portion of the door panel in the bottom-left of the picture above with the 3 holes looks like a baby chick, or an owl to her. I told her it was a subtle GM code indicating that these slinky business coupes were well-respected chick magnets back in the day.

The next chore was cleaning up the Camaro rear axle and rebuilding the brakes. I went out to my rear axle pile at the edge of the orchard and picked up the axle myself and carried it into the shop, a distance of about 75 feet.

I think the axle with brake backing plates weighs about 6 tons. I'll find out exactly and report later. I just want you to know that I'm extremely strong. My wife agrees. She says I'm a chick magnet.

Thanks,
Doug