Trunk Latch Success!

After a disappointing “round one” with the trunk latching mechanism on Saturday, this morning I came out swinging!  I took a closer look at the latching mechanism on my Subaru and realized that I had the angles all wrong.

First off I didn’t have enough room between the afterburner and the striker.  The striker was also too low.  Because of the existing location there was no way that I could swing the trunk lid without the latch catching on the afterburner.  So I quickly made a couple of extensions for the striker box, raised it up a bit and welded it in-place.

The next step was to then get the latch at the right angle inside the trunk.  I positioned it where everything looked correct and then attached a couple of pieces of 1/2″ plywood on both ends of the latch board and secured them to the trunk lid with some screws.

This let me mark the proper angle where the latch board met the two end pieces.  I could then remove it from the trunk lid and screw it all together to make a solid piece.

Once everything was secured together I placed it back into the trunk lid and re-used the initial holes for securing the end pieces of plywood with some screws.  Once I get everything secured I’ll blend it all into the trunk lid with some fiberglass to make it one solid piece.

I gave the latch a test run and it worked like a charm!  The latch snapped right onto the striker and the release cable popped the lever perfectly.  Take that you frustrating trunk!

The last step was to make sure that no part of the latch board was in the way of being able to replace the section of fiberglass which I had previously cut out to view into the trunk.  After a little bit of grinding the cut-out section fit right back into place 🙂