Side Windows / Latches, need help

Mitch Krause

Supporter
OK, need some thoughts on the side windows in the door and installation of the latches. I looked and found some similar latches, but could not find a picture that clearly showed things, nor a template of sorts for the install location. The picture that is either attached to this post, or in a reply (depending on if it goes up right away), shows the latches and hinges that I have. Note that I have them mounted on a piece of plastic that I used to prototype the install. Here are my questions.

1. For the two hinges, I think I viewed a pretty good picture of one car that showed the “longer” of the two parts as belonging to the small window that pivots. I guess confirmation of that would be a good thing.

2. For the hinges. Are they mounted on the window such that two screw holes on the bottom of the two pieces are equidistant from the edge of the lexan? This would seem to make the center of the swing then parallel with the edge between the two pieces.

3. For the latch. On the “sides” of the latch (I will call the portion next to the lexan as the bottom, the part opposite that the top, thus having two sides). One of the sides is less slanted than the other, it is very close to vertical. Are the two sides that are less slanted (almost vertical) on the two pieces of the latch supposed to be closest to each other. (they are that way in the picture, but you could reverse them).

4. For the latch. The biggest issue that I seem to have is where to mount this. I tried having it such that the two screw holes in the two different pieces were equidistant from the edge. I tried to mount the piece that has the slotted part of the latch closer to the edge of the window than the other piece (which made the other piece, the one on the small pop out window farther from the edge). And I tried vice-versa. In all cases, the issue is that when the slotted latch is moved to “open” the window, it contacts the edge and binds and will not open. What is the correct way to mount these?

Thanks in advance for any help.
 

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Mitch Krause

Supporter
Wow 90 views and no thoughts. I think I might have it figured out. I made a full size model of the window using thin wood that is about the thickness of the Lexan and then tried various positions of the hinges. See the attached pictures. Basics are that the hinges (the two that are on the same side) have to be positioned such that the piece that is mounted on the larger window glass is as close to the edge of the cut as possible. This helps make sure you have adequate swing outward. Then the latch part (the single piece on the other side) has to also have the piece that mounts on the larger window as close to the edge of the cut as possible. The one picture then shows the result. Note that when opening the sliding part of the Latch just barely rubs on the edge, but at least it now appears to open without binding with this positioning. I did have to remove about 1/8 of an inch from the smaller window piece (the one that moves) on the side by the two latches so that it does not catch and prevent opening.

I am not quite ready to move to drilling the Lexan as I have to contemplate what it might mean to put some sort of a seal on the edges like seems to appear in different photos. Plus I hope to have confirmation of this layout from RCR support. I sent a query to them a number of days ago and reminded them yesterday so am still hoping to hear back.
 

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