KrashDH
Top Post Dawg
Alright all,
I had the glovebox latch disintegrate in my hand a while ago when I opened it. I tossed it in the back seat and decided that my new glovebox just had added security since I was the only one who could figure it out.
Well, it looks just kinda bad so I decided to do something about it. The fix probably took me 15 minutes and it's holding up well so far. I know there's a few variations of this fix out there but I figured I'd share mine.
Most of us know that the plastic that holds the pins behind the latch gets soft, erodes, and disappears for some reason. It's garbage.
This is what mine looked like after the latch came off in my hand:
So here's what you're going to need to do for this fix. You need to get rid of the remainder of the 2 pin "holders" in the above photo. I just used a razor blade to get them as flush as possible with the base that they're molded into. You'll see that once you start trimming, those pin mounts have a "rib" behind them for support. You can kind of trim into this rib a bit.
You'll need to pick up a roll/spring pin kit from Harbor Freight or wherever you want. The pieces lined out below:
Upper is the roll pins, the shiny pins are the OEM latch pins, and of course the latch handle.
The idea with the roll pins as they will be the new "bushing" for the existing pins. It will work something like you see below:
You want to choose roll pins that are loose enough that the pins can rotate in them, but not too large that the pins come out the split. I just picked a couple from the kit that were larger and sandwiched them down until they were a close fit and the pins still rotated in the bushing.
It should be noted in the photo above that I epoxied (2-part) the OEM latch pins into their hole. Over the years they had ovalized the bore that they sat in. So they didn't stay put. The epoxy solved that.
You are going to use the 2-part epoxy, JB Weld, whatever you want to adhere the "bushings" (roll pins) to the now flat portion where you trimmed those old ugly azz tabs off of on your glovebox.
I opted to install some clear pieces of tape between the bushing and the latch handle on the backside before I did this. This keeps any of your epoxy or what have you from solidifying between the bushing and the latch handle. Note that these will be removed once the latch is in place, so leave yourself enough to grab the tape:
The next part is a bit tricky but key. Before you lay any of your epoxy on the surface where the plastic pin holders/tabs used to be, test fit the latch handle. What's going to happen is those bushing pins are going to want to "roll" towards the front of the car since you are pushing the latch in place. If the gap of your bushing pin rolls into your epoxy, no-bueno, because now you've glued your latch pins to your bushing pins and nothing will rotate. So I angled the gap towards the back of the car (facing the back of the latch) so when I pushed the assembly "into" the epoxy, the bushing pins rotated and the gap was facing up away from the epoxy.
If you don't want to use roll pins, you could find some brass tubing or something that's close to the diameter of the OEM latch pins and not worry about that last part (gap rolling into the epoxy) but I liked the roll/spring pins simply for the fact they could be closed down a bit and create a tight fit yet still allow the pins to rotate.
You now want to lay a generous "blob" of epoxy on the glovebox door, approximately as long or a bit shorter than the bushing pins, in the location of the old plastic pin holders. The idea here is when you install the latch handle assembly, the bushing pins kind of "squish" into the epoxy so that it surrounds the pin. That way when it solidifies, you've got support on all sides of the bushing.
Once it's in place, you can keep a hold of it and slide your tape up and out (finger shot!):
Hold it for the few minutes it takes to set, and put some painters tape over it to ensure it doesn't move and ensure you don't go to open it:
Let it dry for the appropriate time and now you have a functioning glove box. I don't recommend getting guerrilla with it trying to open it, but it will open and close with very little force:
Hope this gives some people options for fixing without removing/replacing the entire glove box door!
I had the glovebox latch disintegrate in my hand a while ago when I opened it. I tossed it in the back seat and decided that my new glovebox just had added security since I was the only one who could figure it out.
Well, it looks just kinda bad so I decided to do something about it. The fix probably took me 15 minutes and it's holding up well so far. I know there's a few variations of this fix out there but I figured I'd share mine.
Most of us know that the plastic that holds the pins behind the latch gets soft, erodes, and disappears for some reason. It's garbage.
This is what mine looked like after the latch came off in my hand:
So here's what you're going to need to do for this fix. You need to get rid of the remainder of the 2 pin "holders" in the above photo. I just used a razor blade to get them as flush as possible with the base that they're molded into. You'll see that once you start trimming, those pin mounts have a "rib" behind them for support. You can kind of trim into this rib a bit.
You'll need to pick up a roll/spring pin kit from Harbor Freight or wherever you want. The pieces lined out below:
Upper is the roll pins, the shiny pins are the OEM latch pins, and of course the latch handle.
The idea with the roll pins as they will be the new "bushing" for the existing pins. It will work something like you see below:
You want to choose roll pins that are loose enough that the pins can rotate in them, but not too large that the pins come out the split. I just picked a couple from the kit that were larger and sandwiched them down until they were a close fit and the pins still rotated in the bushing.
It should be noted in the photo above that I epoxied (2-part) the OEM latch pins into their hole. Over the years they had ovalized the bore that they sat in. So they didn't stay put. The epoxy solved that.
You are going to use the 2-part epoxy, JB Weld, whatever you want to adhere the "bushings" (roll pins) to the now flat portion where you trimmed those old ugly azz tabs off of on your glovebox.
I opted to install some clear pieces of tape between the bushing and the latch handle on the backside before I did this. This keeps any of your epoxy or what have you from solidifying between the bushing and the latch handle. Note that these will be removed once the latch is in place, so leave yourself enough to grab the tape:
The next part is a bit tricky but key. Before you lay any of your epoxy on the surface where the plastic pin holders/tabs used to be, test fit the latch handle. What's going to happen is those bushing pins are going to want to "roll" towards the front of the car since you are pushing the latch in place. If the gap of your bushing pin rolls into your epoxy, no-bueno, because now you've glued your latch pins to your bushing pins and nothing will rotate. So I angled the gap towards the back of the car (facing the back of the latch) so when I pushed the assembly "into" the epoxy, the bushing pins rotated and the gap was facing up away from the epoxy.
If you don't want to use roll pins, you could find some brass tubing or something that's close to the diameter of the OEM latch pins and not worry about that last part (gap rolling into the epoxy) but I liked the roll/spring pins simply for the fact they could be closed down a bit and create a tight fit yet still allow the pins to rotate.
You now want to lay a generous "blob" of epoxy on the glovebox door, approximately as long or a bit shorter than the bushing pins, in the location of the old plastic pin holders. The idea here is when you install the latch handle assembly, the bushing pins kind of "squish" into the epoxy so that it surrounds the pin. That way when it solidifies, you've got support on all sides of the bushing.
Once it's in place, you can keep a hold of it and slide your tape up and out (finger shot!):
Hold it for the few minutes it takes to set, and put some painters tape over it to ensure it doesn't move and ensure you don't go to open it:
Let it dry for the appropriate time and now you have a functioning glove box. I don't recommend getting guerrilla with it trying to open it, but it will open and close with very little force:
Hope this gives some people options for fixing without removing/replacing the entire glove box door!
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