big boot latch

[1789Participant]

Help! Has anyone got a second hand big boot latch for my 1953 legere?

these latches are not supplied anymore,ive looked everywhere.Its the latch that the boot handle fits into and is bolted to the underside of the boot lid

Its strange that lots of other parts are now reproduced..Without this part the bootlid will not catch and possibly fly up while driving.

What happens when you invest £12000 in a car that you can;t drive?

[AlistairParticipant]

Have you tried John Gillard?

[1789Participant]

I emailed John Gillard and he got back saying he was in the same situation as me..He had seen one (used)  in france asking 80 euros!

These suppliers could make a profit if they made a few

[David FaulknerParticipant]

The problem is they tend to split through the soft alloy where the handle shaft goes through, when that happens the action of the handle turning opens up the ‘square’ hole so doesn’t turn the actual catch.

I have an old one which you can have to try, but if it fails you could drill the rivets out and see about making a replacement part from brass rather than white metal.

e mail: osl282.info@gmail.com

Dave

[BernieParticipant]

Is this what you are looking for? ………

https://www.leboncoin.fr/equipement_auto/1568458785.htm/

‘fraid the price is a lot steeper than the one spotted by JG – but I suppose it is better than having an undriveable £12k investment.

In the meantime, you could always go in through the rear seat and loop a rope through the mechanism to hold it shut temporarily.

B…………………

[David FaulknerParticipant]

Interesting Bernie, so he is doing what I suggested. Taking a lock apart and replacing the weak part. Even with P/x it’s £137 + postage to France and back.

Offer still stands, you can have mine gratis + the cost of the postage so you can play with it 🙂

It’s possible it will work OK

[1789Participant]

Thanks Dave  I would be very happy to accept your offer!

Thanks Bernie for sourcing a replacement.It re inforces my point  A small secondhand  part selling for a lot of money because its rare

When I bought my car 19 years ago it was £3000 We are now driving cars that are worth £8000 upwards We want to pass these cars on.

so say someone buys a car for £12000  It will be a second car  and not often used .I think they would be pretty fed up if they cannot get a replacement

boot latch .Why are they not reproduced along with all the other parts

[ChrisParticipant]

Do these things fail often? Is is just that one failure point? The whole assembly looks complicated but we could look at getting just the part that fails made so owners could replace them themselves – if we have a part to copy.

Chris

[BernieParticipant]

I am only aware of one other failure than the one here.

In my experience, the cost of tooling to manufacture all the components and produce a complete latch would be well in excess of £10k.  In addition, production set-up costs would almost certainly dictate a fairly large production run to be at all economical.

The people who make spare parts are in business.  I would not expect a non-charitable organisation to make the necessary investment without knowing there will be a guarenteed profit in the foreseeable future so the apparent low requirement is not going to make production financially viable for those companies.

Chris’s suggestion of making  just one or two components may be more of a solution – as long as the failures can be shown to be restricted to specific parts.

For a start, it will be interesting to see how many responses this forum will receive from owners who have needed to replace this catch but I reckon it will probably require a much bigger – possibly worldwide – survey to generate enough interest and feedback to justify any expenditure.

B………

 

a. That may be a possibility

[Peter FeredayParticipant]

Part 803707 ‘Serrure de malle bombee’ seemingly available here for 55.25 Euros  http://doczz.fr/doc/445223/pieces-citroen-traction-enjoliveurs-de-carrosserie

[BernieParticipant]

Sorry to disappoint but that is the 2010 catalogue.  The current (2018) version shows the item as “nfp” = no longer supplied (page 36).

I would guess they may have had a small batch of old new stock at the time but now sold out.

B….

[Peter FeredayParticipant]

Thought that was too easy…..same part number does show as H37 in TOC spares at £65.04, presumably long gone too?

[David FaulknerParticipant]

Bernie mine failed on my ‘Malle Bombe’ as I described in a previous post (handle just spun in the hole so could’t open the boot without taking the seat out and crawling in) but managed to source 2 spares, the best of which is on my car.

It’s not a simple fix either as it means drilling rivets out to split the lock in half and might be beyond some members skill set.

[ChrisParticipant]

I have no idea what the shape if this part is, other than what I can see in the picture but I was thinking we could get some 3D printed if we had a decent part to scan. But I suppose, given the above, if anyone has a decent part it’ll be in a car!

But first it’s worth giving Chris T a call – if it is on the club parts list he must have had it at some point and may still. There may be one in the secondhand stock.

Chris

[Author]

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