Broken Sliding Door Latch

Fuck. That’s really the only word for right now. Remember in my last post how I ended with “Dare I say we’re ready to roll?”, we’ll I dare not.

As I was literally placing my last “final” item into the car before locking up and preparing to drive it to Pennsylvania tomorrow, the sliding door refused to open.

Frantically I ripped the panels off the inside of the door, and simultaneously posted S.O.S. messages to the Aerostar Facebook group I’ve often turned to for advice to fix stuff.

As you can see, all of the mechanics of the door are connected and doing their thing, except for the whole “opening the door” part.

The door is clearly designed to never fail. You can’t see inside most of it or get to the latch at all without maybe cutting through the sheet metal.

I raced to my mechanic and said “please help!“. He spent a few minutes trying but had no luck, and asked me to come back on Monday morning 😪

Meanwhile, I’m lying through my teeth to my dad about how I can’t come do the surprise thing this weekend now because of a “burst pipe in my house”. I think he bought it.

I’m due to be in Pennsylvania on Thursday for a little vacation anyway, so this is going to have to be the backup plan.

Mondays are for cutting…

After 2 hours, several holes made in the sheet metal of the door, and now a few scratches on the freshly painted exterior of the door, we got it open.

The prognosis: a spring in the latch failed and I need a new latch. Off to eBay.

I emailed every seller who has the latches, asking if they’ll do overnight shipping. One of them responds quickly, and I had the latch ordered before I even drove home from the mechanic (with the door held closed with a bungee cord).

Tuesday’s are for disappointment

The latch didn’t arrive. Tracking says it never got picked up. Emailed the seller: “oh it didn’t get picked up, will send it out today” 😑

Wednesday’s are for racing the clock

The latch arrived around noon.

Hallelujah!

I quickly ran over to the mechanic and asked him to install it for me. I’m glad i did because it wouldn’t latch closed once installed and the door requires adjusting. What a nightmare, but…it’s fixed!

Now just to put touch up paint on the scratches that were made on the door 😢 and put together the interior panels…and go get the car washed again!