What year did the door latch move?

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Akgriffith
Posts: 103
Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2016 9:05 pm
Your car is a: 1977 and 1970 Spider

What year did the door latch move?

Post by Akgriffith »

Anybody out there know when Fiat changed the door latch location? I have a '77 that has a damaged drivers door, I got a door from a donor '70. The door does bolt right to the hinges and it does fit, however the door latch on the door and the striker on the car body don't line up. They are off by at least 1.5 inches. Upon further inspection it seems the '77 door has a large support brace inside going front to back. I assum it's to help with side impact crashes. The donor door being older does not have this brace. That leads me to believe that sometime between '70 & '77 Fiat added this brace and had to move the latch because of it. Now I need another donor door, but don't want to end up with the same problem. So does anyone know when they made this change?
Alex Griffith
1977 124 Spider - Slowly coming together
Akgriffith
Posts: 103
Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2016 9:05 pm
Your car is a: 1977 and 1970 Spider

Re: What year did the door latch move?

Post by Akgriffith »

Someone out there must know when this changed. You guys know everything about these cars!
Alex Griffith
1977 124 Spider - Slowly coming together
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seabeelt
Patron 2019
Patron 2019
Posts: 1614
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:22 pm
Your car is a: Fiat Spider - 1971 BS1
Location: Tiverton, RI

Re: What year did the door latch move?

Post by seabeelt »

Sometime between 72 and 74 I think (probably closer to 74)
Michael and Deborah Williamson
1971 Spider -Tropie’ - w screaming IDFs
1971 Spider - Vesper -scrapped
1979 Spider - Seraphina - our son's car now sold
1972 Spider - Tortellini- our son's current
Akgriffith
Posts: 103
Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2016 9:05 pm
Your car is a: 1977 and 1970 Spider

Re: What year did the door latch move?

Post by Akgriffith »

Thanks Seabeelt!
Alex Griffith
1977 124 Spider - Slowly coming together
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