rear door lock assembly

[HenryVIII]

I see there is a door lock assy on ebay with a starting price of $675. That seem high. Does anyone know if there are repro door lock assys that are more affordable.? I have seen some old pictures of halftracks with a door handle used on the rear door. it looks the same as the ones used on the front doors. I thought this might be a cheaper route to take. I have not drilled the holes in the rear armor for either one yet. Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks.
Henry   

[steve1973]

Leo's Tractor had them for about half the price at one time. He has a bunch of halftrack stuff but don't know if he is around any more.

Steve A.

[HenryVIII]

Thanks Steve ,  Would you have contact info for Leo's tractor.

Henry

[steve-0]

leo is listed in the links section of this site under vintage tractor sales.

http://halftrackinfo.com/index.php?action=links;cat=2

715-325-6331

[dwhite]

I've tried Leo's website off of the links, but the url isn't there anymore.  DW

[Outsider]

His website hasn't worked in quite a while. You need to call him. I got some parts from him about 4 months ago.

Steve

[HenryVIII]

I have not been able to get in touch with Leo or vintage tractor sales. The web site is down and I cannot get through on the phone  Has anybody else had better luck? I am trying to find the rear door lock assembly. I may have to try to make the parts if I cannot find what I need. Would anyone know where I could find parts, or have some detailed pictures and or measurements. I think I could make it if I had some good pictures and measurements.

Thanks,
Henry

[bud44750]

Hi,
In a few weeks I'm planning on seeing a guy nearby who has an original set of rear door parts and making moulds, then patterns of them and then having the parts shown in the pictures cast in cast iron at a local foundry I do a lot of business with. I need them for mine and will and can make lots of extra raw castings for those who need them. It will be a several months to do that if you can wait.
I have quite a few close up pictures of this National guard museum M2 if anyone has a request.
bud

[spec4don]

I had some of the door mounts cast in Aluminum and it was fairly inexpensive.  I took one of the brass ones down to the foundry and they used it for a pattern. I think Outsider had the pins made up once. I got lucky and bought one off of Ebay a long time ago.

Don G.

[bud44750]

are all of the cast parts shown above cast in brass? if so I just have to use a different foundry

[spec4don]

Correct when I bead blasted everything was brass. You might try Valley brass in Salem, you kind of have to keep after them though. I still have one of my pieces up there. I had the aluminum pieces done at Oregon pattern works in Eugene. I think they were only about 6 bucks a piece. Brass was going to be about 20 dollars each. Now that I have everything mounted and painted you'll be hard pressed to find which part is aluminum and which one is brass.

Don G.

[bud44750]

Thanks Don
I have home foundry guy , Troy,north of salem, oregon who does all my flamethrower castings. great work at a good price and does brass or aluminum. There is also Silverton foundry for cast iron, a bit strong I think and not much more than aluminum but much less than brass.
bud

[HenryVIII]

Bud, Thanks for the pictures and info. It looks like from the pictures where the paint is chipped that the cast pieces are made of steel or iron. It is hard to tell for sure though.

I would be very interested in any of the parts to make a latch setup if you have some cast. I do not think it makes much difference what they are made from, once they are painted they all will look the same. That said, I think brass would be stronger than aluminum.

I have noticed that the parts on my halftrack that I thought were cast iron were actually cast steel. I say that because I can weld to them and the welds do not break like they would if they were welded to cast iron.   

Henry   

[Tapper02]

Bud,
  What parts are you planning on having cast?  I guess more importantly is what parts are you not going to cast?  I have the springs…just need everything else! 

-Tom

[bud44750]

 I'll be making moulds of the outside and inside door handles, the eccentric under the handle and it's base. the inside handle base and the small loops that hold the rods to the doors, everything else seems to be bent flat bar, springs or rods. A really good material also might be ductile iron ,I have two foundries I use to make parts and the finish is great and the castings have  the strength of steel and will actually bend like steel but machines like cast iron .i.e. like butter ( just makes a dirty mess from the graphite). first steps though is to get the moulds done as that is a lot of work and the same for getting the moulds transferred  onto a pattern board so the foundry can deal with it. For guys who have never seen a pattern board, here is an actual one for a ductile iron part from an antique streetcar. this board is what the foundry uses to cast a copy of the part in the foreground.
bud