Alright, I am finally closing in on laying the paint on my van. one of the things I am working on is the visible hardware for mounting the doors/latches/etc. Trying to decide which fasteners to install and paint over vs. which ones to replace with new or chrome.

Anyways, my OCD is now directed at the door latch striker bolts. There is one for each front door and another one on between the side barn doors. They were installed and painted to match the van when it was built new, but now that the doors are all off and have had some body work done it is safe to assume that the strikers may need to be adjusted after the doors are re-installed. Obviously I don't want to leave them installed for paint and then have to move them after the fact thus showing the unpainted area underneath. I could certainly take them off and paint them separately, but that still seems less than ideal since they will get chipped up by the latch during normal use.

The obvious solution for me would be to replace the strikers with new replacements. Local parts stores have a variety in the "Help" section and they are usually bright metal (stainless or chrome?). Well, as usual my simple solution isn't as easy as I would like it to be. The only striker bolts I can seem to find are these ugly original ones that are meant to be painted over (dorman 38428):

https://www.oreillyauto.com/shop/bo...riker-15786/1985/chevrolet/g20?q=striker

What I was hoping to find are something more like these that show will fit a 1985 pickup. (dorman 38420):

https://www.oreillyauto.com/shop/bo.../1985/chevrolet/c20-pickup-rwd?q=striker


Has anyone used door strikers from a pickup on their van with any success? I am not able to access my van or strikers for a couple days and was hoping for a quick answer Has anyone used truck strikers on their van?. Hopefully someone has crossed this bridge before and can confirm whether they work or not.


Also, the pickup style striker bolts (and many others) have a plastic bushing on them. My originals do not and neither do the replacements that I'm finding are supposed to fit the vans. They are just solid metal. Now I am wondering if the lack of bushing is part of why my doors would sometimes squeak when going over bumps. Why wouldn't they use the bushings on vans like they did on the pickups?


Last edited by tuner4life; December 18th 2017 10:45 am.

[Linked Image]