Why bear claw latches?

[Tri5Nerd]

I'm reseaching them too, Kabwe just did his with AutoLoc. I also read somewhere that someone said he used a soft top Jeep door lock, I don't know what the model was but it was heavy duty.

Tri5

[scotts62]

I know its a different year but i put bear claw latches in my 62 and thats the way to go, i had my door fly open on a turn too and talk about gripping the seat and pulling cotton out later! Now that will scare you!

I got mine at the local Rod and Custom show that comes to town every year, if i remember right the brand was Autoloc, they came with the weld in plates and all and they work good with door poppers.

[Thadious]

I pulled a set of YJ soft door locks from a wrecking yard in Oregon. Basically pretty much the same as the Autolocs and meet the maximum space requirement of 3/4" thick to go between the side of the door and the window channel. I bent up a pair of brackets from 18 ga steel and used the cover plate off my kids YJ for a cutout template.

The one thing that I found that you will have to consider with the soft doors is that (atleast my set anyways) has no provision for locking the latch. Two levers with only the capability to unlock the latch, nothing else. I decided to go with door poppers and shave the handles, so this wasn't an issue. If you decide to go with 52-53 door handles, they are lockable from the outside (if you buy the repop set that replaces the drivers button with a lockable one). However you will have to do some mods to change the push button to a lever action (was toying with this myself using pieces from a PT cruiser handle).

Cheers,
Ted.