Well, Thanks to Charlie I got this done!
Many thanks!
After reading some old threads I was a little apprehensive about doing this. But, I got it done. It was amazingly easy. I'm sure some of this has to do with the whole "southern car thing".
I put some PB Blaster around the heads and around the back of the old striker hoping some of the sfuff would find its way around to the threads (it did). After an hour of soaking I started removing the hex bolts for the drivers rear door striker. I did not clean the area around the striker plate. The dirt and grime left a good mark for me to re-align later. I used a cheapie 5mm 3/8" drive hex bit and my trusty MAC 3/8" drive socket wrench. All the bolts came out really easy and with no drama at all.
Upon installing the new striker I found that the aligning the door was a cinch following the mark left behind by the dirt. If you mess it up they are fairly easy to align. So, it is not that big of a deal. I suppose if you are really worried, you could mark the area with a pencil or sharpie before removing the old striker.
When I was finished, I went around and cleaned, polished and lubed all the other latches. I also inspected the rest of the strikers and found the passengers rear to be bad too!
I replaced it along with the other one.
**A WARNING** Some of the threads I was reading discussed loosing the "threaded mounting bar" into the abyss in the B and C pillars. So, upon removing the last bolt on each bar.... I gave a little push to be sure they would not fall. Mine did not budge as seen in the pics. But, others have lost them. Pics below:
Here you can see the broken tongue "pulling out" on the passengers side.
Removing the bolts on the passengers striker. 3/8" drive 5mm Hex socket.
Here you can see the bottom of the good striker and the bad one. Note that the bottom tongue is gone too. The bad one is off of the drivers side. In the foreground is the cheapie 5mm hex bit I used.
Here is the striker outer tongue on the drivers side. A you can see... Nothing is left.
The "threaded bars" and the dirty residue.
New striker installed, cleaned, polished and lubed.
