Radio cover Latch replacement/Repair

[curtm]

first of all I'am not a technical writer or Photographer, nor profess to be, But here goes

bought a 91 Goldwing a few months ago and noticed and wondered what the plastic cover was for that was laying in the trunk, Almost turfed it into the garbage, To find out it is a cover for the radio, Could not figure out what holds in on and how it attached, after surfing Goldwing docs i found the how it goes and and how the latch tab which is broke and wont stay on the bike secure, Honda could probably support a small town's economy on how many of these things they sold over the years for broken latch tabs.

Ground the old tab with a Die Grinder maintaining the curvaturge of the lid
this is the piece i started with, Hey it was laying on the bench, it is an galvanized Joist hanger that is the exact width and thickness i was looking for, Cut it to length going down the inside of the lid far enough to allow a rivet to be installed

Next pic, shows how the piece was cut and bent to match the bend in the lid

Next pic is a 1/8" Aluminum rivet used to attach, you can only use 1 rivet, to maintain enough surface for a good connection and to keep the rivet concealed where the it will not be seen, notice how i painted the Rivet Gloss black, Not to look cheap you know

Next pics shows where it was attached

I did spend some time getting the lenght right and the hole size right where it goes into the slot on the bike and to where it latches to, Didn't know there was even a latch there to hold it at first.

then i masked all the lid inside and out where where i did not want to paint

finished product ,And it works great



this is a pretty tedious process to get it looking right, Also a note when i drilled the lid and the latch plate for the rivet , i wanted to keep it so i could not see the rivet, the rivet is under the little finger lift lip so you can not see it, also took some time to get the bend right to go into the latch straight and latch securely,

I tried using a piece of Aluminum the first time but was to easily bent and flimsy to be effective, Also i penned the rivet on the inside of the lid to keep a low profile and to keep the rivet tight, Penning is flattening the rivet , after you install you will see what i am talking about, also be sure to use a rivet washer on the inside to maintain good surface contact

All for now and good luck
Curt

[Stew]

That looks like a great job that is sturdy and doesn't stand out, nice!