Being that I'm having a relatively boring day today, not going anywhere to conserve fuel for a trip to Salina tomorrow to check out an old-car show, I did a little patch-up work to an upgrade I had done to Frankenstein's trunk lock cover years ago. Then it occurred to me that others here could benefit from this upgrade I came up with, so I'm posting this for those who may be interested. As everyone who owns or has owned a sedan or Coupé from the '66—'69 model years is well aware of, one of the minor irritants of these cars is that you need two hands to open the trunk with the key: One to hold the hinged cover out of the way, the other to turn the key. This problem was resolved across the industry by the '70s, but there was no way to remedy that situation with the '60s cars, until now...well, actually, until 28 years ago, when I first came up with the idea and employed it on my grand's Man-Of-War. Here is how I remedied that situation.
Originally using radiator putty and relying on my natural craftiness, I shaped a ledge to place onto the lock plate. I shaped this ledge with a pointed end at the bottom, flush with the cover plate, and enlarged it to a flat spot at the top, gradually expanding the thickness from flush to about 1 to 2 millimeters of thickness, and attached it to the plate, right onto the outer edge of the hole for the lock. To blend with the chrome, I used aluminum foil as a skin for the ledge. The hinged cover would then rest against the flat ledge, staying in place while inserting the key—thus, eliminating the two-hand approach, only one hand needed to do the job of opening the trunk. Granted, in the original job, the ledge eventually fell off when the adhesion of the putty wore out; I therefore re-attached it with super glue. For Frankenstein, I modified the job by using JB Weld instead of radiator putty, and aluminum foil to shape the ledge; JB Weld is a lot less likely to fall off, and it actually hasn't (it has, however, endured some wear, prompting a patching which is described below). Now, you will ask, probably, that's all fine and dandy, but how do you drop the cover back into place when you're done? You will notice that you can tug on the cover, pulling on the right-hand point of the emblem, and it will angle outward about two or three millimeters; this slack is intrinsic to the design of the cover. Tug on the cover, it will slide back down in place. BAM! Solution.
Today I did some patch-up, as I noticed some wear-down at the ledge, which I suppose is natural after so many years. Attached is a picture of how it looks now; it's still curing, but it will be fine to use again by tomorrow (the cigarette butt in the picture was something I found on the ground to prop the cover up and out of the way so you can see the job). Tomorrow I can take more pictures at different angles so you can see how it looks and works; visual aids always help. I have thought about improving on that wear point, probably with thicker aluminum from a soda/beer can, but this time I didn't have one on hand. I would, however, make sure to have that supply on hand if anyone had an interest in my crafitness to improve their trunk lock covers in this manner. Yes, I'm soliciting my services in that regard.
It's not anything elaborate, I admit, not like balloon suspensions, or wagon wheels, or wiring in Blueteeth. But it is one of those "tremendous trifles" I created to make these cars act more modern, and in my opinion this qualifies as a proper upgrade.
---Tony
UPDATE, 26 SEP 2020: Now that the repair is fully cured, I can share more shots of how my retaining ledge looks and works. They're posted below.
Seriously.