Update by David S. Wallens to the
Pontiac Catalina Safari project car
Sep 23, 2013
Doors on an older GM car making a racket? To fix them you, just need some door striker bushings plus your star bits.
Our door striker bushings were missing. The strikers are secured with a captive nut.
Replacing the bushing is super easy. The doors now close quietly and don’t bang around while we’re driving about.
Old cars rattle, right? While we were first thinking, “hey, this car is solid as a rock,” after time, we started noticing the rattles. Perhaps the honeymoon had started to wear off and our 1975 Pontiac Safari Catalina was just another old car.
While our mechanic was looking over the car, he noted that all four door striker bushings were missing, allowing the doors to bang and clank around. The right-rear, he noted, seemed to be the loudest.
He was right: The doors were making the racket, and it seemed to get louder each time we went for a drive.
Back in the day, he added, a small piece of PVC pipe could substitute for the missing bushings in a pinch. We visited the local home improvement warehouse but couldn’t find anything the right size: 9/16-inch inside diameter and 11/16-inch outside diameter.
So we hopped online and found the correct bushings for around a dollar each. Page Auto Supply offered a pack of 25 for $5.99 via their Amazon store. We figured we’d buy in bulk and have a lifetime supply.
Installing all four bushings took less than 10 minutes, and now, our car glides quietly down the highway. Sometimes it’s the little things that make a car much more enjoyable to drive.
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