Mike Collum sent me photos of his turnbuckle hatch lock back in January of 2005, and I was ready to do it, but February found me at GoWesty, and if you have been there ( I think you have), it's easy to walk in and say "I'll have one of everything, including a T-shirt". Well, not quite, but I was on the road, camping, and it seemed a good thing to have. The hatch lock, not the shirt :).
And I agree with the rest.

Jerry

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Loren Busch 
  To: Gerald Masar 
  Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 6:21 PM
  Subject: Re: [VANAGON] Hatch Latch--Loren Bush comment please

  RE: Turnbuckle Hatch Latch
  I think the interest in the DIY approach came when the price for the commercial version went from around $15 to $30 with one online vendor.  Plus, it's 'cool' to come up with an elegant solution.  BTW, the turnbuckle wasn't my idea, I just posted some pictures.  I don't recall who posted the idea first, it was at least four years ago, maybe longer.