Hi Thom -

One of the first things I did when I came to Bus Boys a couple a years back
was to find out why these latches were always breaking.  Remember, I was a
customer (and a supplier of parts & weatherstrip) to them for a number of
years.  The latch starts out in life as the 53-64 Bug or 56-67 Bus Vent Wing
Latch.  Anyway, the place BBI was purchasing the basic latch was from
gawd-awful company in South America at a horrible price to begin with.  The
metal content was pure "shinola" so to speak.  With the contacts I had, I
knew of a better outfit that was the OE supplier in Brazil (that VAG buys
only from for their stocks) that made a far superior latch and at a much
better cost too.  They were still made of pot-metal, but a better grade than
the other crap.  We also completely overhauled the very crude way the latch
was modified for use on the Safaris as well.  A big improvement, the
defective rate dropped tremendously, but not enough for my satisfaction.
 Outa the blue I come across a package deal for original Parts Books,
Servicve Manuals, etc., and lo and behold a copy of the Original VW Service
Installation Bulletin for OE Safari Windows (which is safely put away in a
safe here at the house :)).  In reading and viewing the original pictures, I
discovered VW had a similar problem with their own latches breaking and they
presented a solution by stating that when closed, the window assembly should
not crush the body (bulb) seal no more than half.  If the seal is crushed to
its fullest, there will be too much stress on the latch and it will break at
the post.  To insure that the (bulb) seal is crushed no more than half its
height, you are to take pliers and slightly bend the striker tab either
forward or backward slightly to relieve the tension as required.  Of course,
they don't say it, but I always recommend taking a cloth to the striker plate
as not to mar the finish of the chrome.  When discovering this, I re-wrote
the complete instructions (which I'm mailing to you via snail mail) to
include this little tid-bit of information.  Our broken latch rate plummeted
to less than 2% of all Safari sales (and separate latch sales) made for the
last year and a half.  And yes, I do inspect each one to make sure that
they're not loose as the proverbial goose - if the basic latch is loose, I
send 'em back because they won't stand up to being a vent latch, much less a
Safari latch.  Where Wolfgang is getting theirs I really don't know, but
apparently they must be really shlocky.  I'll be the first to say that my
latches don't break - they're pot-metal.  But I will say that the quality of
the metal and the latch I do sell is far superior to what I had two years ago
and I still back 'em up.  We're working on making solid steel latches of the
Wolfgang/Izzy/Bus Boys variety and will be available soon.  We've just
finished the solid steel posts and production on the bases to marry them up
to the posts will happen this summer.

What's more Thom, I'll pay the freight for a full set (4) of latches.

Jim / BusBoys@aol.com