Door latch cont.
Pic 1, Door post time. With the latch not attached to the door, its time to locate the latch post on the door jam. The process is, you close the door mostly closed, and mark the door jam at the center of the opening where the post would enter the latch opening. You want to do this carefully because it has to be pretty close. You want to be sure you are looking at the center of the opening pretty level to the opening. On this door jam, the post was going to be pretty close to where the original door alignment wedge was located. I didn't want to have issues, so I removed the entire area around the alignment wedge. If you look at the outer edge of the door jam, you can see my black mark that locates the center of the post location just above the cut out area.
Pic 2, There are two critical things that need to be done before this point. You need to know the height of the post location, and you also need to know how far the post needs to be from the outer surface of the sheet metal. Because of the extra thickness of the door due to the latch position, you want to be sure the door closes even with the door jam sheet metal without making contact with the door frame. That would be a simple matter of pushing the door closed and being sure the outer door sheet metal is even or slightly below the level of the outside sheet metal on the door jam. it is easier to make that needed clearance right now then it ever will be again. The door post has threads on the end that goes inside of the door jam. generally there is a large washer base at the end of the post as well. that large washer is so a larger diameter hole can be drilled in the sheet metal so there is some adjustment of the post. If you have access to the back side of the door jam, like this truck has, you can simply stick the post through the hole, and add a large washer on the inside, and tighten up a nut against the washers. If there is not access to the back side you will need to make a bracket with a captured nut. I thought I had pictures of that, but I do not. i will look for some or make an example and add the pictures of them to this thread. this picture is pretty much the end result.
Pic 3. The outside of the door. This piece is the sheet metal that surrounds the opening for the outside door handle from a Dakota pickup.
Pic 4, This is what the back side of that piece looks like. I use an actual piece because it locates the handle on the outside with the indentation around the handle and the inside edges help locate the handle on the door skin. Because this part located the handle, its most important that the handle is located the proper distance from the door edge. You want to keep it pretty close to the original spacing on your door as it was on the Dakota. That keeps things in line better. There is some adjustment on the length of the rod that releases the latch, but if its out of that adjustment range, you need to start bending the rods, and that becomes a major pain pretty quickly. Sometimes the location on the door for the handle is dictated by the door itself, then there is little option then to adjust the rod lengths.