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Glove Box Latch Repair FAQ

E12 glovebox latches seem to break often. Most often the plastic latch end breaks off. This can be repaired quickly and in my opinion, better than new.

Follow the steps below:

Clean both mating surfaces of the broken latch pieces with alcohol and let dry.
Make sure the mating pieces fit together well.
Put a small amount of Super Glue or Crazy glue on one piece (maybe a 1/8" drop) and position the pieces together, making sure they are tightly mated. Using too much glue will cause the plastic to melt and the bond will be slow to cure. Hold the pieces together until bonded.
When the bond is cured, usually 15 minutes or so, reinforce the latch repair with a couple of pieces of large paper clip wire or similar material. I melted mine in place with a very large soldering iron but you can drill two holes about the same size and glue the wires in place. This 're-bar' greatly strengthens the joint.
Grind or file the wire ends flush with the plastic.

I fixed mine 5 years ago and it's held a lot of junk.

Note the picture of my latch below (the ends of the wire look like rivot heads):

Click on the picture for larger version.

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