Hello, Take the strike plate off and close the door. Does the latch work now , If yes then remount the strike plate and then close the door just untill the latch touches the plate. Mark the center of the latch onto the plate. Is the center mark on the plate from the latch the same as the center of the plate? If yes the plate most likley has to be moved out a little. I use a cold chisle and put the end in the plate and while holding the chisle in place I hit the chisle on the side and try to drive the plate over. Sounds nuts, but works most of the time. If it fails then move the plate one screw at a time. Good Luck woodbutcher

I suppose a suction cup device might work on very shallow superficial dents, but Kudzu is correct -- any significant dent stretches the metal. My days of studying and doing auto body repair are long over, so things may have changed, but the traditional way to straighten a panel is to work the dent from the outside to the center. If you can access the panel from behind, you bump with a hammer and dolly. If not, you use a slide hammer puller from the front (this leaves convex holes in the panel that you have to grind smooth and braze over). When the metal is as close as possible to its original contour, the dent that remains in the center represents the stretched metal. You heat this remaining dent with a torch to soften the steel, so you can bring it back as close to level as possible. A really good auto body craftsperson (I was never anywhere near that good!) can get the steel so close to its original contour that it needs only a mm or so of polyester filler (Bondo is a brand) for final leveling. The real old-timers used to use lead for leveling, but that was a long, long time ago. What little I know of current body repair practice seems to suggest that not many shops straighten panels any more. They replace them. So this is a kind of roundabout way of saying that your local auto body shop may not be of much help.

The historical solution [sorry] used for automotive body refinishing used a phosphoric acid solution (Metal-Prep) as a cleaning agent, and zinc phosphate solution (Galva-Prep) as a passivating follow-up. The relevant DuPont part numbers were 5717S and 5718S. Or the more recent 244S could be used, if still available, but I'm uncertain whether any zinc is deposited on reactive ferrous surface structure with this solution. In any case, the Galva-Prep will leave the ferrous structure gray colored. This may or may not be noticeable if the nickel and chromium is sufficiently finely distributed in the steel. Newer replacement part numbers for similar liquids may be in use by now but can be searched for. Fine grained 300-series stainless steel should not rust in normal air unless rolling wasn't followed by a proper wash. 400-series stainless steel is less "stainless," and can develop shallow surface corrosion. 400-series steel is detectable by being magnetic, in general. I once used 5717S on otherwise unremovable fingerprints some acidic-fingered packer put on a then-new Wolf hood extension. The usual "Barkeeper's Friend" type cleaning agents were ineffective. No passivating follow-up was needed because the stainless steel was high enough quality to not rust in air. Use of phosphoric acid solutions assumes that all safety cautions and warnings are understood and heeded. Please search them out on the World Wide Web if interested in this approach. kas

Did you, by any chance, put your plant outdoors "for a little sun", or move it temporarily from a one location to another that was much brighter? Sunburn has a greater impact on thicker parts of the leaf, near the midrib if the leaf has one, because heat dissipates from the thinner leaf margins more quickly than thicker parts of the leaf. Have you applied anything to the leaf - insecticides, fungicides, dishsoap, etc? Al