Jim,
From the bottom of the trunk lid, the plate for the latch is 14 1/2"s (O.C.).
The bottom plate sits on a "stand-out' bracket I fabricated and mounted with 10x24x 1/2' machine screws. Kind of like a staight legged "Z", where the top and bottom of the "Z" are 5/8's inches and the stright down leg is 2-1/4 inches. It is placed 3 &1/2" inches back from the front edge of the trunk opening.
The top of the "Z" is screwed down with the top of the "Z"
UNDER the edge of the trunk opening.
With the pictures you have I hope this is a little/lot clearer than mud!
The top of the rod is mounted using "nut-zerts" and of course is mounted into the inside ridge of the trunk.
Need more? This is what this 67 page forum is all about!
NUTZERT install:
This is a poor shot of the lower bracket, but.... the top of the 'Z' lower bracket is 1/2" x 3"s.
I made it this long to put less load on the trunk flange in a small area. (I pulled back the trunk seal so it could be seen a little better.)
One more thing; If you notice, I reversed the lower mounting bracket from the way it came so the bottom of the bracket didn't stick out too far into the trunk area.
DV