<VV> Stuck door - 3 solutions

[Larry Forman]

Hi Eric,
I know PRECISELY what has happened to your car.  You lifted it up and had 
the doors closed.  A little white plastic piece, which you do not need 
broke when the body flexed.  Now it is jammed in there preventing you from 
opening or closing the door.  There are three solutions:
1. The brute force method:  Take a large board and place it against the 
inside of the door to prevent any damage and PUSH, NO ... REALLY PUSH.  The 
plastic piece will break in about 90% of the time.  Having a friend pull 
also helps break the plastic remains.  I really don't like this approach, 
since you could actually bend the door.  You press with your FEET for all 
you are worth.  Most people try it successfully.  No thanks, say I.
2. The dangerous approach I pioneered using a Dremel cutoff wheel ... NO, 
MANY of these and whittle away the shaft of the striker bolt.  This is 
difficult and requires being somewhat of a contortionist to be 
successful.  You remove the door panel and take a hex allen driver in a 
socket and turn the striker bolt unscrewing it from inside the door.  On 
the other side you remove the retaining nut and leave the bolt sticking 
into the rear of the door jam.  Now the tricky, contortionist part.  You 
remove the rear seat and panel and whittle away wearing safety 
glasses.  The idea is to cut the striker bolt off, and once done, you can 
simply open the door as it is now short enough to come out with the nut 
removed and the shaft shorter.  You must use the allen driver to press the 
bolt rearward so you cut it as short as possible.  Your only cost is MANY 
Dremel cutoff wheels, one striker bolt and a chriopractic visit.
3. Someone else posted, and I'll see if I can find it, an elegant approach 
where you drill apart the door mechanism from inside the door panel and it 
comes apart.  You will need a replacement door latch mechanism.

Once the door is open, you remove the plastic piece and are good to go.

The caution for working on Late Verts when jacking them up is to open the 
doors, block them from closing using something in the door area, like a 
towel or something else and this will not happen.

Larry

At 04:02 PM 3/16/2004 -0800, Eric Marschner wrote:
>I know I have seen this talked about before, but my 67
>Monza Cvt seems to be suffering from the "door won't
>open" syndrome on the passengers side.  What are the
>possible causes, and how can I get this door open?
>Thanks,
>Eric