So my car doors have pretty much completely $#!+ the bed. I have a 1975 C3. The driver door is completely unopenable, with both the exterior and interior handles refusing to open the door. And the passenger door only opening from the inside. I have to pull my driver window down (thankfully, I guess, that's messed up too), open the T-top, and Dukes of Hazzard it into the car, then reach across to open the passenger door.
I have messed with the locks, both inside and out, and neither the key lock nor the interior lock ***** seem to do anything. Any tips on how I could get my driver door open so I can at least pull the interior panel off and start messing about with the linkages? I've thought about a slim jim, but that's just to manipulate the lock cylinder AFAIK, not the latch mechanism.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

More than likely your latch is worn. But there could be some other issues you should inspect before condemning the latch. First check the fit of your doors (for sagging hinges), and grab the bottom or your door and lift up/down on it and feel for excessive movement (worn hinge bushings). Open the door about 4-6" and lift up on the bottom (rear) of the door with your hands ...lift up/down rapidly. Worn hinges and a sagging door can wear out a striker bolt, and also the latch inside. What does the striker bolt look like? Is it worn? Its possible to have external problems that may be causing things like a worn latch ..so check the above items so you can start to make a game plan. If you don't have a lot of mechanical repair experience, you might want to ask someone who's familiar with older cars (someone who know's their STUFF -- not an amature).

The next step is to remove the inner door panel and have a look at the inside door handle. Unbolt it and observe the hole where the rods go through. And also the pins where the metal handle go ..to see if there is a lot of wear. Are any of the holes 'egged-out'? If so, that could be your root issue. And also, the sheet metal where the inside door handle mounts to the door (the metal behind the door panel), it can warp where the latch mounts and the door handle can end up being kind of 'bent' and sitting at a wierd angle. A little wear in each of these areas plus a handle that is bent on the door can conspire (a little wear at each point) ....so as you pull on the door handle there won't be enough rod-travel to push the rod far 'enough' to release the latch. Definitely have a look at these factors because they might be the issue which would make it a quick and inexpensive repair. It's possible you could also have a bent rod too, so have a look at all these things before you remove on to the latch itself.

Then there is the latch. If the door handle/rod/mounting location/rods, looks good and nothing is bent ...then proceed to the latch. These do wear out. There are a lot of little arms, pawls and other mechanisms which make up a fairly complex door latch assembly ...which can wear out. Usually they wear out due to lack of lubrication and sagging doors, or just from use. These can be replaced by removing the 3 bolts at the back of the door. It's a somewhat difficult job to do bc there are several rods and almost no room for a hand to reach in there. If you aren't up to the job, it might be something to get someone who's familiar to help out. To remove, you will need a big philips screwdriver or an impact driver to get the screws out. Sometimes they're in really tight. Several Corvette parts sellers sell the replacement latches. If your car has power windows, you may need to remove the electric motors to get more room to reach your hands in to remove the rods and latch.

There are a lot of connecting rods. If you haven't done it before it would be a really good idea to make a drawing or take some pictures where each rod goes and the little rod retainers. Note the orientation of the rod retainers BEFORE you remove them (or take pics). They can be difficult to remember exactly how they go. They are well documented in the Corvette Service Manual if you have one. I'm sure there are dozens of images on google.

But definitely look at the door handle on the inside first and work your way back.

Good luck

 

You really would be wise to purchase the AIM for your model year. The pictures are very help and I can assure you that other things on your car will brake / fail going forward. Also get the catalogs from the various Corvette Restoration suppliers, they have detailed illustrations and also help to identify components that are are missing.

 

That's the problem is that I cannot GET the door open. Neither the inside nor the outside handles will get the latch to release. With the door shut the interior panel cannot come off.

 

Is the driver's inside handle 'dead', or does it still feel spring-loaded?

 

Use Google to get pictures and detailed instructions on how to insert a very long screw driver (from the opened window area, door top) and push down the metal piece that will release/ open your door. There are very good pictures, so you will know exactly what piece on the lock mechanism needs to be pushed down. You will have to do some reading and find the CF post with the pictures/instructions.

 

Can you get the window down?

If so, you should be able to peer through the window gap with a flashlight pointing down at the latch. Operate the inside door release latch and watch the rod/s move. There's one main rod that moves a latch arm which releases the latch. Make sure the rods are hooked up. If you can find that latch. find a long bar like a piece of flat-stock (3/4 x1/8"). Use it to push the latch arm a little 'more'. Put some tape on the siides of the bar so it doesn't scratch your door glass.

Does the latch appear extremely dirty and caked up? It could be the 'lock' portion of the latch is 'stuck' and won't go into the 'unlock' mode. Stuck from years of being caked up with old grease and dirt. That's not uncommon. Shooting some WD40 in there onto it might help (you can wash it out later with some water-based degreaser). Try pulling on the 'lock' **** in/out many times to see if you can loosen (free) the locking mechaism. If it doesn't feel like it's loosening, lube it up and keep repeating.

The reason I asked before if your car has chronic sagging doors is because over time, the mushroom (wider) part of the striker bolt will wear through the latch and starts to damage the latch internally.

 

Okay, so the door handles both feel "live" i.e. when you actuate them, they feel like they're releasing the latch... there's that "over the hump" feel from both handles, and then the door just never releases. Yes, I can get the window mostly down (that remark in my original post about being grateful my windows are FU'd.), so I'll try to hit some of the latch levers inside the door this week to see if they release the door, but I volunteered for extra shifts at the hospital this week due to flu and pandemic season ramping up and being shorthanded, so it may be a short while til I can get out to the garage. Happy Thanksgiving dudes and dudettes in Corvettes!

 

Are you pushing hard on the door?

If your door has been sagging for a long time, like a lot of C3 doors do, the sticker bolt may have worn into the latch (through the metal aligning piece). Therefore the latch might be damaged and you might have to give a hard 'push' to persuade the door to open. You might even have to lift 'up' on the back of the door slightly and push on it from the inside. But I suspect you already tried that already.

Once you get the door to open, inspect the latch carefully where the 'jaws' and plastic sliders are. It might be difficult to determine much unless you had a good latch in your other hand to directly compare it to. There's actually a lot going on that the latch does in terms of making sure the pin gets to the 'right' spot before the actual latch jaws close. They can wear out there.

Have you sprayed some penetrating fluid in there with the straw on the can, to get it good and wet? The issues at is see it are: 1) The locking mechanism is stuck in the lock mode (dirty latch, disconnected lever, etc), 2) The rods to release the latch aren't traveling 'enough' to get the internal latch levers to release, 3) Latch damaged at the jaws side of things ....requiring reasonable persuasion to (hopefully) open.

Sorry, I'm sure it's very frustrating. I'm trying to help out here, but w/o seeing the problem directly.....

 

Yeah, I gave it a couple dozen good shoulder slams to the inside while holding the interior handle, as well as many fruitless yanks from the outside. Also, I never really felt like the door was sagging that much, and there is a slight telltale wear mark at the rear of the door sill, but the door and body panels line up really nicely when the door is shut, and it doesn't seem to take much effort at all to get the door to shut properly. I haven't tried the lift and shoulder slam yet though... might be something to try this week. Have to find an assistant. Or some well-placed wood shims.
I suspect the rods may not be traveling far enough. I ~know~ the external handle has issues, because it seems the handle is not secured to the door body from the inside, so if you're not careful when you push down on the release, the handle simply pops up instead of pushing the rod down. However, if you're aware of this issue, simply compensating for it has always taken care of the problem. And the inside handle has ~never~ failed to properly work. That issue is new. I'll try giving the insides a few squirts of the old WD40 this week too... and a little time to work their magic.

I do appreciate all the help from the community. Yes, this is frustrating.

 

These door lock issues are real pain. I had the same problem on my 69. Turns out my problem was the rod connecting the lock mechanism to the exterior door handle had rotated and was in a bind that prevented the lock mechanism from moving to open the door. This rod is "C" shaped and connects from exterior handle and is the actuator for the lock o actually open.

Roll down the window, get a small flashlight and look between the window and the exterior. The "loop" part of the rod should be toward the rear of the door. Mine was about 90 degrees off, pointing to the exterior of the door. A long thin screwdriver or slim-jim can be used to reposition the rod.

The permanent solution for my was to use the strong Locktite (blue?) on the rod threads. So far, so good.

Good luck!