Please tell me how to unlock my '67's drivers side door. The inside handle has slipped and the key won't raise the lock knob high enough to unlock it, plus pulling on the knob by hand won't release the lock mechanism.

I have the fancy interior and it will be a bear to take the door panel off!! Probably would have to pull the front drivers seat and still wouldn't know if I could get the panel off.

Do I need to bite the bullet and just rip the thumb knob out thats in the handle??

pdq67

I have a 67 with deluxe interior and I don't see why you'd have to take out the driver's seat to take the door panels off. All you have to do is take off the window crank and door handle first then remove the panel. The panel is attached by 6 metal clips and several screws at the bottom so it should be easy. To get to the lock you'll have to roll the window up and remove the watershields. You might have to replace the lock cylinder or the whole assembly depending on how bad it is. If you do one side it might be worth your while to do the other as well. It sure beats the alternative of climbing in through the passenger door or leaving your windows down and getting in the car "Dukes of Hazzard" stlye.

I guess that it's been soo long since I had a door panel off that I forgot how to do it. I'm glad my P/W's are up at least. I assume that i will have to position my inside handle and tighten it down so that it will open the door and then figure out why the lock knob won't come up enough to unlock the door??
Hoe I can get my big body contorted enough to get at the bottom panel screws (or wherever they are). Thx, pdq67

pdq67 I'm such a tool. When I was saying that you won't have to take your seat out I was assuming that the door was open. DU-OH! But with the door closed then yes you probably will have to take it out. You could always use a slim jim (not the candy) to open the door and then work on it so you don't have to take the seat out. The screws on the door panels should be near the bottom of the carpet section of the door panels. Good luck.

Have you tried an off set screwdriver, you may be able to reach one or two of the screws from the back seat. I also think the slim jim ideal is very good. Hope this helps.

My pass side door does this all the time. If you rapidly lock and unlock the cylinder to it's "stopping" point, eventually it pops up and unlocks. That may work so you can get the door open.
Tyler

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My car is packed full of all the parts that I'm going to put on it. I guess I will try the slim jim deal,I have one so will/have finally tried it.

My outside handles thumb knob is real loose and bouncy, so I think that my main problem is that my mechanism has slipped too much inside the door that goes to the inside handle. I can only get the slim jim in at the very back of my door glass so don't even know if I will hook the mech.

Is it very hard to come up w/ a new thumb knob if I get pi--ed (er,mad) off and use a pair of vice-grips on it and then reach in w/a pair of needle nosed pliers or will that work??? And what the heck do you undo the inside handle with??? A quarter inch socket set?? pdq67

PDQ, That inside handle bolt is a pain in the ***. I used a 1/4 socket and also a open end. You have to hold the handle out of the way also. Fun, Fun!

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Steve
67 SS 396,4-sp
67 RS 327,4-sp
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pdq67 getting the door handle off is a pain in the a$$. I just put on my door handles and I used a 1/4 inch socket on the smallest rachet I could find. If you have big hands it'll be hard as hell so you might want to find someone with small hands to do it for you. You might want to take out the door lock cylinder if it gets in your way too. Once your handles are off you might want to rebuild them if they were giveing you problems before. I know Classic Industries sells a kit for that.

door handles are Easy.. take the door panel off roll the window up and use a short extention on a 1/4" socket driver, i think the socket is a 5/16" or somthing like that. 2 bolts and its off..dont forget about the little rod thing too...

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pdq67,

Insert a slim jim (1" wide x 15" long piece of sheet metal will do for this job) vertically about 1" forward of the rear edge of the glass. 4"-5" down you shoud hit the mechanism. Push down. Yes, down. Once you do it a couple of times it's easy.

I saw a AAA unlock service open a '96 Z-28 at the Toluca Lake Bob's Big Boy several weeks ago. It took the guy less than five seconds to open the door from the time he first touched the car with the window wedge.

We will never beat a good theif.

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I have the same problem teetoe has some times I have to turn the key in the cylinder (lock and unlock rapidly)before it unlocks the door does anybody know a cure for this.

Molaker -

New lock cylinder - the little lever that's staked on the end (that has the lock rod attached to it) gets loose on the cylinder and can't get full travel any more.

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JohnZ
'69 Z28 Fathom Green