Best way to open a stuck door?
 

So the passenger side door on my newest acquisition (83 280zx) is stuck shut. I think that the locking mechanism is broken. The inside and outside handles both move and the inside lock moves, but the outside lock will not budge with the key. The handles do not release the latch thus I cannot open the door. I need to be able to acce sthe insides of the door so that I can open it and diagnose the problem. Any ideas on the best way to go about this? I tried removing the door panel, but it seems difficult to do with the door closed and the trim in the way without damaging the panel.

Any ideas?

Anybody been here before?

Thanks!

Justin

tried yelling at it?
can you pop the top of the interior panel out at all?
only thing i could think of would be to remove the door moulding strip so that you can push the window as far to the outer of the door that you can so you can get some sort of tool down inside to move the bar from the inside handle to operate the mechanism to open, or try directly on the mechanism itself

^^^ indeed... gotta slim jim? :D

Yeah I think that I will have to use some sort of slim jim.

Luckily I have a Z disassembled in my garage so that I can study on it a bit first.

Otherwise I will have to trash the panel, it isn't in the greatest shape, but I still don't want to kill it.

Thanks for the thoughts.

-Justin

http://www.prostick.com/One%20bat%20...%20Slugger.jpg

got ya a new door key

hahahah jk :]

Does it have automatic door locks?